re: Am I the only one that thinks college baseball ain't what it was!!

You are not alone

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No steroids = no gorilla ball = no fun.

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I agree. Baseball as it is, is a very very boring sport. And I'm not sure why those baseball "purists" are so hell bent on making the college game so similar to the majors.... I mean isn't that what minor league baseball is for??

The truth of the matter is that to the average fan and to 75% of people that attend games, the excitement and energy around the game back in the gorilla ball days was much more intriguing. The college game needs that.

I haven't paid real close attention to LSU baseball in years. Mostly because of the clown we have as coach, but also because it just seems that they took the game way too far to the boring side.

These arguments around pitching are ridiculous. Good scouts and good coaches can surely evaluate pitchers just as well now as they could back then.

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This was supposed to be another epic season with so many returning studs. I swear CPM could mess up anything.

Meanwhile, Coach Andy Cannizaro takes a rebuilding year at MSU (where 6 pitchers were lost to surgery) and has them with an equal record.

LSU should not be about tweaking and tinkering lineups, LSU should be about fired up excitement and motivation. We simply have the wrong coach.

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The most hypocritical statements on the rant are the ones where they are trying to evaluate a team halfway through conference play. The same ones complaining are the same ones that have complained that CPM can win in the regular season but doesn't get it done in the post season. Like how he has done in the post season or not the man has earned the benefit of the doubt that he knows how to have a team as a top 8 national seed by the end of May. Since you can't win a NC during the regular season setting yourself up for the best possible run in post season is the best you can hope for as a fan during the regular season. I'm ok with expectations changing and even some of the criticism after that point.

Just because the rest of the country has caught up with LSU baseball doesn't mean it's not fun anymore.

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yes, you're the only one

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no he's not.

Baseball, by its very nature, is a slow game, usually with little real action. A whole lot (a WHOLE LOT) of standing around where nothing happens.

So I fully admit I'm not a baseball fan. But even I loved watching college baseball 10 years ago when there was much more offense. No lead was safe. And that was fun and made the game more dramatic. So college baseball brought me in.....and then shut me out when they changed the bats and balls.

Now I don't want it to get ridiculous, and I'm not advocating for average scores of 20-18. But a 10-8 game is a hell of a lot more exciting that a 2-1 game. That's a yawner. "Pitchers' duel?" That just means nothing happens. An entire season of pitchers' duels will drive away all but the hardest-of-the-hardcore fans.

The game itself is dying a slow death, as youth participation is way down and the demographics of TV viewers (at least for MLB) skews largely to older folks. When they die off, there won't be many young folks to take their place.

But even I have to admit that I could watch the college game years ago with the different bats and balls. But now -- it's really hard to watch.

And no, I'm not alone.

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LSU scored 15 runs Thursday night and deichmann hit a grand slam 6000 feet.

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RT just to make sure OP sees this comment.

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RT just to make sure OP sees this comment.

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Kind of the exception that proves the rule, huh?

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It is funny to go back and watch some videos of those teams. Pretty dramatic differences in how the players looked.

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It also helped that you could stockpile your team with about 40-50 players so you were able to go get those big hulks that couldn't move very well but could develop on the bench and hit the ball 500 feet two to three times over a weekend series by the time they were done. These days with limited roster space and scholarships restrictions it's all about finding versatile players who can play a couple of different positions. This tends to lead to the smaller athletic guys. Look at even the big guys on LSU's team (Deichmann, Slaughter, Pap) they are pretty athletic guys.

Most college baseball fans feel that the straw that broke the camel's back with regards to gorilla ball was in a NC game one year, when both teams had run out of pitching, USCw won by a score of 20+ to 13 or so. With multiple HR's by both teams. The fact that LSU has the record for most HR's in a season at 180 says how out of whack hitting had gotten. Brandon Larson once hit 40 HR's and came in second.