Before I get to Sports Friday, you may notice I finally broke down and did the Wednesday weigh-in this morning.
In the nine days since the last weigh-in, I was unable to lose my targeted one-tenth of a pound, instead gaining more than 1/2 a pound.
This would bother most people to the point they would completely abandon their half-ass attempt to lose weight, and go on to legitimate weight-loss efforts. But not me, I'm too focused. I just need to make my weight-loss goals more realistic.
Obvioulsy, trying to lose a tenth of a pound over a week's time was too strenuous for my system, and thus had adverse effects.
Current weight: 150.0
Next week's goal: no heavier than 150.3
wish me luck. And now to Sports Friday...
***
The College World Series recently wrapped up and while i am happy that college baseball is getting advanced exposure from ESPN, I still have a few concerns about the network's coverage.
Primarily, I don't care for the way announcers treat it like a gimmick sport. The metal thing the batters are holding? it's an aluminum bat. I realize this, you don't have to keep telling me.
The facts of the matter are:
1) going to wood bats is cost prohibitive.
College baseball for 99% of the programs out there is a non-revenue sport (this is a misnomer of sorts, since it generates revenue but not profit). Bats break and need to be replaced and somebody has to pay for them. It's an added expense that most baseball programs couldn't handle and most athletic departments wouldn't want to subsidize.
2) (and i guess this is more of an opinion) Going to wood bats would completely kill the entertainment value of college baseball.
Put wooden bats in college baseball and you're going to be watching the equivalent of very poor Single A minor league talent. The 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds good enough to use wooden bats have, for the most part, already been drafted and aren't playing college ball. Aluminum bats have been tempered to the point where the days of 21-14 final scores have pretty much disappeared and i have no desire to watch a bunch of people hit .220 for a season with wooden bats.
And if you want to project it further out, the talent level will depleted further by more high school players on the fence of going pro or going to college choosing to sign contracts. Say I'm an 11th or 12th round pick. I can go to college, turn into a pretty good hitter and get drafted much higher. But much more likely, I'll hit .240 with a couple homeruns and in three years maybe not get drafted at all. If I'm going to struggle with a wooden bat, I might as well be getting paid to do it.
Harold Reynolds, who i would call the lead announcer for ESPN's coverage, is a Major League Baseball guy. Reynold's biggest problem is he sees everything as a comparison between college and pro, specifically centering on the bats. By harping on the bats, he conveys the message that we're watching "almost baseball." like i mentioned, a gimmick.
"A lead like this isn't safe in college baseball because of these bats," he quite frequently opines. But tell me, why is a seven run lead more safe in pro baseball? If one team can score seven runs with a wooden bat, doesn't that mean that wooden bats can be used to overcome a big lead? the reason the lead is safer in the pros is that the pitching is better. It's not like the pro teams use aluminum bats to score runs, then late in the game switch to wood bats.
Reynolds also likes to talk about college baseball players getting hit by pitches. I would be foolish not to concede that aluminum is more forgiving than wood on inside pitches, allowing hitters to stand closer to the plate. But when was the last time you saw Craig Biggio try to get out of the way of a pitch? Pro hitters dive into the plate as well, you know.
However, Reynolds is also very very good at what he does and by no means would i suggest he no longer call the CWS. But i would like to see ESPN use more college baseball guys around him. I would suggest maybe finding a few exceptional people who do broadcasts for colleges who didn't make the World Series.
That would solve my other major problem, the announcers don't spend all year following college baseball. And, as a result, we spend the college postseason hearing the same stories night after night. With the limited exposure the broadcast team has to the sport, they typically pick up one or two interesting things about each team and talk about them throughout the super regionals and CWS. I must have heard about LSU catcher Matt Liuzza's family restaurant 10 times a few years ago.
So, in conclusion, i would like to see college baseball announced like other sports and not as the weird cousin of professional baseball.
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It's the same with having to hear about how one particular player overcame adversity a few dozen times. While these stories can break your heart and I have great admiration for these kids, I feel like I have overcome adversity sitting and listening to it night after night. Would like to see them highlight some of the boring players in between. You know, the ones whose parents made them wear Wal-Mart cleats when they were little.
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