Program bids farewell to Seddon

Thirty-seven years of memories flooded Murphy Field as the man who defined Penn baseball for the past three decades stood in the dugout for one last weekend.

Baseball coach Bob Seddon, who will retire at the end of this season after 37 years of coaching at Penn, was honored on Saturday during Penn's doubleheader against Princeton. Fans, players, and fellow coaches gathered to celebrate the man nicknamed after the number he wore on his jersey throughout his career: "nine."

Among the crowd at the game which gathered to honor Seddon were his family and many of the former Penn baseball players who he impacted, including retired major leaguer Doug Glanville.

In between games, Phillies president David Montgomery, Penn fencing coach Dave Micahnik, baseball captains Bryan Graves and Evan Sobel and Athletic Director Steve Bilsky, among others, recognized Seddon's lengthy career during a ceremony at home plate in which Bilsky announced the naming of the Penn dugout in honor of Seddon.

After the presentations, a visibly humbled coach stood at home plate, tipped his cap and addressed the crowd of over 350 fans, reminiscing on his time at Penn, during which he coached soccer and baseball.

"A lot of memories." Seddon said, "Funny and good and not so good, the good ones obviously the winning teams, the clinching of the '95 season at Yale. It's hard to pick out just one."

The winningest baseball coach in Penn history also ruminated on his future, but Seddon could not say what the future would hold for him. He was certain about one thing, however -- baseball would remain a major part of his life.

"I don't like the word retirement," Seddon said. "I don't really use it but I'll retire and do something else. I could be raking dirt, anything around the game of baseball."

Glanville, who played for Seddon on the 1990 and 1991 Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League championship teams had nothing but praise for his former skipper.

"Coach is great," Glanville said. "He's a lot of fun. He had some absent minded moments, which were fun, and also some championship moments. I was always compelled by his ability to communicate well with people. He knew how to reach people."

The man who holds the record as the winningest coach in Penn history -- with 634 career victories so far -- dwelled on what he hoped his legacy would be with the people he impacted during his career.

"Hopefully you contributed to the people in your life. So they feel that it wasn't just wins and losses," Seddon said. "I think that may be the case, hopefully."

As Seddon prepared to move on to life outside the dugout, he offered some insight into his own perspective of his upcoming retirement.

"I'm just another guy from North Jersey who, growing up, my dad always said to me [something] which makes it easy for me to make this transition now to another stage: 'Nothing is forever, remember that.'"

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