Think of this as a clip-and-save column -- like a coupon, in a way, but rather than saving anyone money (unless betting is involved), it's designed instead to save the die-easy fan from too much heartbreak, hypertension, wild mood swings and multiple servings of crow.

Next season, and any after that, when you find yourself (or your neighbor) saying, "A team that loses to (pick any Louisiana college) is NOT going to Omaha," stop and remember: This LSU team lost to Nicholls State and is packing its bags for the College World Series.

My first full baseball season in Baton Rouge was 2000. In February and March, veterans of The Advocate sports department told me, "This is not an Omaha team."

The Tigers lost 9-8 to McNeese State during an early-season five-game losing streak that also featured a Houston sweep of a three-game series at Alex Box Stadium. LSU would lose another one-run game to McNeese later in the season.

LSU went on to win its fifth national championship.

It's baseball. Last place can beat first place. Major League Baseball knows this. It plays a 162-game regular season to ensure the cream will rise to the top.

The college regular season is 56 games. That's a blip, a slice, a snapshot.

When you find yourself (or your friend) saying, "LSU is making too many baserunning mistakes to be a College World Series team," think about the times you heard those words during the five national championship seasons.

Think about how many times you heard that this season. Think about how many times you heard that this month.

A team with CWS talent will, more often than not, find success with aggressive baserunning and forcing college players to make the play (usually, they won't) than the same team will pay for it. Yes, it will cost them some runs, but over the course of a season, they'll have far more credits than debits. Many of those credits will come so well disguised, you might not even notice them.

Trust me: The other team's coach notices.

When you find yourself (or your boss) saying, "He shouldn't be pitching so-and-so in this situation" or "I can't believe he's leaving him out there," remember how many times Skip Bertman found out in March and April what a pitcher could do so Bertman knew whether or not he could count on him in May and June.

Paul Mainieri had to use Chad Jones as more than a situational left-hander to realize his best role this season was as a situational left-hander. Somewhere along the way, Mainieri and pitching coach David Grewe (and former pitching coach Terry Rooney) did something right to develop Daniel Bradshaw, Ryan Byrd and Nolan Cain. Think about what those pitchers did at the SEC tournament.

Are you more comfortable now with the idea of each of them pitching in Omaha than you were, say, back in April?

When you find yourself (or your favorite talk-show host) saying, "This slump has gone on way too long; he's got to bench so-and-so," stop and consider everything. Experience. Speed. Defense. Leadership. The game's natural ebb and flow.

Slumps are often as misunderstood as statistics. We all know a guy can hit the ball on the screws four times in a game and go 0-for-4 by not "hitting it where they ain't," and we can all recognize when a guy just has no plan, a major hitch in his swing and only a prayer and a superstition going for him.

This is the toughest call of all for a coach. Drop him in the order? Sit him a game? Have him break his way out of it with a bunt? Platoon? Beg his teammates to find him a slump buster?

Hitting is elusive. More elusive is finding the way out of a slump.

Blake Gill began his college career as a highly regarded prospect from Florida -- and with a 0-for-17 slump. It was hard not to call him Blake Nil.

Gill recovered to finish that 2002 season hitting a respectable .292. With only six more hits, he would have been at .327, right on the heels of teammate Aaron Hill, who hit .329.

Gill's 0-for-17 was magnified because of where it fell -- at the start of a season, at the start of his college career. Tucked inside the middle of the season somewhere, it would have been an easier pill to swallow.

I mentioned Hill. He broke out of a career-worst 0-for-25 slump with a home run Sunday in the Toronto Blue Jays' 4-0 victory against the Kansas City Royals. He was Aaron Nil.

Manager Cito Gaston didn't panic, and now Hill seems to be back on track.

Leon Landry started this season red-hot, cooled off, had a monster game at the end of the regular season at Mississippi State, and is biding his time, waiting for his chance. Just wait.

Lineup chemistry is another elusive thing for coaches. Lefty-righty, hot hand vs. the guy who's due, nurturing confidence vs. rewarding performance, and on and on.

Bertman used to say he wanted to have his lineup set by April 15, tax day. Do you remember what happened April 15? Nicholls State used eight pitchers to defeat LSU 3-1.

That taxed a friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous for the purposes of this discussion. He wrote me to say, "A team that loses to Nicholls is not going to Omaha."

The Tigers further fanned the flames by losing two of their next three games at home against Tennessee, which was the last-place team in the SEC with a 2-13 record entering the weekend. Several role players had started for LSU in the Nicholls game, and the lingering question was why Mainieri wasn't serious about having a consistent lineup.

Then, after the Tennessee series he put Austin Nola at shortstop and moved D.J. LeMahieu to second base, and other pieces starting falling into place. LSU is 23-4 since then.

The doctor says bookmark this one. Your blood pressure will thank you in some future season.

History has a way of repeating itself.

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Carl Dubois is a Baton Rouge-based freelance writer who has covered LSU sports since 1999. He wrote this column after blogging about how easily statistics can be misunderstood and misstated. He didn't say it in these exact words in the column, but LSU is going to Omaha. He was pretty sure you already knew that. You can contact him by writing carl1061 'at' gmail.com.