This article was originally published on September 30, 2010, but I thought this would be a good time to reprint this. It’s been updated with all of Florida State’s shutouts since.
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At some point after FSU’s 31-0 shutout of Wake Forest, Chip Baker, a long time FSU football fan, went into his garage or to some other secret location, grabbed a brand new baseball, placed it into a vice, grabbed a hammer, and began hammering a spike nail into the baseball’s cowhide cover.
Then early Monday morning, a long-standing tradition that has been in place since 1993 was rekindled when Baker, who is also FSU’s director of baseball operations, together with Jimbo Fisher, went to Mark Stoops’ office and presented Stoops the baseball with the spike nail driven halfway through it.