College baseball in general, and the NCAA tourney in particular, are vastly underrated.
Yeah I get that March Madness has a lot of appeal - I’m a passionate college basketball fan. The one and done format is conducive to big upsets and high drama.
But the baseball tourney is so fun. For one - I love the home atmospheres of the regional and super-regional sites. Some of those ballparks are insane in terms of home crowds. So much fun, so much intensity. With double elimination, you always have a chance to climb back into the mix even after taking a bad loss. Look at what UVA did in the Regionals and NC State in the Super Regionals.
And then you have the CWS - the annual tradition in Omaha. Steeped in history. Tough as hell to win with the double elimination to 2 out of 3 format. A lot more difficult for a Cinderella team to slip through all the way. It’s just awesome stuff.
Do yourself a favor and tune in this weekend. Tons of future major league talent will be playing.
I could not agree with you more… I love the way the college game is played. Old school, hard nosed baseball. So good to see fans back in the stadiums too (in MLB as well). Looking forward to action in Omaha.
I could not agree with you more… I love the way the college game is played. Old school, hard nosed baseball. So good to see fans back in the stadiums too (in MLB as well). Looking forward to action in Omaha.
Yeah, lots of positive comparisons to the major league game as well. Sacrifice bunts for one and I even saw a few guys hit oppo grounders through the shift last weekend (what a concept).
Here in Nashville we pretty much follow it due to Vandy. I think they will repeat. And this year, UT is also there so how fun it would be to have the two of them playing for the championship against each other.
Here in Nashville we pretty much follow it due to Vandy. I think they will repeat. And this year, UT is also there so how fun it would be to have the two of them playing for the championship against each other.
I’ve heard that being in Omaha is so much fun.
It wouldn’t be fun at all for anyone outside of Tennessee. I’m a UVA fan so I have a begrudging respect for Vandy since we have a history at the CWS and they have won it all twice before.
Tennessee hasn’t done jack $#@! in college baseball in the past two decades and now every Tennessee fan I know is acting like they have been college baseball fans forever. I would tell them to act like they’ve been there before but they haven’t. I hope UVA pounds them.
Here in Nashville we pretty much follow it due to Vandy. I think they will repeat. And this year, UT is also there so how fun it would be to have the two of them playing for the championship against each other.
I’ve heard that being in Omaha is so much fun.
It wouldn’t be fun at all for anyone outside of Tennessee. I’m a UVA fan so I have a begrudging respect for Vandy since we have a history at the CWS and they have won it all twice before.
Tennessee hasn’t done jack $#@! in college baseball in the past two decades and now every Tennessee fan I know is acting like they have been college baseball fans forever. I would tell them to act like they’ve been there before but they haven’t. I hope UVA pounds them.
Excuse me, but we have been in the sports desert here in Knoxville, so we shall do as we please. Also, we’ve been to Omaha 5 times. And two words for you Todd Helton. Dude could play. So check yo’self.
Here in Nashville we pretty much follow it due to Vandy. I think they will repeat. And this year, UT is also there so how fun it would be to have the two of them playing for the championship against each other.
I’ve heard that being in Omaha is so much fun.
It wouldn’t be fun at all for anyone outside of Tennessee. I’m a UVA fan so I have a begrudging respect for Vandy since we have a history at the CWS and they have won it all twice before.
Tennessee hasn’t done jack $#@! in college baseball in the past two decades and now every Tennessee fan I know is acting like they have been college baseball fans forever. I would tell them to act like they’ve been there before but they haven’t. I hope UVA pounds them.
Excuse me, but we have been in the sports desert here in Knoxville, so we shall do as we please. Also, we’ve been to Omaha 5 times. And two words for you Todd Helton. Dude could play. So check yo’self.
I saw all I needed to see when Tennessee walked off 4 seed mid-major Wright State in the Regionals. You would think that they had just beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series. Like I said - act like you’ve been there before.
If you don’t have a rooting interest, I suggest NC State. Great article about the coach Elliott Avent
Go Pack!
Not normally an NC State fan, but was happy to see an ACC school knock off Arkansas. Coming back to win 2 straight on the road after getting blown out in Game 1 was impressive.
Both ACC teams took a difficult path. UVA lost both first games in the Regional and Super Regional, then went 6-0 in elimination games.
College baseball in general, and the NCAA tourney in particular, are vastly underrated.
Yeah I get that March Madness has a lot of appeal - I’m a passionate college basketball fan. The one and done format is conducive to big upsets and high drama.
But the baseball tourney is so fun. For one - I love the home atmospheres of the regional and super-regional sites. Some of those ballparks are insane in terms of home crowds. So much fun, so much intensity. With double elimination, you always have a chance to climb back into the mix even after taking a bad loss. Look at what UVA did in the Regionals and NC State in the Super Regionals.
And then you have the CWS - the annual tradition in Omaha. Steeped in history. Tough as hell to win with the double elimination to 2 out of 3 format. A lot more difficult for a Cinderella team to slip through all the way. It’s just awesome stuff.
Do yourself a favor and tune in this weekend. Tons of future major league talent will be playing.
I would agree with this is if you were at the particular venue but watching on TV, I disagree. There aren’t many sports, for me, that are worse on TV, than baseball.
Agree. I love going to Cape Cod League games during the summer since you get to see some of the best college players in the country up close. So many major leaguers/Hall of Famers over the years that spent a summer or two playing on the Cape. Free admission but they suggest a donation and also pass the hat to support the teams. They shut down last summer for the first time since WW2; looking forward to resuming a summer tradition in a few weeks and driving down to catch a game.
Here in Nashville we pretty much follow it due to Vandy. I think they will repeat. And this year, UT is also there so how fun it would be to have the two of them playing for the championship against each other.
I’ve heard that being in Omaha is so much fun.
It wouldn’t be fun at all for anyone outside of Tennessee. I’m a UVA fan so I have a begrudging respect for Vandy since we have a history at the CWS and they have won it all twice before.
Tennessee hasn’t done jack $#@! in college baseball in the past two decades and now every Tennessee fan I know is acting like they have been college baseball fans forever. I would tell them to act like they’ve been there before but they haven’t. I hope UVA pounds them.
Excuse me, but we have been in the sports desert here in Knoxville, so we shall do as we please. Also, we’ve been to Omaha 5 times. And two words for you Todd Helton. Dude could play. So check yo’self.
After the first four games the ACC and SEC delivered (well except Tennessee who got bitch-slapped by UVA). So far TD Ameritrade is living up to its reputation of not giving up many home runs. Would love to see NC State and UVA make it to the finals together.
After playing some really great baseball and battling back from the brink of elimination to get within one win of reaching the final series, NC State has been sent home due to “COVID-19 Protocols”. I don’t know any of the details here other than what is being reported, but I don’t think I can get behind this decision and think it’s a shame for these kids.
Here is what I have read:
Most of the team had Covid back in the middle of the season. Starting 2nd basemen tests positive, his roommate the closer goes in to protocol. Everyone else seems to be good to go until Vandy’s coach requests that everyone be tested which can’t happen in short order so the 13 vaccinated players are allowed to play while everyone else must sit. Testing comes back and no unvaccinated players test positive, but 4 of the vaccinated ones do so at 2:10am the NCAA pulls the plug.
Vandy and their full team of scholarships advances…
Here is what I have read:
Most of the team had Covid back in the middle of the season. Starting 2nd basemen tests positive, his roommate the closer goes in to protocol. Everyone else seems to be good to go until Vandy’s coach requests that everyone be tested which can’t happen in short order so the 13 vaccinated players are allowed to play while everyone else must sit. Testing comes back and no unvaccinated players test positive, but 4 of the vaccinated ones do so at 2:10am the NCAA pulls the plug.
Vandy and their full team of scholarships advances…
Where did you hear this? Because what has been reported in actual news is that all unvaccinated players are tested and two and vaccinated players tested positive so they tested the rest of the team and four more tested positive. Not to mention the NC State coach gave some bullshit runaround about how he only coaches them and doesn’t tell them anything like don’t get the vaccine. So if they’ve all gotten the vaccine, then they wouldn’t have been tested and they would still be playing.
Here is what I have read:
Most of the team had Covid back in the middle of the season. Starting 2nd basemen tests positive, his roommate the closer goes in to protocol. Everyone else seems to be good to go until Vandy’s coach requests that everyone be tested which can’t happen in short order so the 13 vaccinated players are allowed to play while everyone else must sit. Testing comes back and no unvaccinated players test positive, but 4 of the vaccinated ones do so at 2:10am the NCAA pulls the plug.
Vandy and their full team of scholarships advances…
Where did you hear this? Because what has been reported in actual news is that all unvaccinated players are tested and two and vaccinated players tested positive so they tested the rest of the team and four more tested positive. Not to mention the NC State coach gave some bullshit runaround about how he only coaches them and doesn’t tell them anything like don’t get the vaccine. So if they’ve all gotten the vaccine, then they wouldn’t have been tested and they would still be playing.
I heard this from Clay Travis and Dave Portnoy of course…
Actually, from Aaron Fitt w/ D1 Baseball, Joe Giglio w/ WRAL Sports and the Mom of one of the players that a buddy of mine happened to follow on Twitter and keeps retweeting her.
The point of my post wasn’t to disparage Vandy (they do have an advantage over most teams with their creative scholarship work), heck I didn’t even mention the annoying Whistler(s).
The point of my post was to wallow in the difficult nature of being an NC State athletics fan.
Did it probably have a slight bias to the NC State side of the story? Absolutely
Was this situation preventable by requiring all the players to be vaccinated? Absolutely.
Is Coach Avent a great guy who loves his players? Absolutely
Is the NCAA completely hypocritical and corrupt by allowing 22k fans in to watch with zero testing or vaccination checks or passing the buck to the local health department? Absolutely
Anyway, I’ll crawl back in to my lurker hole I spend 99% of the time in and begin a search for the actual news.