Omaha, Nebraska – What can you say about the Florida State Seminoles, who stole hearts in the recent Men’s College World Series and then had to recover in just 38 hours? How can you describe a team that was able to bounce back from that baseball disaster and knock off their next opponent to keep playing in Omaha?
The coach was talking about how tough it was after Florida State’s 7-3 thumping of Virginia on Saturday. It was the first game of the 2024 MCWS that didn’t require late-game drama. It came just two days after the Seminoles gave up four runs in the ninth inning to lose 12-11 to Tennessee, a loss that turned the team into a Titanic. “I can’t begin to explain the feeling I had sitting here on Friday night,” Link Jarrett said. “It’s not easy to go to sleep after that. The (next) day is not going to be fun. And it was an unforgettable thrill here to watch them play their best game. And I had some thrills.”
Surely there must be a Seminole who is the first to be mentioned as a prime example in this lesson in overcoming adversity: the man who ran around the bases twice on his way to hitting a home run on Sunday, the man who wears a monitor in his back pocket that remotely records his blood sugar every five minutes?
Jamie Feller was unstoppable for both Tennessee and Virginia. He hit a home run and had four RBIs on Friday and two home runs and four more RBIs on Sunday. He was the first player in 26 years to have four RBIs in the same game in the MCWS. “I’m still dancing,” Feller said when Sunday’s game ended. “You have to have short-term memory in baseball. You have to be able to forget the good, the bad and the ugly, and we did that.”
Jaime Feller hit two home runs for FSU in the game 😱 #MCWS pic.twitter.com/bmPPNzecQ2
— Sports Center (@SportsCenter) June 16, 2024
Flushing the bad stuff? Ferrer has had Type 1 diabetes since he was 3 years old. If he hadn’t gotten treatment then, he could have died. Kids do that. If we don’t get it managed right now, he could have a problem soon. That’s why he carries a monitor with him whenever he rounds the bases.
So it takes extra effort to be normal, but he just hit three home runs in two days at MCWS, and a woman standing at the back of section 115 on Sunday was in tears about it because she understands the journey.
“Every time he’s there I remember the sleepless nights making sure his blood sugar was normal before the technology was introduced,” Mira Ferrer said. “Seeing how happy he is now and how much he’s enjoying living his dream, it’s a memory for me that I’ll never forget. I had someone tell me today that just looking at him brings me to tears of joy because I know all too well the ups and downs of type 1 diabetes.”
Yes, that’s true, she is Jamie’s mother.
When her son was a toddler, she went to the doctor after experiencing fatigue, fever, dry throat and a host of other symptoms. The diagnosis was soon there: Type 1 diabetes. Her son’s life would never be the same again, and he wasn’t even four years old.
“There are positives,” Mira said. “Because my son was diagnosed so young, he doesn’t remember life without type 1 diabetes. Now that he’s a teenager and growing up and going to college, he knows what to do, but it’s always going to be hard.”
“He has a very strict pre-game and post-game routine because he wants to be ready for the next game or the next turn at bat. He eats a lot of protein and not too many carbs before a game so he doesn’t need as much insulin. He’s very strict about that. He wants to stay in the right range before a game. He eats four or five hours before a game so he doesn’t have any active insulin left in his system.”
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She said her son is not only attached to a monitor but also an insulin pump. “The two devices communicate with each other.” It’s not easy. But on Sunday, her son was the best hitter in town, looking up into the stands with every missile. Not only was Mila there, but Jimmy Feller was there, too. And it was Father’s Day. “It means the world to me,” Jamie said of the chance to do what he did in front of his dad on Sunday.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” Mila said. “Growing up, he looked up to other athletes with type 1 diabetes who were playing professional sports. We were trying to help him understand that diabetes would never stop him from achieving his dreams. He just had to take care of his health and be prepared.”
Feller understands how long this journey has been and where it has led.
“I was one of those kids that watched the game growing up,” he said. “There were times when people told me I’d never be able to play at this level, so now having the opportunity to play at this level means the world to me, not just to represent myself and my family, but everyone who’s been through something in life, who’s ever had someone tell them they can’t do it. I play to represent not just people with Type 1 diabetes, but anyone who has to put in the extra effort but wants to be the best at whatever they want to be.”
“There are guys out there who would do anything to put on this uniform and play on this stage, so I’ll never take it for granted.”
So he will be emblematic of Florida State’s tough performance on Sunday, as will starter Carson Dorsey, who threw 106 pitches on a hot day, and reliever Brennen Oxford, who beat Virginia after giving up three runs in the ninth inning to Tennessee two days earlier.
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“Just think about how that kid felt when he left here on Friday,” Jarrett said, “after waiting his whole life — playing for two programs, waiting his whole life to get on the mound — he had to deal with what he had to deal with in that game.”
Jarrett was talking about the long stretches since Friday night, when Florida State was one strike away from leading 1-0.
“I came to watch my son take batting practice and sat behind the first base dugout like a normal dad would, which I think a normal dad would do,” he said the next day. “I can’t tell you how bad my headache was Friday night. I can’t tell you Saturday. There’s no way around it. It was that bad.”
“I went to a luncheon for the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion Service Club and it was amazing. It’s funny how things happen. The game was on, ESPN was on, there was a second speaker on stage and behind him we were being ushered out, and our players had to sit there and accept it. That’s what happens when you don’t win. Yeah, guys, we didn’t get it done. Let’s take another look.
“So they knew. This isn’t a fairy tale. To win here, you either deliver on a list of things you have to play right, or you give up if you don’t. It’s a harsh reality, but that’s the reality. They came out and worked at it.”
Especially the guy with the blood glucose monitor in his back pocket.
