2023 College baseball Season

@PitchingFan posted:

Atlnon, I have not and won’t trash the city or people and did not mean to trash USM.  It really is not them, but the NCAA.  But when you get to a super regional, which is one step away from Omaha, the facilities should be elite or, as you said, you should play it at a neutral site.  When you compare schedules, I don’t think it is really close because the only SEC teams they played were Ole Miss and Mississippi State, and they lost both of those who were the bottom of the SEC this year,
We swept Vanderbilt and Texas A&M,, beat Kentucky, beat South Carolina and took one game from LSU and Florida. We also got swept by Arkansas   At one point we played top 5 teams 6 weeks in a row. Our really bad weekend was the first weekend of the SEC season where we got swept by Missouri in Missouri and 38° weather having replaced all eight fielders from last year.  But they considered our schedules equal.  So the NCAA said they went off facilities and fan accommodations so that is why some UT fans are trashing the city of Hattiesburg.  

I do appreciate you adding the context as to why TN fans are blowing up all over social media and attacking USM's facilities.  It was sickening for me to see as it reeks of elitism and "we are entitled bec we have more money".  The context you provided helped me put all the angst expressed by TN fans in better perspective.  And yes, still no reason to diss the city and the people that lives there (again, you didn't do this but I am reading this all over the place in social media).

My understanding of the situation.... both being 4 seeds, the Golden Eagles won the Sun Belt conference in their inaugural year and therefore the  automatic bid and a better overall win record between the two and probably  some other  things that we don't know about yet.

At this point it's not about who beat who or a harder schedule or better facilities or whose son is on the team.

The whining just hurts  credibility more and shows why they didn't get the super.

JMO

@fenwaysouth posted:

This gives the non-P5 programs who have performed well a path to the CWS.  If you want to host a regional or super regional the best way to do that is to win.  JMO.

Exactly.

so TPM, you are saying NCAA and ESPN are lying.  They clearly stated and posted during both games the reasoning was facilities. BTW it should be about wins.  But it should be quality wins.  We were 12 in rpi and they were 21 after Regional so tell me again how it should have been about wins.

Pitchingfan,

Tenn needs to get out and win today's game. Then that will quiet the masses and you all can head out to Omaha and  support your team.

Enough already.

@atlnon posted:

Yes, I totally do not have a problem if the argument is about who's a better team (better games, ranked higher, better RPI, etc.).  I also do not follow the details enough to know that the primary reason NCAA chose USM to host is bec of better facilities (not sure what "sat" means).  If so, I guess it now makes more sense to me why TN fans all over the place are dissing on USM's facilities.  Just a suggestion, when you all (TN fans) complain and look down on USM's facility (and the City of Hattiesburg and the people that lives there), maybe try to always add the context of why you are doing so (bec NCAA chose USM bec of the facilities).  And I know you didn't do this, but maybe the other TN fans should layoff on dissing the City itself (lack of Applebees for example), and the people that lives there.  It's really a bad look on TN fans with everything I am seeing on social media and was even surprised to see it here in the forum from you.

Lack of Applebees? LOL! The next thing you know they will be complaining there isn’t a Cracker Barrel, Golden Corral and a Mobil Mart. It’s sucks when a town lacks fine dining!

I was so excited to see Oral Roberts win yesterday.  The boy and I watched the game on the drive home from Lakepoint yesterday.  He has a good friend/workout partner on the team.

We beat Vandy and Arkansas too, destroyed them actually, and we didn’t host the regional either…because that’s not the criteria. Honestly, take a breath and be happy that you are still playing, your son is healthy, and the biggest complaint t is being inconvenienced for a few hours. It could be a lot worse.

@Master P posted:

I was so excited to see Oral Roberts win yesterday.  The boy and I watched the game on the drive home from Lakepoint yesterday.  He has a good friend/workout partner on the team.

Same here. One of my son’s JuCo coaches is now on staff at ORU and one of his JuCo teammates is on the ORU pitching staff. They are no fluke. Should have never been a 4 seed but never heard them complain about it. What a great addition to the field at Omaha! However their fan base is a lock to finish dead last in the jello shot challenge.

@adbono posted:

Same here. One of my son’s JuCo coaches is now on staff at ORU and one of his JuCo teammates is on the ORU pitching staff. They are no fluke. Should have never been a 4 seed but never heard them complain about it. What a great addition to the field at Omaha! However their fan base is a lock to finish dead last in the jello shot challenge.

They played in a weak conference. The only plus thing they had going for them was they beat Oklahoma State twice during the season. They were the only team in their conference with an overall winning record. Half the conference were real mutts. It makes them hard to measure.

@RJM posted:

They played in a weak conference. The only plus thing they had going for them was they beat Oklahoma State twice during the season.

Conference isn’t strong top to bottom. That’s true. But that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the ORU baseball program. They have been close to going to Omaha (but not made it) a number of times since 1978.

As for ORU, I didn't know much about them or their baseball program until this year.  What I did learn is they have and abundance of resilience and perseverance.   Most teams would have been absolutely crushed after losing game 1 when they were up 8-0 and ended up losing to a pretty good Oregon team.  Not ORU.   They came right back the next day (Saturday) and clinched Sunday.  Mentally strong team.   Got to love it!   I'm jumping on that bandwagon.

@fenwaysouth posted:

As for ORU, I didn't know much about them or their baseball program until this year.  What I did learn is they have and abundance of resilience and perseverance.   Most teams would have been absolutely crushed after losing game 1 when they were up 8-0 and ended up losing to a pretty good Oregon team.  Not ORU.   They came right back the next day (Saturday) and clinched Sunday.  Mentally strong team.   Got to love it!   I'm jumping on that bandwagon.

I will move over and make room for you!

First time I saw them was in 2006 at the super regional at Clemson. They know who they are and what they can do. No complaining. Got to respect that.

Why people outside Tennessee don’t root for them. They’re arrogant. Now their parents/fans are disrespecting their opponent’s facilities.

@adbono posted:

Conference isn’t strong top to bottom. That’s true. But that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the ORU baseball program. They have been close to going to Omaha (but not made it) a number of times since 1978.

I’m betting when they saw their first game was against Oklahoma State the response was, “So what!” They probably went into regions thing they could win it.

@RJM posted:

Why people outside Tennessee don’t root for them. They’re arrogant. Now their parents/fans are disrespecting their opponent’s facilities.

Intentionally or not, the team and their fans seems to enjoy and embrace being the villains between how the team acted last year and how their fans are acting this year towards USM.  Again, this is from a baseball fan that is just starting to embrace college baseball.  I'm sure there are valid explanations behind the scenes as to why their players acted that way last year, and how their fans are acting that way the past few weeks towards USM.  But the explanations still doesn't justify the behavior, and the entitlement/elitism of their fans.

@atlnon posted:

Intentionally or not, the team and their fans seems to enjoy and embrace being the villains between how the team acted last year and how their fans are acting this year towards USM.  Again, this is from a baseball fan that is just starting to embrace college baseball.  I'm sure there are valid explanations behind the scenes as to why their players acted that way last year, and how their fans are acting that way the past few weeks towards USM.  But the explanations still doesn't justify the behavior, and the entitlement/elitism of their fans.

There’s only one valid reason a player would circle the bases giving the middle finger to the crowd. The player was raised poorly by his parents is is completely lacking in any sense of class. I can’t remember the specifics. But if the coach didn’t yank the player he also lacks class. As the behavior continues it proves the  Tennessee baseball program lacks class.

The coach isn’t much of a class act either …

The Beck incident wasn’t the first controversy involving Tennessee baseball this season, or even the first one this past weekend. In mid-April, Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello was suspended four games for bumping an umpire following a controversial call in a game vs. Alabama.

I was never for or against the Tennessee baseball program. They were almost never in the news until they started making news for poor behavior on the field.

Kinda like this guy

@RJM posted:

There’s only one valid reason a player would circle the bases giving the middle finger to the crowd. The player was raised poorly by his parents is is completely lacking in any sense of class. I can’t remember the specifics. But if the coach didn’t yank the player he also lacks class. As the behavior continues it proves the  Tennessee baseball program lacks class.

The coach isn’t much of a class act either …

The Beck incident wasn’t the first controversy involving Tennessee baseball this season, or even the first one this past weekend. In mid-April, Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello was suspended four games for bumping an umpire following a controversial call in a game vs. Alabama.

I was never for or against the Tennessee baseball program. They were almost never in the news until they started making news for poor behavior on the field.

That was last year.  Not the same players.  We lost all 8 fielders.  Why not Florida.  They had Jac shoot bird and pitcher curse visitors and get ejected. Let’s be fair.  There’s was this year.

I’ve never defended what they did but it was 2 players.  How can you justify a total team on 2 players.  If so, Florida is horrible which they are not.  

@PitchingFan posted:

I’ve never defended what they did but it was 2 players.  How can you justify a total team on 2 players.  If so, Florida is horrible which they are not.  

I wasn’t aware of the Florida situation. But you’re participating in whataboutism. It doesn’t make what the Tennessee play and the coach did any better. It reflects poorly on the player, the coach, the team and the university. It’s the same coach who was suspended last year.

So the fact this year that the NCAA took what should’ve been a host and gave it to someone else without legitimate reasons, USM fans, literally put out a website that listed each player, their mother, their girlfriends, and things to trash talk to them. Put trashy signs at every motel trashing UT players and fans. And the University of Tennessee players, coaches, and fans are the bad guys in all of this that makes a lot of sense.   I would say before you get on here and trash, our players and coaches and their parents. You learn all the facts.   There is always a story behind every incident.   You are just seeing or reading one side.

FWIW, there is a huge state rivalry between Miami and Florida. Some chirping back and forth during that game and some bad words thrown at him as he rounded the bases. There had never been a warning given. Cags is respectful but once he reached the dug out HC gave him his first and last warning.

I would like to know what this has to do with this discussion about Tennessee.

I mean this has become ridiculous.

Wait, ANOTHER rain delay?  Maybe they should give the games to places that are not prone to thunderstorms in June.

It was brought up that we were trashy, because we had a player shoot  a bird at a player he had been feuding with since the kid threatened to break his legs in high school.  My point was if it’s wrong for one team and you’re going to say their parents are bad parents or their players are then it has to be equal in Florida was just as blatant this year as our two were last year. Done with this.  

Utterly ridiculous USM allowed rain to come over their field!  This should be at a school that has a dome, 10 meter diving platform and petting zoo!

@nycdad posted:

Utterly ridiculous USM allowed rain to come over their field!  This should be at a school that has a dome, 10 meter diving platform and petting zoo!

Also my kids are currently getting heckled by opposing fans at $2 beer night....I can't really opine about any of this. But when the rain passes, rooting for your kid @PitchingFan and TN.

Perspective is important…

@PitchingFan posted:

So the fact this year that the NCAA took what should’ve been a host and gave it to someone else without legitimate reasons, USM fans, literally put out a website that listed each player, their mother, their girlfriends, and things to trash talk to them. Put trashy signs at every motel trashing UT players and fans. And the University of Tennessee players, coaches, and fans are the bad guys in all of this that makes a lot of sense.   I would say before you get on here and trash, our players and coaches and their parents. You learn all the facts.   There is always a story behind every incident.   You are just seeing or reading one side.

This is fraternity stuff. Every visiting school has to deal with it. My son said the insults he took from Nebraska fans in the outfield were so funny he had to make sure he was focused on each pitch. He gave some back with a smile during warmup throws.

It’s amusing to watch Joe Average Fan go nuts when he thinks the umpire blew a called strike three. What they don’t realize is on 0-2 and 1-2 the pitcher may hit the mitt perfectly but the catcher was set up inches off the strike zone.

@PitchingFan posted:

So the fact this year that the NCAA took what should’ve been a host and gave it to someone else without legitimate reasons, USM fans, literally put out a website that listed each player, their mother, their girlfriends, and things to trash talk to them. Put trashy signs at every motel trashing UT players and fans. And the University of Tennessee players, coaches, and fans are the bad guys in all of this that makes a lot of sense.   I would say before you get on here and trash, our players and coaches and their parents. You learn all the facts.   There is always a story behind every incident.   You are just seeing or reading one side.

I do appreciate the info you shared.  If NCAA really based the hosting decision based on facilities and not on ranking/performance, then something is wrong there. Facilities should only come in to see who’s qualified to host. After that, should be purely based on performance and ranking. I don’t understand why NCAA doesn’t rank all 64 teams in the regionals like they do for basketball? That way, the only argument is why a team is ranked higher than this other team, but the hosting picture is very clear and who has nicer facilities is not a factor.

I wonder if there is a Fan of Pitching that knows anything about this ……?

I know the Villian parents would not pray.  And did I see the UT parents, coaches and players cheer for the USM coach?  

@RJM posted:

Lack of Applebees? LOL! The next thing you know they will be complaining there isn’t a Cracker Barrel, Golden Corral and a Mobil Mart. It’s sucks when a town lacks fine dining!

they have multiple waffle houses i guarantee that!!! that is living the dream right there...smothered and covered baby

@TPM posted:

FWIW, there is a huge state rivalry between Miami and Florida. Some chirping back and forth during that game and some bad words thrown at him as he rounded the bases. There had never been a warning given. Cags is respectful but once he reached the dug out HC gave him his first and last warning.

I would like to know what this has to do with this discussion about Tennessee.

I mean this has become ridiculous.

Miami fans are the biggest pile of trash in sports, period.

this thread is kind of similar with the Vandy Whisler thing a couple years back. one of the posters kid pitched for Vandy and he developed the same sense of how special they were and ended up politely checking out from the site. He went from being a many year poster to gone because he didn't get the special treatment. Funny thing is I think his kid transferred to UT and washed out there as well but i could be mistaken.

@old_school posted:

this thread is kind of similar with the Vandy Whisler thing a couple years back. one of the posters kid pitched for Vandy and he developed the same sense of how special they were and ended up politely checking out from the site. He went from being a many year poster to gone because he didn't get the special treatment. Funny thing is I think his kid transferred to UT and washed out there as well but i could be mistaken.

You are mistaken.

He just felt like a lot of folks have and bowed out.

He didn't wash up, just wasn't a very good fit.

Expected to be drafted this year.

Don’t like UT at all but man what a terrible way to lose. Feel awful for that kid.

@baseballhs posted:

Don’t like UT at all but man what a terrible way to lose. Feel awful for that kid.

Agree that it was a terrible way for them to lose. But I view it as karma. It’s not so egregious anymore but you have no idea how many times in the past Texas won big games they hosted at Disch-Falk in Austin because of home cooking. The strike zone would change at critical times, big calls would be blown, you name it and it has happened. All in favor of the Longhorns of course. So last night was just a reminder from the baseball gods that no team is spared forever.