BGSU baseball legend Orel Hershiser returned to northwest Ohio on Friday, throwing out the first pitch of the Battle of I-75 between Bowling Green and Toledo at Fifth Third Field.

“The thing that has kept me around is the culture and the people at Bowling Green,” Hershiser said. “I miss the Midwest values to come back here and to be around the people.”

He is receiving an honorary doctorate from the university and serving as this year’s graduation commencement speaker.

“Orel could be anywhere in the world right now, and he’s in northwest Ohio receiving a doctorate that he’s very deserving of, throwing out a first pitch and growing the college baseball game,” BGSU head coach Kyle Hallock said. “We’ve seen what he’s done with Major League Baseball, so for him to come back and grow the college game and get the Falcons excited about BGSU baseball, it’s a feather in our cap. We’re very appreciative of him, and we owe him a lot.”

Hershiser threw a no-hitter against Kent State as a Falcon and was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1979. The BGSU Hall of Fame inductee won a Cy Young Award, a World Series, a World Series MVP, a gold glove, a silver slugger and more with the Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, San Fransisco Giants and New York Mets across his 18-season professional career.

Hershiser will be giving three commencement speeches to graduating students on Saturday, one at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

“When President Rogers called me and gave me the news, he kind of slipped in that, can you talk at three commencements? Tommy Lasorda was an American and believed in free speech, so I guess I’m giving three of them. It’s a life that’s had a few accomplishments. I think it’s very nice that Bowling Green recognizes some of those accomplishments,” Hershiser said. “But it is really the alumni around me that it’s making all the good things happen. I just happen to have a name and a face. When you drop me in water, and those concentric circles go, the circle seemed to go a little farther.”

Hershiser has been one of the biggest supporters of the baseball program since it was briefly eliminated due to budget cuts in 2020 and is a major reason why the program is still alive.

“When I think about the pandemic and I think about the budget cuts, and it looks like the program might not be around anymore, I think of my teammates. The first teammate I think about is Dana Doers, who was the one that first called me. And the second teammate that tried to recruit me back is John Mitchell and then Dave Litzenberg,” Hershiser said. “To come back now and do commencement to, to watch a game and throw out a first pitch in enemy territory, it’s amazing to go from, there’s no longer a program to where we are now…When you think about that and where we are now compared to the pandemic and no program and save the program and now thrive with a Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championship, it’s a fantastic story.”

The 66-year-old Hershiser has enjoyed watching the program compete at a high level over the past two years, winning at least 30 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2001 and 2002 campaigns.

“After BG comes through, after some 13 years of winning the MAC, they had to come back out. It was nice to have all the good players come back, and then all of a sudden, you have a bullseye on your back. They’ve had some serious injuries; they’ve lost some top pitchers, they’ve lost some top hitters. So, it’s a tough time when everybody wants to shoot at you,” Hershiser said. “But I think the guys have risen to the occasion. I think that fourth place, make the MAC Tournament and then we’ll see what happens in the tournament is just fine after a championship year. I think [Kyle Hallock’s] doing an absolutely amazing job.”

Hershiser has been one of the biggest donors for the program since helping it return five years ago.

“He’s a great guy and a huge supporter of the program,” BGSU junior catcher/outfielder Zack Horky said. “He’s done a lot of great things for us behind the scenes. We love Orel.”

Hershiser and other donors have raised multiple millions of dollars for the baseball program’s field enhancement fund, which aims to bring a turf field and updated renovations to Steller Field.

“We’ve raised a lot of money. We’ve got goals to raise even more money, but for right now, we’re gonna have a turf field hopefully by next year and fencing all around it,” Hershiser said. “If you go to Bowling Green and see all the great improvements from my generation, a generation after me and a generation after me, you see a campus that is just on fire with great buildings and great facilities and great things, and the baseball field is an eyesore because it’s the same one that I played on.”

The original goal was to build an entire new stadium. However, starting with a turf field will help elevate the program.

“Our first goal was to raise a significant amount of money to build a stadium. We realized early on from where the program was going to just to get it to survive. To move it to a place where they can be proud of working out a little sooner when the rain and the snow is still there and there’s a turf field there and a fence around it and making it just a little bit more easier to recruit, and to work harder and to bring championships,” Hershiser said. “It’s amazing that the alumni has come alongside of us because we have branched off and also into the business college. It’s a lot easier to raise money for me and to have integrity that we’re not only raising it for baseball, we’re raising it for the university. I think our, our donors and the people that are supporting us are from a more diverse background; they’re not just ex-baseball players, they’re not just these are people that are on the Board of Trustees for Bowling Green. We’re doing more than just baseball. I think it’s a lot easier for me to get up in front of donors and say this is for the whole school.”

Over the past few years, Hershiser has gotten to get to know a lot of figures in the Bowling Green community, including Derek van der Merwe, BGSU’s Vice President for Athletics Strategy and Director of Athletics.

“Getting to know Derek is like getting to know Tommy Lasorda. It’s getting to know any coach or mentor or boss that is off the charts enthused about what he’s doing and infectious in the way he recruits people. You don’t ever find him not raising the bar; he’s always raising the bar. He’s always thinking about what’s next and how do we accomplish it. He’s always talking positive,” Hershiser said. “He’s never like, ‘Oh, the program’s down, and we need to come, and we need to pick it up.’ No, he’s like, we are headed this way, and this is how we’re gonna get there. He never looks backwards. He’s a superstar.”

A turf field is not Hershiser’s ultimate goal, as supporting the program is his mission.

“I’m lucky I have a strange name. I’m lucky I accomplished a few things on the baseball field. I’m fortunate enough to have great teammates and to be able to come back here and be reminded how important Bowling Green was for me back then because I’ve been saying in a in a few places when I’ve become the face of certain things that we’re doing, there is no Orel Hershiser without Bowling Green,” Hershiser said. “Everybody talks about someday I’ll give back, or they give back throughout their whole life. So, this is a mission of mine. It’s not a show up, write a check and go home. It’s definitely a mission, and to be immersed in the Bowling Green culture is for me on a phone, on a Zoom call, and once or twice a year come back to campus. So, it’s really understanding the culture, understanding the people that I get to talk to and be around that are just so high quality.”