The Big Ten is Bound and Determined to Ruin College Baseball: Why the NCAA Should Let Jim Delany Take His Ball and Go Home
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 7:56 PM EDT
in Georgia Bulldogs Baseball
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PrintWith the College World Series finals set to begin tomorrow, there’s just no getting around the fact that the top three teams in the SEC East also were the top three teams in the country. Naturally, this has provoked the expected level of crybaby whining from Big Ten country, because the NCAA only made a mammoth concession to Midwestern baseball already by imposing the appalling uniform start date on the rest of us. As noted by SB Nation Atlanta’s Steven Godfrey, the Conference Counting Forgot is once again in take-its-ball-and-go-home mode:
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany . . . "warned" the media last week that unless special concessions were made for cold-weather baseball programs, Sun Belt (the region, not the conference) teams would continue to unfairly dominate the sport of college baseball, which relies on a specific type of weather to be played but, Delany assures, is totally not like a regionalized sport like college hockey.
Without a special bracket allowing cold-weather programs a direct route to Omaha, Delany has considered advocating the Big Ten to form its own postseason baseball tournament.
Oh? Delany was finished? Well, allow me to retort:
- Why is Delany demanding a new NCAA concession to the Big Ten just two years after the previous NCAA concession to the Big Ten? Because the last such concession didn’t work. This year’s College World Series field consisted of teams from California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, perpetuating the same patterns that were evident prior to the advent of the accursed uniform start date. The Big Ten’s last self-serving regulation failed, and now Delany wants the NCAA to implement another of the Big Ten’s self-serving regulations? At some point, shouldn’t being wrong last time count against you this time?
- My grandfather was a St. Louis Cardinals fan. You know why? Because, prior to the mid-’60s, there were no major league baseball teams in the South; until then, Missouri was the only state with both a star on the Confederate battle flag and a National or American League baseball franchise. One of the reasons the major leagues were so slow to arrive in the region was the widespread belief that it was too hot to play baseball in the South in the summer. Summers in the South are hotter now than they were then, but the Atlanta Braves, formerly of Boston and Milwaukee, appear to have overcome this impediment. If we can handle the seasonal extremes of playing baseball in the summer in the South, maybe they can handle the seasonal extremes of playing the same sport in the winter in the Midwest. If not, well, that sounds like a Big Ten problem, not an NCAA issue.
- Remember how I mentioned that summers in the South were getting hotter? Well, winters here are getting colder, too, so quit your whining, you bunch of Midwestern pansies. It snowed here on Christmas Day last year, for the first time in 100 years or so. This winter, we lost an entire week of snow days. The winter before last, my house looked like this:
There’s winter weather everywhere. Cope. The Big Ten manages to play other sports in the winter; the league just does it indoors. If you want more competitive college baseball teams, don’t try to handicap the rest of us; build arenas with roofs. It sure seemed to work for the Minnesota Twins, whose 1987 and 1991 World Series appearances saw them go undefeated at home and winless on the road. - If Jim Delany says this is a problem, to which he has an extreme solution, fine; I’d deal with this difficulty the way I’d have dealt with Rankin Smith’s threat to move the Atlanta Falcons; namely, by calling his bluff, and by hoping he wasn’t bluffing. Fleetwood Mac said (well, sang) it best: "You can go your own way." Jim Delany wants "the Big Ten to form its own postseason baseball tournament"? Go right ahead, Jimbo. It’s not like it would make much difference if Big Ten teams were unavailable for the College World Series, now, would it? Maybe if the Big Ten teams spend the postseason facing only one another, they’ll quit crying about the officiating 98 years after the fact.
In sum, it isn’t our fault that the Big Ten stinks at baseball, or that the Big Ten was dumb enough to set up shop in a region where the weather is fit neither for man nor for beast. The rest of us shouldn’t be saddled with a national "solution" to a purely regional problem. The NCAA has bent over backwards for the Big Ten a few too many times already; I say it’s time to tell Jim Delany to take his ball and go home, so the rest of us can go back to playing baseball whenever we want and watching teams from our neck of the woods duke it out in Omaha . . . a city, coincidentally, that now is located in a Big Ten state. Hey, if you can’t bring Mohammed to the mountain . . .
Go ‘Dawgs!
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"The Atlanta Jaguars or the Atlanta Panthers."
GROSS!
I am proud to be a Kennesaw State Fighting Owl. -- Vince Dooley
Personally, I prefer the Atlanta Texans.
But that’s just because I like things that make no sense. (And I hate Florida. Which isn’t relevant in this conversation. But still.)
by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2011 10:09 PM EDT up reply actions
If Delany is going to approach the NCAA
again, I think all the commissioners of ‘Southern Schools’ should band together and petition the NCAA to delay the start of Hockey Season, citing Northern Domination, until mid Janu…wha…wait…what? You mean southern schools don’t play hockey (except for Alabama-Huntsville)? Why is that? Could it be because we don’t have the weather for hockey? Could it be that if, by some quirk of geography, an actual hockey prodigy living in the South would have the good sense to move up North where they not only play the sport, but where people actually give a rats patootie?
Kyle, I liked your solution regarding the construction of indoor baseball facilities. If Jim Delany wants his member schools to play baseball that much, maybe he needs to encourage some creativity in financing. Hell, if tOSU sold off Terrelle Pryor’s stable of ‘rides,’ I’m sure those proceeds could just about fund a new park with a retractable roof.
Alternatively, Delany could revisit this whole issue in another 50-100 years when all the ice caps have melted and Ann Arbor has the climate of Tegucigalpa*.
*for those who believe in Global Warming.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
This is always my first thought
Big Rust Belt apologists have no problem with geographic advantages that work to their favor. The real truth is they don’t want to make the financial commitment necessary to be successful. Look at softball. They currently do ok,despite the fact that it is a bat and ball sport with a spring schedule. Expect Rust Belt schools to do less well in the years to come as SEC programs continue to invest in softball facilities and coaching, especially if the ACC jumps on board. Ten to fifteen years from now, Delany’s conference will forget this time when their best are nationally competitive in the sport and blame it on bad luck and snow.
Let them go. A CWS without the big ten is like a fish without a bicycle.
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Jun 26, 2011 8:56 PM EDT up reply actions
I would just like to point out that Kentucky has a hockey team.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2011 10:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep, and you've identified the only reason anyone knows that.
Namely, hot chicks on the schedule posters, starting with Ashley Judd wearing a hockey jersey and nothing else.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 10:12 PM EDT up reply actions
My browser is apparently updating very slowly tonight.
I didn’t see your reply until after I had submitted said picture of Ms. Judd below.
Nevertheless, you’re right, of course… I was just looking for a flimsy pretense to post the pictures.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2011 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions
... and that they've been around since at least 1998.
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by vineyarddawg on Jun 26, 2011 10:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, that's the one.
Thanks.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 10:15 PM EDT up reply actions
vineyarddawg
Is Kentucky really part of the South?
/totally forgot about Ms. Judd
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
by DavetheDawg on Jun 26, 2011 10:23 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I grudgingly credit Kentucky with being Southern, . . .
. . . though I would classify Kentucky as a “border state.”
The fact that the Bluegrass State produced John C. Breckinridge earns Kentucky inclusion, in my book. Others’ mileage, both figurative and literal, may vary.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 10:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Johnny Depp
is from Kentucky. I always figured him for a damned Yankee.
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
by DavetheDawg on Jun 26, 2011 10:41 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Nah, dude, he's French.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
I thought he was from Turkey.
______________________________________________
That's (333333jorkland)^2 and $$$$$$$$immons to you, chump.
No...
… he is a turkey. There’s a fine line there.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 27, 2011 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions
From Kentucky, but long since renounced his citizenship as far as I'm concerned
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Jun 27, 2011 2:17 AM EDT up reply actions
Actually, I'm pretty sure Johnny Depp was made an honorary colonel . . .
. . . in the Kentucky Militia, or some such, due to fellow Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompson’s influence, but I could have that completely wrong.
Why all the Johnny Depp hate? He did a great Keith Richards impersonation in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, and I can’t be the only one who has fond memories of “21 Jump Street.”
Go 'Dawgs!
It's the Tim Burton connection that does it for me.
Mostly. And he’s made what I would characterize as respectable choices in filmmaking, including (if I may stretch a limitedly apt analogy) being DeNiro to Burton’s Scorsese. As my brother has pointed out, he could have had more of a “movie star” career like Pitt, but elected instead to be Edward Scissorhands (which role alone could forgive almost anything).
A classic political science definition states that The South is those 11 states which seceded.
I tend to subscribe to that definition, in no small part due to having learned it in a Southern Politics class at UGA. That said, I will credit Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and West Virginia (despite its rather dubious constitutional standing and history) as border states. If pressed, I might call Oklahoma a border state too, if only because it didn’t exist as a state which could have seceded. Delaware I refuse to recognize as a border state due to being located entirely north of the Mason-Dixon Line by definition and because it allows me to refer to it as a wholly slave-owning Yankee state.
I largely agree, The984, . . .
. . . but I will never recognize the counties in rebellion in the western portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia as a “state.” The Constitution could not be clearer upon this point. Until the legislature of the Old Dominion authorizes the existence of “West Virginia,” it is a parvenu jurisdiction, though re-annexing it into its rightful homeland likely would do economic harm to the greater whole, much as re-absorbing East Germany into Germany did a couple of generations later.
Go 'Dawgs!
Did you ever read the Supreme Court case about that?
Virginia v. West Virginia, 78 U.S. 39 (1871). Fascinating little case there. It and Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1869) are two rather ignored, yet important, cases regarding the issue of state sovereignty, federalism, etc. A quick little google suggests that Virginia admitted the legality of West Virginia in a later early 1900s case, but I don’t care enough to actually read that one.
A point of order on the Germany front;
you’re clearly subscribing to the West German mindset. I say this because the description you just gave of East Germany being absorbed into “Germany” is often given by Germans hailing from areas of the country west of the Fulda Gap…however, it’s simply untrue. East Germany wasn’t absorbed into Germany, just as West Germany wasn’t absorbed into Germany. Both countries were and were not Germany…it’s just that the Americans only recognized West Germany as “Germany” due to Cold War politics. In actuality, neither country absorbed the other…both of them were dissolved, a new government was established, and both countries re-unified on October 3rd 1990. For the eleven months between the fall of the wall and October 3rd (Tag der Einheit), there was no official governing body of Germany, because there was, specifically, no “Germany”. A more apt comparison would be what would happen if North and South Carolina or North and South Dakota were to merger, as opposed to Virginia absorbing West Virginia.
by hailtogeorgia on Jun 27, 2011 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Point of view
How did Germany’s economy in the first few years after 1990 to how it was in the last few (or several) years before 1945? That is, if I follow you, comparing post-1990 Germany to the Cold War Bundesrepublik is not apt. I just wonder how Germany (before division) compares to Germany (after reunification).
Anyway, it’s all awfully arbitrary. I much prefer Bavaria.
And while I’m at it … one of the best SNL lines of all time was when Mike Meyers’s Linda Richman got a little verklempt, and the topic she offered to discuss “among yourselves” while she collected herself was “The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire; discuss.”
My guess is that the economy of Germany post reunification
was still better than the economy pre-division, if for no other reason than the facts that West Germany had several decades to build a strong economy, and, if nothing more, East Germany atleast had some sort of industrial infrastructure in place from the GDR. The GDR had industries, just no competition…so there were soda bottling factories (Vita Cola), automobile factories (the Trabi), etc., that all could be capitalized on by West German entrepreneurs looking to open up a Coca Cola bottling plant or an automobile plant. The pieces were there to put the puzzle together in the East, even though the majority of the pieces were in ill-repair.
The Soviets literally did NO reconstructive work in the East German cities, because they didn’t have the funds. Conveniently enough, they positioned it as if they were keeping the ruins from WWII around to remind the folks of the atrocities of war. Lipstick on a pig. If you go to Dresden, you can still find bombed out buildings in the Neustadt…even though Dresden hasn’t been bombed in seventy years.
As far as Bavaria, it is nice, but they’re huge elitists. Bavaria is basically the Texas of Germany, and then, within Bavaria, there’s the region of Franconia. The Franconians consider themselves completely separate from Bavarians, and contend that while the capital (Munich) may be located in Bavaria, the power actually lies in Franconia (Nuremberg, where many of the bigwigs in the state congress reside). They even have a nice little german pun that you’ll appreciate: the motto of Bavaria is “Frei Staat Bayern”, or the Free State of Bavaria…the Franconians, however, use “Frei statt Bayern”, or “Free, instead of Bavaria”. And South Park says the Germans have no sense of humor…
by hailtogeorgia on Jun 27, 2011 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions
All right, all fair points.
As a Southerner, I’ve always been fond of the innate German sense of federalism, which is to say, provincialism, which is to say, regional identity. (In the interwar years, whenever Rhinelander Konrad Adenauer would travel to Berlin, he would, when crossing the Elbe, mutter, “Now we enter Asia.”) My similar inclinations undoubtedly predispose me to think of West Germany as the real Germany, in the “Let Poland be Poland” sense. No offense was intended.
Go 'Dawgs!
No offense was taken at all.
I was simply in the mood for a quibble over minor details. This is the place I generally come for that sort of thing!
by hailtogeorgia on Jun 27, 2011 9:41 PM EDT up reply actions
X
Yes, I do, and if you don’t think that I do, then you’re immoral, ill-educated, and RACIST.
No, I did not just call you immoral, ill-educated, and racist.
by hailtogeorgia on Jun 27, 2011 10:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks very much.
I like Bavaria because it’s the only part of Germany I’ve visited (Würzburg and environs which, now that you mention it, I recall was Franconia). What I really want to do is take a 20th century architecture tour of Berlin and other cities. Maybe some day.
Oh, that and something about becoming unstuck in time.
That’s just about the extent of my familiarity with Germany.
Mrs. Vineyarddawg and I went to Germany as part of a trip to the World Cup in 2006.
I visited exactly zero of East Germany, and we were only there a few days (as part of a wider trip to a few other locales in Europe), so we basically only saw the Rhineland area, and mostly from trains as we went to and from World Cup locales.
But I have to say that the part of Germany we saw was beautiful. Not as beautiful as Austria and Switzerland, mind you… but beautiful nonetheless.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 27, 2011 9:23 PM EDT up reply actions
I already liked German food...
… so I was quite pleased. :-)
We only really got German food a couple of times, though, during the 2.5 days we were actually in Germany. The crowds were so insane near the World Cup venues that it was just easier to get (gasp) fast food during those times.
I make it a habit to mock people who travel halfway around the dadgum world only to eat at McDonalds or drink a Budweiser (or Heineken for that matter), but fast food was really the only option when every restaurant had a line a mile long and there were 100,000 other people wanting to eat, too.
We got to eat much more local cuisine in Switzerland and Austria, which we enjoyed. We also spent some time in the U.K., so I got my fill of Indian food. :-)
by vineyarddawg on Jun 28, 2011 1:07 AM EDT up reply actions
Bavaria is likely (I say likely because I don't know for sure)...
the most popular German state. Munich is a tourist hub and thee birthplace of Oktoberfest. When I say Bavaria is the Texas of Germany, I mean it honestly. It’s the largest state, it’s southern, it’s more conservative on a whole than any other state, its people are very proud of being Bavarians (and will tell you this willingly), it refers to itself as the Free State of Bavaria, and the majority of German stereotypes (Lederhosen, Biergartens, drinking beers from Steins, Oktoberfest) all are rooted in Bavarian culture. Seriously, you could change a few words in that sentence and describe Texas with no problem.
Franconia is definitely a nice region as well…Wuerzburg, particularly, has two wonderful castles (as well as being the hometown of Dirk Nowitzki), Nuremberg is filled with history (both pre and post WWII), hosts the largest christmas market in the world, and there are several multinational companies based in the region, including Siemens, Bosch, and Adidas, just to name a few. Henry Kissinger and Sandra Bullock both called Fuerth (a town outside of Nuremberg) home…so the region has been good to the US as well.
Honestly, I don’t have a bad thing to say about Germany. I’ll always have a soft spot for East Germany because I think it gets a bad rap (and because I lived with a family there for three summers) and I feel like the people there are more genuine, especially the older folks who remember life in the GDR. The West is great as well…much more touristy, decidedly capitalist, a lot more consumerism. I enjoyed my time in Nuremberg while I lived there, but it definitely had a different feel than when I was in the East. Let me know if you need some recommendations on places to visit if you’re thinking of taking a trip there.
by hailtogeorgia on Jun 27, 2011 9:57 PM EDT up reply actions
This is what I love about this place.
I wrote a posting responding to the Big Ten conference commissioner’s recent threat to take his league out of the NCAA postseason structure in college baseball. The ensuing comment thread produced a detailed discussion of German history, geography, and culture. No one found this the least bit unwelcome or surprising.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 27, 2011 10:38 PM EDT up reply actions
It was Prussian.
Don’t be a putz*.
* – I did not just call you a putz.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 28, 2011 1:12 AM EDT up reply actions
You and your silly facts.
The West won, so it gets to annex the loser and complain about how expensive it is. This is, what, the first second lesson of European Imperialism 101.
The real first lesson is that you can’t have a country is you don’t have a flag. No country, no flag. (h/t Eddie Izzard)
by first and thom on Jun 27, 2011 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions
I thought the first lesson was not to try and win a land war in Asia?
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
It's a bit cold it's a bit cold it's a bit cold
Also, I love the smell of Europe in the morning.
by first and thom on Jun 27, 2011 5:02 PM EDT up reply actions
Have you ever actually smelled Europe in the morning?
I have… and I do not share that view.
Though the smell of Paris in the afternoon is the worst.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 27, 2011 7:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Further explanation required
Provided here. Start about 2:40, but be warned that the language is for grown-ups.
by first and thom on Jun 28, 2011 10:19 AM EDT up reply actions
Ah, my bad.
I had not previously been familiar with Mr. Izzard.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 28, 2011 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Dressed to Kill is some of the funniest standup I've ever seen.
And the Lego animation of the Death Star Canteen makes me laugh every single time.
by first and thom on Jun 28, 2011 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions
I assume you had it with Charles Bullock, III?
I would have liked to have had him. I took it with Trey Hood through the Honors program. I greatly enjoyed Professor Hood, and I don’t regret the class. I just didn’t realize at the time that Professor Bullock is apparently one of the foremost experts on the subject.
But yeah. That was a great class. Probably some of the most interesting material I encountered in POLS classes.
I was in business school and was an MIS major (so a business and computer guy)...
… and that class, and Bullock in particular, was the highlight of my entire academic tenure.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 27, 2011 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions
At Carolina it was taught by one-time DNC chair Donald Fowler
My favorite undergrad class, bar none.
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Jun 27, 2011 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions
My favorite undergrad class was actually 2
gov’t & history – in successive semesters at 8am & 9am respectively by Kay Kindt. Mrs. Kindt stood perhaps 4’ 6" tall.
She hardly opened the text book.
She never gave anything but essay tests.
She would write “snow job” in large letters & give you a zero if you tried to BS her.
She frequently threw chalk & erasers at students, &occasionally threw shoes,
She informed all classes in the days before a test that chocolate always put her in a good mood, thus she could be bribed with chocolate.
And (my personal favorite) once asked a student in her class to take their book and exit the room. When the student exited the room, Mrs. Kindt informed the rest of the class that every single time she looked in that direction all she could see was the front cover of this book which apparently had in very large capital letters the word “SEX.”
She also informed us of the scientific study about how eating chocolate affects a woman’s brain.
it’s been almost 20 yrs since I had her class.
I can bake like a demon.
I include
Maryland because Lincoln took steps to prevent the legislature from seceding, without which, the generally accepted position is they would have done so.
I also include Oklahoma, while not a state at the time, many of the indian tribes (who were the majority of the state’s population at the time) actually mustered in service of the CSA. If memory serves, the last confederate general to surrender was Gen. Stand Waite, a Cherokee (and the only non-white CSA general.)
I can bake like a demon.
by podunkdawg on Jun 27, 2011 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
The University of Oklahoma's SEC credentials just became stronger because of your post.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 27, 2011 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions
also
wikipedia confirms my assertion about Stand Waite.
As you can probly tell, I’ve had my southern credentials questioned a time or two. I was actually born in an army hospital in Aberdeen MD, and have lived here for 12 yrs or so now.
I know some folks that used to refer to me as “that yankee *(tch” because I happened to have lived in CT immediately prior to living in GA. They gave that nickname up rather rapidly.
I can bake like a demon.
I include Maryland historically for the same reason,
but don’t really count them now. Oklahoma counts historically and in the present day.
Anyone that read Turtledove knows Oklahoma is the great state of Sequoyah in an independent CSA. If you haven’t read Turtledove, just stop with “How Few Remain”. If you’re anything like me, everything after that will just make you angry.
Aside on Lincoln and Maryland. A friend just finished his masters in social studies education at Mercer. One of the professors was trying to explain the difficulty of any historical rating of Presidents, and said something like, ‘There are very few Presidents that historians can agree on. Except Lincoln. I don’t think you would find any student of history that would argue Lincoln was a bad President.’
My friend (by undergrad, a DGD) immediately spoke up. “That’s not true. I know someone who thinks Lincoln is a horrible President.”
“Yes, but that person probably does not know…”
DGD interrupted, ‘No, he’s actually a history teacher and one of the smartest guys I know*. He claims Lincoln was a terrific politician, but horrible President. My friend says Lincoln did a great job of accomplishing his political goals, but did so at the expense of trampling over the Constitution with states that did and did not leave the Union.’
According to DGD, the professor was somewhat mystified. The story made me laugh.
*He’s GA born and raised, and got his undergrad in Athens, so he probably doesn’t have the pleasure of knowing many South Carolinians.
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Jun 27, 2011 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions
I've never heard of Alison List before...
and now, I’m unsure of why.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
by Mr. Sanchez on Jun 27, 2011 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, all of that and...
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 sucks! Take that!
Delaney had a platform for his goofy ideas in the Omaha paper this week..
…though it contained some serious rebuttal from a number of coaches around the country.
Wish UGA could have battled their way through. It would have been really something if the top 4 teams in the SEC East (we did finish 4th right?) were the last four teams in the NC tourney.
BTW, no conference has ever had 3 teams in the last 4 until this year – Vanderbilt, S. Carolina, and FU.
Anyway I saw my last game of the tournament when Carolina outlasted Virginia in 13 the other night. I refuse to go watch a certain team wearing Orange and Blue play for the championship. BUT…I will be a Gamecock fan for 2 days (or 3, God forbid it goes that long.
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the Dawgs of war; - Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1
I'm with you, Vietnam Dog. Go Gamecocks, at least for the next two or three days.
Georgia did finish fourth in the East . . . and the Diamond Dogs would’ve won the West.
If you could find a link to the article in the Omaha newspaper, I’d be appreciative. I’d like to see what coaches had to say about Delany’s latest bit of grandstanding.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 10:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Awww. All this temporary support warms my heart
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Jun 26, 2011 10:18 PM EDT up reply actions
I'd like to think that, if our positions were reversed, . . .
. . . you’d conclude that the Gators were much more deserving of your hatred than the Bulldogs.
I don’t think that, of course, but I’d like to do so! :)
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I would pull for you guys in such a series.
As much as I hate UGA, I consider it a friendly kind of hate and a cherished rivalry. I just kind of despise Florida for their smug fans and resent their endless success in all things.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 26, 2011 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks, Gamecock Man.
The level of contempt directed at Georgia by South Carolina fans has always shocked and baffled me, largely because it isn’t remotely reciprocated from our side of the line. I’m glad to hear there’s common ground, over our shared hatred for the Florida Gators, if nowhere else.
Good luck tonight, tomorrow night, and (if necessary) Wednesday night.
Go 'Dawgs!
Thou dost protest too much, Kyle.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 27, 2011 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions
How so?
Search the blog archives here for uses of the word “hate” in conjunction with Auburn, Florida, and Georgia Tech. Then search the blog archives here for uses of the word “hate” in conjunction with South Carolina.
Don’t get me wrong; we want to beat y’all, but it’s nothing particularly personal. Unless and until I begin prefacing sentences with, “As much as I hate South Carolina,” I stand by the statement, and the sincerity of the sentiment.
Anyway, I was expressing support and gratitude at our common cause, so I’m not trying to pick a fight, but I believe my track record bears out the truth of my previous comment.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 27, 2011 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Kyle, I'm just picking at you to a certain degree. Don't take it the wrong way.
I’ll grant that your blog is usually very respectful to the Gamecocks. And I apologize for using the word “hate”; it seems that I used in a much more flippant way than you took it.
That said, while this may not be the case on your blog, there are other Dawgs blogs on the net that devote mountains of vitriolic attention to USC, and I tend to believe that the average UGA fan sees USC as a minor rival more so than you may think. This isn’t terribly surprising. You seem very invested in the Dawgs historical rivals, but it stands to reason that in recent years, UGA and USC are have become peers more so than UGA and UF (UF completely dominant), UGA and GT (UGA completely dominant), and, most of all, UGA and Clemson (two schools don’t play regularly). Not saying that for that reason you should consider us bigger rivals than those more historic rivals, but I do think your statements belie the fact that this series has garnered increased attention from your fellow fans in recent years.
Anyways, I appreciate the support. I’m sorry for noodling you. Irony doesn’t always transfer very well on the internet.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 27, 2011 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions
I think your point about UGA being peers of late...
is more borne of the box score than the W-L record. Since Carolina has joined the SEC, they’ve still lost more than twice the amount of games than they’ve won against the Dawgs. Personally (and I mean no disrespect by this), I expect Georgia to win against South Carolina every year. I know the game will be hard-fought, but I just never have any trepidation that we’ll actually lose the game. It’s basically the same way I feel about Georgia Tech…I just feel like there’s a slightly better chance that Carolina will beat us than Tech.
by hailtogeorgia on Jun 27, 2011 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Actually, the point about UGA and USC being peers was more meant as a comparison to the UF-UGA and other series.
I’m not trying to deny that UGA controls the series. However, it would be difficult to deny that the USC-UGA series has been much closer over the past 20 years than the UF-UGA series.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 27, 2011 7:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Here's the link to the Jim Delaney article in the Omaha World-Herald...
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110618/CWS/706189786
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the Dawgs of war; - Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1
by Vietnam Dog on Jun 26, 2011 10:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Huh...
…this is all news to me. I am a Big Ten fan with dual citizenship (Iowa/Michigan) and surprise! don’t really follow college baseball. I watched Michigan win the softball title a few years back (see? I can’t even remember offhand which year) but that’s it. I love college hockey and am stoked about Big Ten adding it but I don’t really care if you guys keep baseball… nor care that I know that’s how you feel about hockey. You make a good point about the enforced starting date that I hadn’t considered before. I completely agree that the B1G starting its own postseason baseball tourney would affect exactly no one. Good luck to your Dawgs.
Thanks, tdrury88.
I’m fine with letting hockey be y’all’s thing, letting baseball be our thing, and letting both sides leave one another alone, but, then, I’ve always practiced that peculiarly Southern form of tolerance; namely, indifference to what folks in other places choose to do. Heck, we don’t even get riled up about what other states’ flags look like! :)
Thanks for commenting. As we say in these parts, we are much obliged. Good luck to the Hawkeyes and Wolverines, either of whom I’d be happy to see in a Sunshine State bowl game next New Year’s Day.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 26, 2011 10:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Speaking of state flags
Isn’t it about time we changed ours again? Although, I would rather not. I like my little flag stand on my desk displaying the five flags I’ve lived under. Despite being fascinated with vexillology, I’d rather have to update it again.
by The984 on Jun 27, 2011 4:02 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Which to me would seem like a "fair" advantage, and not unfair as Delany tries to imply...
we’re better at baseball because that’s our culture. Our kids grow up playing it more. We have fall ball and early starts where northern winters limit that, and it helps our kids develop faster. We take to the game because our weather is conducive to it. The same is true, but in reverse, for hockey. You don’t see Southern schools whining about it. And the only Southern fans that care about hockey are northern transplants anyway, and that’s why we keep losing NHL teams. Hockey doesn’t fit the south, baseball doesn’t fit the north (at least this is true at the youth level). It’s not “unfair” imo for what happens naturally to occur.
In summation, Jim Delany can kiss my grits.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
by Mr. Sanchez on Jun 27, 2011 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
My first thought...
is, why should we care what these guys do? They’re practically non-existent on the baseball national stage as is, and college baseball has never been more competitive or more popular on the national stage. Of course, this is why Delany is crying foul—the sport is getting more and more national coverage, and his conference is nowhere to be found, costing it quite a bit of visibility vis-a-vis the SEC, ACC, and Pac-10. However, we don’t need Delany or his conference in the CWS. We’re doing just fine as is.
It should also be noted that UConn has begun to develop a fairly solid baseball program, so it can be done in cold weather. The B10 just isn’t doing it themselves because they’re not investing the time and effort. Their problem, not ours.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 26, 2011 11:00 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Eight words:
…quit your whining, you bunch of Midwestern pansies.
Audemus jura nostra defendere
Every day we make it, we'll make it the best we can.
Sure, you can do baseball in cold weather.
Michigan has a title, from the fifties. Only program with at least one title in all ‘big four’ sports. Still, as I said above, I’d like our conference to focus more on hockey and not worry so much about baseball. Of the SEC, ACC, Pac-12, and Big 12, not a varsity hockey program in the lot. You play to your strengths, not your weaknesses, and it does nobody any good to pretend you don’t have weaknesses. There are lots of things the Big Ten does not suck at. Baseball is not one of them. Moving on!
P.S. When the wind chill reaches sixty below in your state you may call me a pansy. I’ll be waiting. Cheers!
Does the average B10 fan even care all that much about baseball?
My impression is no, but that Delany wants a piece of the growing baseball pie.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 27, 2011 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions
Does the average SEC fan aside from when their team is good?
Aside from select pockets, LSU, SC, Ole Miss, Miss St, who else in the SEC is a permanent baseball follower? Maybe Vandy, but the vast majority of “average fans” I’d think only perk up to baseball when their team reaches Omaha, regardless of conference affiliation, except for a very small minority of teams.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
by Mr. Sanchez on Jun 27, 2011 11:00 AM EDT up reply actions
True, but I feel that lack of interest is more pronounced in the B10. Certainly, I get the impression from the amount of coverage Kyle provides here at Dawg Sports that UGA fans like their college baseball.
Of course, maybe this is just me being a South Carolina fan, as USC fans certainly are into baseball more than most, for obvious reasons.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 27, 2011 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions
I'll call you a pansy when you're being a pansy,
you pansy.
Your wait is over.
Audemus jura nostra defendere
Every day we make it, we'll make it the best we can.
by animalcracker on Jun 27, 2011 1:18 PM EDT up reply actions
See, this is a pansy snowstorm.
You can still see flowers and leaves and grass and stuff. After a real Upper Midwest blizzard, you can’t even see the cars.
Yes, so I've heard.
I just couldn’t resist, since pansies are notably hearty enough to survive freezing temperatures. Avoiding the blizzard conditions you describe is one of the many reasons I haven’t relocated to the Upper Midwest — and one of the many reasons why college football programs and fans choose to hold wintertime games in places like Miami, LA, and New Orleans.
First off. If you want to be competitive in a given sport, you have to be able to commit $$ to that sport. Hire the best coaches. Recruit the best kids. Have the best facilities. “Northern school” Nebraska became very competitive in the early part of the decade. A bad coaching change caused them to decline a bit, though.
That being said, college baseball is not a national sport. It doesn’t have the appeal like basketball and football and it SHOULD. Half the country doesn’t care because they know that they will never have a team that can compete nationally. I won’t agree/disagree with Jim Delany’s ideas, but I think it would be best for the sport of college baseball if something could be done to bring it more of a national appeal.
In the deed, the glory.
Corn Nation!
That's not why most of the country doesn't care about college baseball...
it’s a large part the product on the field. You’re not watching the next MLB superstars by and large, at least not like you are with college football/NFL and college basketball/NBA. They are the breeding grounds for the next big things. College baseball competes with minor league baseball for talent, and they pay better. Recently, more big prospects have been going to college, but it’s not been a common practice (you can name a few, sure, but the list of those without a college education is a heckuva lot longer than the ones who do). People don’t care about college baseball, by and large, because it’s just not as good a product as the two money makers.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
by Mr. Sanchez on Jun 27, 2011 10:14 AM EDT up reply actions
An additional possibility
(and not an alternative one) is that professional baseball, nationwide, has been a huge part of our culture for a much longer time than the NFL. Kyle mentioned his grandfather and the Cardinals. I remember that my grandfather followed the (Brooklyn) Dodgers. He didn’t go to college, but he was a huge fan of Georgia Tech football. I don’t recall his ever mentioning having been a fan of any NFL team in his youth. (Wow. Fun with verbs, verbals, and tenses.) Anyway, I suspect that up until the last couple of generations, sports fans in the South could and did pick a baseball team from outside the region, but when it came to football, it was all college all the time.
Good point
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
by Mr. Sanchez on Jun 27, 2011 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions
Nitpicking: "Summers in the South are hotter now than they were then..."
Really? It’s not very likely that a person could tell a difference between the Southern climate of 1950 and the Southern climate of 2011. The only difference between 1950 and 2011 is that people believe it’s massively different.
Twitter:ChopAttack
I can't speak to 1950, but, as someone who lives and works very close to where he grew up, . . .
. . . I can tell you summers are hotter than they used to be.
I’m not trying to get into a debate over climatology or the causes of change, but, yeah, we get more days over 90 in the summer these days than we did in the ’70s or ’80s, and we get more snow days in the winter. The temperature in your neck of the woods may vary, of course.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Jun 27, 2011 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m a nerd about this subject. According to satellite data (physical temperature station data is sketchy due to poor placement) the average temperature is indeed warmer than say 1980, but not enough that a person could tell the difference. My guess is that air conditioners are the culprit. Adults generally spend more time indoors.
Twitter:ChopAttack
by mdhenshaw on Jun 27, 2011 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
And the key difference...
we have air conditioners. I love air conditioining.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
by Mr. Sanchez on Jun 27, 2011 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Agreed.
I read the first line of mdhenshaw’s post and automatically assumed that he was going to talk about air conditioning. I had to do a double take.
And I will raise my nicely regrigerated glass of lemonade to the machinery that is tirelessly working to keep me cool today. Why, I might just go catch a game tonight at the ballpark to celebrate how comfortable I am.
by first and thom on Jun 27, 2011 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions
Define: Sour Grapes
As mentioned, several of the Big East schools are in cold weather climates and are making progress. The NCAA has been trying to push baseball in these regions for several years, even awarding Regional host sites to #2 seeds on occasion.
Let’s look at two schools that receive a fair amount of snow and still have cold temperatures at the beginning of the college baseball season: Virginia and Virginia Tech. One school made a commitment to baseball and hired a great coach and built great facilities. The other chose not to. Guess which one was just the #1 national seed. It’s a pretty simple formula.
As mentioned earlier, Michigan and Minnesota have CWS titles. It’s not like it wasn’t snowing back then. The sunbelt now has more residents, and serious travel baseball is ubiquitous.
My final thought, I’m sure fans of the University of Nebraska are thrilled at the prospect of not being eligible for the CWS, and instead making a trip to Indianapolis to play the Jim Delaney Invitational (Everyone gets a trophy!!!)
by Sugar Hill Gangsta on Jun 27, 2011 1:17 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
LMAO at "Jim Delany Invitational."
I really don’t get how this is a viable idea. The B10 would be a national laughingstock if Delany pulled this move.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Jun 27, 2011 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions
thanks to him, and Leaders/Legends, among other stuff,...
they kind of already are trending in that direction.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
and let the choir say........
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
...
"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell
by DavetheDawg on Jun 27, 2011 3:26 PM EDT up reply actions 5 recs
Very nice! lol
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
the photoshopped stuff (I count at least 3)...
is what puts this over the top from nice to definite rec.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
Ok, seriously,
Uga V it looks like, with a halo. That’s both cute and cool.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
And Penn Wagers in the opposite corner with devil horns
like I said, it’s the little touches that take this one over the top.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
yea, I was like "NO HE DINDT just put Penn Wagers in a pic"! Dave is a funny dude, i mean
weather person.
"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker
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