Seminoles thrilled to honor Florida State great Buster Posey before today's game

Florida State starting catcher Colton Vincent is going to make a point to meet him this weekend.

He doesn’t want to be overbearing, of course, but there is no way Buster Posey is coming back to Florida State without the Seminoles’ starting catcher at least shaking his hand and introducing himself. And maybe getting some tips from one of the best to ever do it. At any level.

During a pregame ceremony today around 2:30 p.m., Posey will have his No. 8 jersey retired at Dick Howser Stadium. The Seminoles will play their second game of their series against Pitt at 3 p.m.

“I don’t want to bother him,” Vincent said with a smile. “He’s a big deal around here.”

But he will introduce himself.

“Oh, absolutely,” Vincent said.

Because Vincent, like so many other Florida State players of the last decade and a half, either first heard of FSU baseball or fell in love with it because of Posey.

“He’s a big reason why I came to Florida State,” Vincent said. “Growing up, I was always a Florida State baseball fan. And the end of his career is when I really started watching Florida State baseball and being able to understand baseball.”

And in case you somehow forgot, the end of Posey’s college baseball career was one of the single-best seasons the sport has ever seen.

He won the Golden Spikes Award, the Johnny Bench Award and just about any other award possible in 2008 as he hit .463 with 26 home runs and 93 RBIs. He had a .566 on-base percentage and an .879 slugging percentage. If not for J.D. Drew’s absurd 1997 season, it would have been the single-best season in Florida State history. And maybe the best in college baseball history.

As it stands now, 15 years later, it’s still one of the most remarkable seasons of all time.

And what Posey did afterward, winning Rookie of the Year with the San Francisco Giants, then an MVP, to go along with three World Series titles, makes him a strong candidate for Cooperstown when his name appears on the ballot.

Posey, was enshrined in the FSU Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, would be the first Seminole player selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

That’s in the future, though. For now, Florida State gets to celebrate what he did in Tallahassee. He started for three seasons, including his first as a freshman All-American at shortstop, and then moved to catcher where he became a legend.

One that will always be associated with FSU.

“The move behind the plate was obviously something that changed his career,” Seminoles head coach Link Jarrett said. “His representation of everything that is good in the game. On the field. Off the field. With his family. With his community. With the global baseball world. Is as good as it gets.

“So, that’s what I admire the most. And it will be really exciting to have him back here Saturday, and have his family on the field and have a chance to honor him.”

Because not only has Posey been a great ambassador for baseball as a whole since he became a household name, he’s been an incredible one for his alma mater.

Posey will become the fourth Seminole to have his jersey retired, joining Drew (No. 39), Dick Howser (No. 34) and Mike Martin (No. 11).

“He’s everything you could ask for somebody that put on the uniform,” Jarrett said. “And thank goodness he put on ours. Obviously, left us and was a World Champion. … But it’s also the way he did it. There are people who probably had similar careers, but I don’t know there are people who have carried themselves the way he carried himself here and clearly beyond.

“We’re very appreciative that he would spend his time coming back to allow us to have a day for him.”

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