As a journalist, you’re supposed to be impartial. Unbiased. Objective.
As much as my mom despises this, I don’t root for the team I’m covering to win or lose. I’m just there to report the facts.
But journalists like certain individuals more than others. We are, after all, human.
I know I’m not supposed to, but I like Coach Tracy Smith.
And I know I’m not alone.
June 24 was a day IU baseball fans won’t forget. Smith left IU and took the head-coaching job at Arizona State University.
The prestige of an Arizona State program that has won 30 games or more in each of the past 52 seasons and won five national titles was too much to pass up for Smith.
At IU, he built a team that had no baseball tradition into a legitimate national title contender. At Arizona State, he’ll try to awake a sleeping giant.
What surprised me most about Tuesday was how genuinely happy people were for Smith. If you search IU’s hashtag on Twitter “#iubase” you won’t see the vitriol commonly associated with other IU sports.
Sure, there were some “woe is me” fans who were upset about Smith leaving, but an overwhelming and astonishing majority of IU baseball fans were happy for Smith and his family.
People were happy for Smith because he was open about his life with the fans and the media, which made him relatable. He posted selfies of his beard on Twitter. He gave his critiques on the many, many Netflix shows he watched.
He was the baseball coach of IU, but he was also the guy next door you stop and make small talk with.
The Hoosiers are losing a lot with Smith’s departure. They lose the coach who brought them the most successful era in IU baseball. They lose their leader. Their head of the program. The man who helped make baseball relevant in Bloomington.
But the Hoosiers lose something else with Smith’s departure.
Earlier this season I was lucky enough to spend two hours at Smith’s house for an extended interview for a profile story.
The one thing I’ll remember most — other than him wearing a “Call of Duty” T-shirt — is him saying he ultimately doesn’t want to be remembered as the coach of a baseball program.
First and foremost, he wants to be remembered as a “good dude.”
And that’s exactly what IU lost Tuesday. A good dude.
