Hanging around

John Shinn
The Norman Transcript

April 30, 2008 12:44 am

— Just about every baseball player who dons an Oklahoma uniform as a freshman thinks the same thing.
“In three years, I’ll be getting paid to do this,” is the common thought. Three years is when players become eligible for Major League Baseball’s amateur draft. No matter how much they try to hide it, they’re all thinking the same thing.
Ryan Mottern knows this better than anyone.
“Everybody strives to be here three years max. That was one of my goals, too,” he said.
But things don’t always work out that way. Mottern knows that, too. His three years came and went two years ago, making him the rarest of college baseball players — the fifth-year senior.
Players sticking around for five years is the norm in college football. It’s common in college basketball.
But not in college baseball. Five years might as well be 50 by the game’s standard.
On any given day, you might hear someone calling out “grandpa” in the clubhouse or in the dugout, trying to get the 23-year-old Mottern’s attention.
He doesn’t mind the dig.
“Some people see it as a bad thing, but I don’t,” he said. “I’ve gotten to be around a bunch of guys and have the camaraderie. When you leave here, you can’t have that back. It’s something that I treasure.”
Mottern was one of OU’s young hot shots. Now he’s the crafty veteran. He doesn’t mind being thought of that way. He’s earned it.
Mottern has enough experience to fill up the biggest bat bag. His redshirt season came as a sophomore in 2005. Since, he’s been a starting pitcher, a reliever, an outfielder and designated hitter. Many times he’s done two of the four in the same game.
Mottern has hit .276 in 163 at-bats over his four seasons. Despite arm trouble that has plagued him for four years, he’s still made 59 appearances and started 23 games on the mound.
His last appearance was 32⁄3 innings of hitless ball to preserve OU’s 12-7 win over Texas Tech last Friday. He currently boasts a 4.50 ERA in 12 appearances this season, but hasn’t allowed a hit in his last four trips to the mound.
He’s good enough that he won’t be available when the Sooners (28-17-1) face Wichita State (33-9) at 7 tonight at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
“We’ve got to have him on the weekend,” OU coach Sunny Golloway said after plotting the pitching options for the week.
The Sooners open a three-game series at Kansas Friday and Big 12 Conference games carry more importance.
Too bad for Mottern.
He and senior infielder Jarod Freeman are the only players still on the roster who were around when Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson accepted the OU job, then resigned the same day in the summer of 2005.
“A lot of people weren’t here when that situation happened. I was,” Mottern said. “It was unfortunate and, in a way, made you really upset. It was a bad situation.”
So, when OU takes the field for its final mid-week game of the season tonight and the first-year players see the ballpark has a few more fans than usual, there’s a good chance they’ll ask Mottern what all the hubbub is about.
The elders always have the answers.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com