Athletics director’s jersey retired in pregame event
The 2013 Opening Day may have marked Chad Holbrook’s first win as head baseball coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, but the day was all about one man — his predecessor, Ray Tanner.
In honor of the Tanner’s 16 seasons at the helm of the team, six College World Series appearances and back-to-back national championship wins in 2010 and 2011, South Carolina retired his jersey, No. 1, and dubbed Williams Street next to Carolina Stadium “Tanner Way.”
After the ceremony, USC beat Liberty 4-3, thanks to first baseman LB Dantzler’s second-inning home run and two RBIs and starter Jordan Montgomery’s six scoreless innings. Montgomery struck out five batters and allowed five hits and two walks.
The Gamecocks built their lead to 4-0 until a late-game rally by Liberty loaded the bases and brought across three runs in the eighth inning. But closer Tyler Webb got the job done, getting five straight outs to seal the victory for South Carolina.
Before the game, USC President Harris Pastides addressed Tanner in a video message on the scoreboard, beginning with “Ray Tanner — wait, let me start again — Coach Tanner,” and then thanked him for all he’d done for the university as a coach and will continue to do in his new role of athletics director.
USC mascot Cocky unveiled a Tanner Way sign as Mayor Steve Benjamin and members of the Columbia City Council took the field and presented Tanner, who stood near the pitcher’s mound with his family, with a framed Tanner Way street sign. Several USC alumni members of the South Carolina General Assembly stood by to present him with a celebratory resolution they had drafted, which was read over the stadium’s speakers.
The My Carolina Alumni Association then joined him to officially announce the debut of the organization’s commemorative back-to-back College World Series–themed license plate. The two-year plates, which go on sale Tuesday, are available for $70 at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The fee will support a USC scholarship program, according to the association’s website.
The on-field celebrations were followed by another scoreboard video — this one a tribute by USC alumnus Justin King that included interviews with former Gamecocks Evan Marzilli, Trey Dyson, Michael Roth (who mimicked Tanner, growling, “Hey, Roth! What are you doing?”), Christian Walker, Whit Merrifield and Kip Bouknight. The video concluded with a thank-you to Tanner and built up to what would be an unveiling of his name and jersey number in a white, pinstriped circle on the left field wall, the first jersey to be retired in USC history.
Tanner, visibly moved, was presented with a framed jersey and gave an address, deflecting the praise and thanking the Gamecock nation in return for supporting him and his players year after year.
“Because of you,” he said to the crowd, “we have history, we have tradition, but the great Gamecocks that you are, the great baseball fans, the support that you’ve given guys in this dugout. You have taken an outstanding program to another level. I want to thank my family for their love and support, for allowing me to be involved in a little boys’ game for many, many years. I will forever be grateful, and I hope to be around here for many, many years to come. Now it’s time. Let’s play some baseball.”
Former players surrounded him at the conclusion of nearly a half-hour of festivities, and Tanner took the mound to throw the first pitch — a high fastball. Inning-by-inning interviews with former players on the video board kept the tribute going throughout the game, and Eugene Warr, the head of USC’s board of trustees, took a moment after the game to reflect on Tanner’s time as head coach.
“As we look back now from 2013 over the 16 seasons that he coached us, I just think now, ‘Who would have thought that? Who would have seen that coming?’” Warr said. “Coach Tanner, you brought the kind of success here that we’d dreamed of in sports but we’d never had before.”
Tanner humbly reiterated that the program had been building for years before him and thanked the university and its fans for all of their support. He added that while he couldn’t help watching Holbrook and wondering what moves he might make, especially late in game when Liberty loaded the bases, watching from the stands was different and much less stressful.
“The good news for me is I’m still here. You know, I had a pretzel in the middle of the game today — I’d never had that before,” he said with a laugh. “I look forward to the rest of the games. It’s exciting. Again, I’m honored.”