Jim Dixon - D3Baseball.com

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Jim Dixon, the managing editor of D3Baseball.com started his website, Division 3 Baseball Online in 1995 after the first championship tournament in Salem, Virginia. In two years, he was running a nationally focused website sponsored by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and has continued to bring more information about the past and present to fans everywhere. Jim is proud to now call D3baseball.com home since 2007. Dixon can be reached at jim.dixon3sports.com or Jim is the primary point of contact for all Questions about Division 3 baseball news and content. Let's welcome Jim Dixon to the podcast here with Jim Dixon, managing editor of D3Baseball.com and probably the person that knows more about Division 3 baseball than anybody in the world. So Jim, thanks for jumping on with me again. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Oh yes, it's a pleasure. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Hey, what'd you think of the host site last year? [00:03:08] Speaker B: Lake County I actually liked it a lot. Since we're the media, we got our own little suite and so it was a good access. There's always a little bit issues here and there, but no, it was a good site. The field looked great. [00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I thought there was more stuff around the stadium for people to get to, too. I thought the hotels were closer. I thought that bar, bars, restaurants were closer. So I thought it was a better venue. Nothing against Cedar Rapids, it's just there's. There's not as much close there now. [00:03:45] Speaker B: And actually, I loved going to Cedar Rapids. I really fell in love with the city. So I'm disappointed not to be back. But, you know, I'm learning new places, but I'm there all day long. So for me, it doesn't matter what's around the ballpark. I Show up at 8:00 in the morning and I leave at midnight. [00:04:06] Speaker A: Were you surprised that Misericordia pulled it out? [00:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting. You were looking in there. There are a lot of teams that had a lot more pedigree, so to speak. You know, Wisconsin, Whitewater, they've been there before. Coach knows how to win, but they played their game. And I think this is a sign for all the other Division 3 players or teams is to go out there, you play your game because the coach is going to tailor the team to how he wants to play. And you can win a championship doing that. [00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And they had been. Misericordia had been there, so it wasn't like their first crack at it. But after watching the first round of games, I really thought Whitewater was not going to lose after watching them. [00:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I had a lot of hopes for Pomona, Pitzer because they had a pretty solid team coming in and their coach had been there year after year as an organizing part of the committee. So it was. It was disappointing to see them go 02, but. Yeah, so I, you know, I was constantly surprised by Lynchburg because I didn't expect them to be there midway through the season and sure enough, they were there. [00:05:27] Speaker A: So there were a lot of cool story. Well, just storylines. You had Birmingham Southern, like, there just was a lot of really cool storylines. You had some teams that had been there in the past. It just. There's. There's some neat storylines to that. I felt bad for Birmingham Southern, but also happy for them that they made it, because I'm sure that's another team that people probably didn't feel like we were going to get to the World Series, but they got there they had a Cinderella run last year. [00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah. The coach, you know, he got rehired somewhere and. Yeah. And the players have got to go someplace. It's, you know, I feel bad for people who are expecting to play their senior year this year because they really had a connection to the school and now they're going, oh, we gotta go someplace else. And you don't really have that same connection. [00:06:17] Speaker A: And you were just on the D3 baseball pod this week and running down your top 25. And we also have one, too. So I think for people that want to dive into Division 3, the top 25s go to D3Baseball.com, but you can also see it on ABCA.org, we have member coaches that actually vote. And looking through both top 25s, I think very similar. Maybe some teams in some different spots, but it looked like both top 25s are very similar between the NCWBA one and then the one that we're putting out. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Yes, whenever, every year I ask for information about the different programs and I ask the coaches, what are your top five teams in the nation? And so I sort of compile this like that. So once again, you know, it's very similar. It's a lot of. In the past, people put the number one team from last year number one again. But it does not seem like Ms. Acordia will have as good a chance. [00:07:17] Speaker A: Repeating as other people feel like Whitewater's got a good shot at it. I mean, for ours, the top five, it was Whitewater, Endicott, Savvy, Regina, Denison and Misericordia. And. And that they all got first place votes for our coaches. They all got first place votes. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I was disappointed with Endicott because this was their second year in World Series and they still didn't do very well and they still had that same monster team that they got. So it's. And Salve is coming back with a lot of seniors. So that's what it takes to win. It takes a lot of experience. It takes the team that's been there before. So they're not surprised about how it goes. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll be interested to see how that happens if Endicott comes back. Because, I mean, what, they had lost one or two games coming into the tournament, into the World Series. I think they had only. They'd only lost two games the whole year coming in the tournament. So hopefully they can learn from last year and get there again, improve on it. [00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, they are pretty solid number one team coming in, but it just didn't work out for them. This is why we play the game. [00:08:36] Speaker A: Yes. That's why. Yep. On paper it's easy. On paper, that's why you go out and play. Because I think that's what we all love about college baseball is the human element of dealing with the 18 to 24 year old. They're still kids and what happens to kids when they get in that type of environment. That's why it's great to go to these tournaments and watch because you just never know what's going to happen. [00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I was, I was hoping that either Baldwin, Wallace or Denison would make the finals last year because it would probably brought in a big crowd and I think they need a big crowd. But you know, they've already decided to move on and after a couple of years. [00:09:19] Speaker A: So I don't know if you can't get up to play regardless and if you're, you're playing for a national championship, if you can't get up to play, then you got issues. [00:09:29] Speaker B: Oh, I'm just talking about the crowd and stands. I mean, Appleton, they were able to get a lot of community involvement. And so I still have relationships within the community, but I never got that same feeling Cedar Rapids, and I'm not getting that same feeling in East Lake. But the series keeps creeping closer, closer to my house. So my travel is getting better. [00:09:55] Speaker A: How important are these early games for you when you're looking at, you know, obviously the preseason rankings are finished. How important are these, these early games for you with teams? Are you waiting, give them a couple weeks or give them a month to see where they're at? [00:10:11] Speaker B: So we always come out with the first regular season poll the last Tuesday in February. It gives everybody a chance to play. So you get a chance to kind of see how they're. Things are shaping up. For a school that's not going to play until March, you don't want to ding them in a poll or something like that, but you know, it's. Things are going to shift a little bit. But I like to see some early, good games and we have a lot of good tournaments going on, whether it's in Greensboro, whether Kannapolis, just outside of Charlotte, other places where we got good teams coming in to play good, good teams. So it's, I mean, look at Pomona, Pitzer, they're playing East Texas again and I think they have lacrosse on their schedule. So it's nice to see a lot of the good teams. Playing some good teams early gets you a feeling to where they might be. But you Know, it's at the end of the line. You win your conference, you finish strong, and that's when you really want to make your run. [00:11:26] Speaker A: Were you surprised that East Texas didn't make it again last year? [00:11:31] Speaker B: Kinda. I. They really had that. Collins was just a really superb pitcher. They have a nice work ethic. They really had a nice team. But then again, you know, they made it to the super regional and it's. You never know what's going to happen in the super regional. And Pomona picture had defeated them earlier that season. So, you know, I wasn't surprised to see Pomona pitcher beat East Texas, but I would not have been surprised the other way as well if you had. [00:12:08] Speaker A: To put a flag down who's playing for the national championship. [00:12:13] Speaker B: God, I'm going red and purple because if I think a Denison Whitewater matchup would look really nice. [00:12:26] Speaker A: Any teams on the outside looking in that, that you didn't put in the top 25 that, that maybe might sneak in there if they start out well. [00:12:35] Speaker B: Oh, there's not every team I voted in the top 25 is actually in the top 25. So it's. What I'm looking for is for a team that's not there. I'm looking for a team that has a fair amount of seniors, a lot of returning players. You want to see some success in the past to pull out a team that probably nobody's even thinking about. I might say Rochester might be a good example of a team that didn't do very well in the last couple years, but they've been very successful throughout the years. And so they could be just like Misericordia. They earn a playoff berth every year and all of a sudden they just broke through and everything worked in their favor. So some team like that, Rochester is a good example. [00:13:31] Speaker A: What are some other teams that you put in the top 25 that didn't get voted in? [00:13:36] Speaker B: I don't know. It's been so long ago since I voted. But it's the team that really stands out to me that I'm surprised has been. Got as much attention as Keystone. So it's once again, you know, they used to have that constant path coming in the playoffs because they would always win a conference because they were heads and shoulders above all the rest of the teams. But. So that's another little dark horse. I really like what Stockton has been able to do in terms of moving their game forward. So it's. But it's. I don't know, looking at someplace really odd. It'd Be nice to see somebody from the American Rivers Conference like Coe or Buena Vista make a nice run. We need to see some of those players in the championship round as well. [00:14:38] Speaker A: See an Iowa team sneak in there. [00:14:40] Speaker B: There you go. It would have been nice to see an Iowa team when it was in Iowa had a really good year back when it was just starting and they made it to the super regional but didn't make it. [00:14:56] Speaker A: On a side note here, Buena Vista. I've got some ties to the Buena Vista program, so. Good people. [00:15:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I have. I have not met a head coach that I would say, hey, this guy's not a good guy. They're all very capable. If you can't motivate your team, then you're not going to win at a consistent level. [00:15:21] Speaker A: So I'm doing the interviews when I get there. That's why I like doing the interviews, because it's just a great reminder of the great coaches that we have at every level and just great people. And they very gracious to me because they don't have to do that and they take time out of their really, really hectic and busy schedule. Sit down with me. So I do appreciate everybody doing that. Shout out to all the coaches that sit down with me because it does. Does make a huge difference and hopefully shine a light on the. On the great coaches at every level that we have. [00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. We already know about four or five programs where the coaches are leaving. I mean, we got big names like Bob Babb out of Johns Hopkins and Augie Schmidt out of Carthage. Now the sales head coach, Tim Neiman, he's hanging up bid spike. You know, Jerry Hagan is going to leave St. John's Minnesota and Andy Barber out of MIT. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Those big names, by the way, big names for Division 3. [00:16:21] Speaker B: So there's some coaches and coach for a very long time. And I don't know if it's the way the college games change a little bit, but I'm actually looking forward to a nice influx of talent because as the Division 1 team rosters shrink and the Vision 2 team roster shrink, they're going to squeeze some better players down. Division three as well. [00:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here. With. With. It just was crazy there for about four or five. With COVID it just was crazy. And I think now that will be a huge benefit to all levels with Division one finally coming up with a roster cap to start the fall, which needed to happen. I'm a big proponent of that. Just There's a lot of, lot of varying resources at every level, but I think that's the fairest thing to all of the programs at Division 1 is that you have a fit roster cap, a firm roster cap to start the school year. I think it's going to be great for all levels of college baseball. [00:17:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Before COVID every time I saw a senior, I said, oh, okay. You know, four years in, they're gone. But it's, it's been an adjustment to say, is the senior really gone? So it's, they've had players stick around for a long, long time. I think it's benefited a lot of Division 3 players to have that extra year where they could go to grad school and go to Division 1 school if they want. Or I talked to the Rockford head coach and he said, hit their teacher school, all their kids get an extra year and they're getting a master's degree, so they're going to start off with higher wages. So it's, it works, it's working well for the baseball players who don't, who want, want to get in the major leagues like Mason Miller, or players who just want to have a better job when they leave school. [00:18:27] Speaker A: And huge Division 3 news. Billy Wagner going in the hall of Fame. [00:18:32] Speaker B: Oh, that is very special. [00:18:34] Speaker A: It's first one ever. [00:18:37] Speaker B: Yeah, first one ever. [00:18:39] Speaker A: And shout out to Billy, he's an awesome person. He does a lot for our youth committee. Now. He's been very vocal on the youth side. So shout out to Billy. I'm glad he got in. I know he was concerned. I wasn't, when you look at his numbers. But shout out to Billy, he's a great person and he's going to do a lot for the game on the youth side here going forward. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And he still comes down to Fareham and helps to now his, his friend Eric Owens, who's coaching there, give him some tips and stuff. So he's still in the area and I think he enjoys it. No, but it's, it's fine and nice to get a Division 3 player into the hall of Fame. I, in the back of my mind, I always thought it might be Terry Mulholland because he had a very solid career, but, you know, just a journeyman pitcher who pitched for a lot of different teams, so. But apparently he didn't have the stats to sit there and break through the ice. [00:19:38] Speaker A: If you had to pick a player of the year and a pitcher of the year for Division 3, who would it be? [00:19:45] Speaker B: God, it's really tough. I Think the Denison outfielder, Eric Coelho, if I get the name right, certainly he's going to be top of the mark. Johns Hopkins has a good third baseman, a good catcher. They played around for a long time, so they're probably have good stats in that ballpark. They're going to probably put up big power numbers. So I know those are sort of the players that I'm kind of looking at right now. Certainly Whitewater, they have a couple players. One, they have a pitcher as well who could sit there and throw the ball very well. I would not be surprised if it comes out of up and you know, out of solve. Regina or Endicott. They have, they have some good pitching there too as well. And Denison has some good pitching as well. In fact, Coach says that's their strength. It's not the hitting, which is really good, but they have probably the three best combo pitchers to start a rotation as anybody in Division 3. [00:21:03] Speaker A: When you first started doing this, would you envision what it looks like now at all levels and how much coverage all levels of college baseball are getting now? [00:21:12] Speaker B: I. [00:21:15] Speaker A: I mean, your Twitter account has over 40,000 followers, so I mean, back. [00:21:23] Speaker B: In the mid-90s, I did not think that I would be doing this at this point in time. I just went and wanted to try this brand new thing called HTML and learn a little bit of how to code stuff. So I've seen it progress where athletic sites were part of student activities and then they moved into an athletic site on university and now they're their own domain name. So there's a lot of progression. The one thing I'm glad is that most every game is on video so that if you can't make it to the game, you can at least follow the video. There's a lot more of that. So we're getting young broadcasters coming in, people getting some experience. I would have been a fool to say that I saw Twitter and all this stuff coming in the future, but no, I think the technology has been really great and has allowed teams to have a better viewpoint. I'm still really the only national media for Division 3. Nobody else has sort of come in and tried. A couple of guys come in, done a little podcasting, which is not my, it's not my skill set. But I enjoy coming on and talking to you and talking to other people as much as I can to promote the. [00:22:53] Speaker A: Well, Jake. Jake Mintz and Jordan Schuster, man, they're too big time now. Like, they, they don't even. I mean, they'll take my calls now, but Shout out to those two. But they. They're doing so much with Major League Baseball now. But shout out to those two. They're. They're huge advocates of Division 3 baseball. [00:23:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it's. It's, you know, it's a time commitment. And when you're young, kids like that, I'm a little bit older. I'm retired now. I have the time to sit there and devote to it. But when you're starting out in your 30s and stuff, boy, there's a lot of different things that are trying to grab your attention. So I could see why it would be hard to sit there and start something new, but it was just. Now I'm just glad that I've been able to stay involved and that my little website has evolved into a much greater thing. [00:23:51] Speaker A: Are you going to get to any games early? Are you just going to sit at home and watch? [00:23:57] Speaker B: We'll see. There's opportunity to go to Greensboro for me, opportunity to go to Charlotte. All within very easy driving distance. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Come to Greensboro. I'll buy you lunch. [00:24:14] Speaker B: Roanoke is the closest team to me, so it's, you know, a lot of ODAC teams I could see. So I always like to see some good teams come in and play Roanoke. So that's probably what I'll be looking for. It all depends on how much traveling I want to do. [00:24:31] Speaker A: And you're doing your region previews right now, and I didn't. When's the last time you said Region six? They had three teams. And when's the last time a region had three teams in the World Series? [00:24:43] Speaker B: I don't know, but there was. I think it was 84. [00:24:48] Speaker A: Oh, really? [00:24:49] Speaker B: No, no. But I'm just saying in 84, it was a 16 regional and four of the teams were from the NJEC, the New Jersey Athletic profits. So it's. I think in the past, when you look back 10 years ago, the committee wanted to keep a regional focus so they would put west teams in the west and south teams in the South. Now what they're doing is they're putting. They're putting everybody. It's more of a. They'll scrabble things a lot more now so you can have multiple teams come. [00:25:27] Speaker A: From different areas, and that's the way it should be. I mean, if you're trying to get the best eight teams to the World Series, you have to spread those teams around. It's not fair to hamstring teams because of geography, because you're trying to save money to keep teams close. That's the fairest thing to do. Get the best eight teams there is to spread teams around. [00:25:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I understand that. I also understand that mom and dad want to come watch their kid play. So if you're sending somebody from California to Georgia to play, mom and dad are not going to be able to travel as much. So it was always nice to have that regional thing, because when you look at rosters, you know, you look at a Cortlands roster, and it's going to be full of kids from New York. You look at a Denison roster, it's going to be full of kids from Ohio. So people are playing where they live. And so it's. And when you go to a game, Moses fans you see in the stands are parents or girlfriends or people who really have a relationship with the players. [00:26:40] Speaker A: You're a traditionalist like me, because I still miss. I still miss a little bit of the Division 1, where Maine would. Would get to the World Series every year, they'd get to Omaha. I do miss that. You're actually more of a traditionalist on that part than I am, which is hard to believe because I'm a traditionalist when it comes to a lot of things. [00:26:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And I'm open to new things. I think it's been great to sit there and have. Instead of pitting two ODAC teams together. I remember when Lynchburg and Shenandoah met in a super regional. Okay, you're going to get one ODAC team. If they had been in a separate paths to the World Series, they both might have made it. So, yeah, it's. And I think that there's a real effort to sit there and try to do that. I think it works out well. [00:27:29] Speaker A: I think seating works, too, with the super regional format now, too. I mean, I think it gives you a better chance to spread that around because of the super regional format. [00:27:37] Speaker B: Well, in terms of my activities, I love having an extra week in the postseason because it has given me an extra week to do all the stuff that I would do normally without that extra week so I could spread things around easier. And I'm not as busy, but it's still. I. I say this a lot. [00:28:00] Speaker A: I think we should add a weekend on the front end of it, and then everything is best two out of three. I think you see the whole tournament, and then everything is best two out of three. But that's. That's me. I think that would be awesome for all levels of college. If you're listening in, whoever runs those tournaments, just add another weekend on the front end of it. And let everything be two out of three. [00:28:26] Speaker B: I'm hoping the College World Series for Division 3 doesn't end up like Division 1 where they spread out over two weeks. [00:28:36] Speaker A: Well, yeah, because you could be there for. I think the coaches would rather have that though, if, if I'm playing devil's advocate, I think the coaches would rather have that because the, the extra days off do make a huge difference for rotation pitching, quality of games. Not, not playing games till 2 o'clock in the morning. I mean I feel for you because you do get there early and then some of those games, they don't end till 2, 3 in the morning sometimes. [00:29:09] Speaker B: Well, we were actually lucky this last time because we were out of there at midnight almost every single night. And I remember it was 9:30 and I said, oh, we're not getting out here by midnight. But we saw probably the best pitching performance on either side and it was like an hour and 40 minute game. So it was. Gotta love those. [00:29:34] Speaker A: What are some other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:29:38] Speaker B: Well, I'd be remiss without talking about Bob Babs last season. He has a monster team coming through. He's been in a World Series every odd year for a couple years now. 19, 21, 23, 25. [00:29:56] Speaker A: Sounds a hall of Famer too. It's an ABC hall of Famer and one of the nicer people you'll ever meet. He's a great human being. [00:30:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it'd be nice for him to get a shot at a national championship again. Just to walk away with one. Augie Schmidt has always been the best interview that I've had because he really talks in the heart and he's a little bit rough around the edges. But now I. It's shaping up to be a really good season and I see some really good games coming up. So it's good teams playing good teams. I'm really sorry that with the way enrollments are, we lost what, 1% of Division 3 schools that closed? Four or five of them. So. But it's. I know. And it's probably not going to end there. We'll probably lose another four or five maybe next year. [00:30:55] Speaker A: I hope not. I hope not. [00:30:58] Speaker B: Well, I know Funt Bonnie is about to close and so they're open this year, but they were sort of iffy whether they play baseball or not. Looks like they're going to play one last season so it's good for their kids. But no, It's I Division 3 baseball is the way I like to see baseball played. It's a team sport just a mile from my house, the Virginia Taco's play. And I can go watch a Division 1 game where it's guys hitting three home runs all the time. And that's just not the kind of game I want to see. [00:31:34] Speaker A: I'm a huge fan of Misericordy and the way they play. Oh, yeah, he's. I love the way they play. [00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think he is sort of focused on the right thing, you know, focused on his kids, focused on the students. I was at Caltech for some reason and I went and talked to the coach and the thing that he was most proud of, that in his 20 plus years, he didn't have very many wins. But every single player got a degree. And if somebody escaped without getting a degree, he would search them down and get them into college and get them a college degree. So, I mean, that's what we're looking for. We're looking at student athletes where, you know, being a student is just as important as being an athlete. [00:32:29] Speaker A: For sure. Jim, thanks as always. Come to Greensboro. I'm serious about lunch. I'll get you lunch if you come watch that tournament. [00:32:37] Speaker B: I'll be thinking about it. All right. [00:32:39] Speaker A: Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. [00:32:41] Speaker B: My pleasure. Happy to talk to you. [00:32:44] Speaker A: Jim is the reason that coverage for Division 3 has grown over the last 30 years. Have a great time seeing him at the Division 3 World Series. And he puts in countless hours to cover Division 3 baseball. Looking forward to catching up with him again in Lake county this summer. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office. For all the help on the podcast, feel free to reach out to me via [email protected] Twitter, Instagram or TikTok oachbabca or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks. And leave it better for those behind you. [00:33:29] Speaker B: And you know that way Yep. Wait for another day and the world will always return as your love is never for yearning and you know that way Wait for another. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Day.