Seminole Nation

The handsome exterior of Dick Howser Stadium, Mar-2019.

A look at the seating bowl from down the third-base line.

The view from behind the plate.

• Location: Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1983 as Seminole Stadium (renovated and expanded 2004)
• Additional names: Dick Howser Stadium (1988), Mike Martin Field (2005)
• Home team: Florida State Seminoles, Atlantic Coast Conference
• Capacity: 6,500

Seminole Stadium was built in 1983 and named posthumously for Dick Howser in 1988. Howser had played for the Seminoles in the 1950s and returned to his alma mater as head coach in 1979 before going back to Major League Baseball and guiding the Kansas City Royals to the 1985 American League pennant and a World Series victory. For the 1980 season, Mike Martin took over the program, and he is only stepping down following the 2019 season, a 40-year run that has not seen the Seminoles have a losing season. The field at Howser Stadium was named for Martin in 2005; I was lucky enough to witness the 2000th victory of Martin’s career as FSU head coach in March 2019. Martin’s son, also named Mike, is poised to take over the program starting in 2020.

One of the trademarks of a game at Howser Stadium is the collective antics of “The Animals of Section B.” These folks sing any of more than sixty songs or chants during the course of a game in order to help rally the Seminoles and/or disconcert their opponents. An interesting feature is their rendition of “O Canada” in the bottom of the fifth inning, a tradition that began during the 1988 Winter Olympics when the Seminoles were playing a tough game and a member of the group started humming the tune after a Canadian Olympian won a gold medal, and the Seminoles happened to rally for an eight-run inning. Two things are of interest: the words sung are often incorrect, and Section B is officially no more; since a stadium renovation and expansion, those seats are designated as Section 5.