College World Series Open Comment Thread
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2010 1:13 PM EDT
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PrintThe TCU Horned Frogs will take on the UCLA Bruins at 2:00 this afternoon, with the Clemson Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks squaring off at 7:00 tonight. The respective winners will meet in the best-of-three College World Series finals in Omaha.
Feel free to follow along and offer observations about the action in the comments below. Which teams do you like? (By that, I mean, "Which teams do you believe will win?", and I also mean, "For which teams will you be rooting?" Personally, I am torn, so I'm curious how you come down upon this crucial question.)
Go 'Dawgs!
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Also, this.
Ok, I’ll stop trolling now. Just excited for the game!
by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2010 1:41 PM EDT up reply actions
Nah, you're not trolling, vineyarddawg.
In fact, I owe you an apology; I should have made it a general Saturday “non-Bulldog sports of interest” thread, but, quite frankly, I forgot that the U.S. was taking part in World Cup action this afternoon.
My bad for letting my indifference color the coverage around here. It was an egregious oversight, but not an intentional slight.
Go 'Dawgs!
How is this game only in the bottom of the 4th after 2 hours???
I’ve been flipping between the CWS and WC, but did I miss a rain delay or something?
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on Jun 26, 2010 4:07 PM EDT reply actions
Alright, I think we now have . . .
sufficient justification to invade Ghana. Who’s with me?
by MaconDawg on Jun 26, 2010 5:02 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I would find the World Cup several orders of magnitude more interesting . . .
. . . if, instead of playing soccer against one another, the various teams waged short wars of predetermined duration against one another.
Go 'Dawgs!
It's official:
UCLA advances to the College World Series finals.
I’ll be rooting for the Bruins, regardless of the Georgia rival they wind up facing in the final series in Omaha. UCLA winning yet another NCAA team national championship costs me nothing, whereas I’d very much like to keep the ACC from breaking its baseball championship drought and preserve Georgia’s and LSU’s status as the only SEC teams to have won the College World Series.
Go 'Dawgs!
Sincere soccer question for all the World Cup fans out there:
Am I wrong to think that this is overly harsh?
I’m not a “hater”; I’m just indifferent. I don’t begrudge soccer fans their fandom; I just don’t share it. I’m not antediluvian (well, all right, I am, but not about this); I just question whether an event that produces short-lived excitement in the United States for one week every four years truly represents a sea change in American sports viewing habits.
My skepticism is rooted not in bigotry, but in experience. I’ve been hearing since the ‘70s how soccer was the next big thing . . . exactly the same length of time (as my brother-in-law pointed out) that I’ve been hearing that the flying car represents the future of the automotive industry. I’m not standing here saying it won’t happen, but I don’t buy it when supporters of soccer say they’re certain it will. At a certain point, they begin to sound like the Trotskyite who told George Will that proof of Trotsky’s farsightedness was the fact that none of his predictions had come true yet.
Does my skepticism strike anyone as the embittered position of a narrow-minded naysayer? I’m honestly asking, because I believe KanuDawg let his passion get the better of him here, and I’m trying to tell which of us is taking the more extreme position.
Go 'Dawgs!
Thanks for the shout-out.
Much like the Georgia football team of the past 2 seasons, the USA just kept digging themselves a hole in this tournament, and when you’re playing elite competition, you can only dig out of those holes so many times before you get caught. We let them score 4 minutes after the start of the match, and then we let them score again 1 minute after the start of overtime/extra time.
I see improvement in our team, though… kind of like when you look at Georgia’s talent level in the ’90’s vs. Georgia’s talent level today. We’re getting better players, and we’re just playing better soccer. I think most people who understand soccer see our team simply getting better players and playing more positive games, and they translate that into, “more people will want to watch.” The more accurate conclusion would be that the better talent and better soccer will lead to better results, more wins, and that will bring in more viewers.
After all, we all know that if there’s one thing Americans love, it’s a winner. Personally, even though I hate losing, I’m proud the boys fought their hardest, did their best, and left it all on the field. That’s all you can ask.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2010 9:42 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, it's harsh.
I most certainly am anti-diluted-gin, but I don’t see how that applies here, honestly.
I think you’re correct in your view that, to the majority of Americans, soccer will always be that sport that’s played in the same year as the Winter Olympics, and we get to watch the U.S. team and see if they can win a match or two. The hard-core fans will always be less than the number of Football, Baseball, and Basketball fans out there. I wouldn’t say that soccer will always be behind hockey, because I think interest really is growing in the game… just not as quickly in the south as it is elsewhere in the country.
Atlanta has no suitable major soccer venue, since the Dome’s artificial turf is not nearly as acceptable for soccer as it is for football. We do have what amounts to a minor league soccer team, and they play in a 5,000-seat stadium. No one’s ever going to base an MLS squad there or hold a World Cup Qualifying match there, though… or even play a friendly. The closest thing we have in the south is Legion Field in Birmingham, which did stage a World Cup Qualifier in 2005 against Guatemala (which I attended). The Citrus Bowl hosted World Cup matches in 1994, but Orlando can only be considered “in the south” because it’s not Miami.
In California, soccer’s always been big, but it’s growing by leaps and bounds in places like Ohio and New York… even to the point where we now traditionally play our World Cup Qualifier against Mexico in Columbus because, even if it’s not 40 degrees, we still know we’ll have a massive home-crowd advantage (a rarity at matches… even in the U.S.).
Don’t discount the growth in the Hispanic immigrant population, either. People from Latin America are as crazy about soccer as Europeans are, and they drive a significant amount of revenue that can’t be ignored. (For every World Cup game so far in 2010, Univision’s World Cup TV rating has dwarfed ESPN’s, and ESPN is getting the highest english-language ratings seen in the U.S. in a long time, if not ever.)
by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2010 9:28 PM EDT up reply actions
South Carolina leading 4-2 after seven.
Only a great catch in the outfield with the bases loaded saved another couple or three runs.
Go 'Dawgs!
Clemson is trying the same rally cap arrangement that failed last night.
It’s time to re-think your sports superstitions, people.
Go 'Dawgs!
South Carolina player down.
Two guys collided going after the same ball.
He’s sitting up now and moving, but he looks like he may have gotten his bell rung. He’s bleeding from the mouth a little.
Scary moment, regardless of your rooting interest.
Go 'Dawgs!
Gamecocks still leading 4-3.
Headed to the ninth inning. South Carolina is three outs away from earning a spot against UCLA in the finals.
Go 'Dawgs!
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