re: Fired up the Tigers won......but

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Its not that our players aren't talented, it isn't that they aren't playing hard.

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Oh, so you're the guy who sits next to the radar gun guy with the "play hard" measuring stick? I thought so.

Tigercat, I agree with you. I apologize for the criticism however they weren't always getting mowed down by lefties (not exactly sure but I thought much of the game was by rhp off the top of my head).

Regardless I had complete confidence in the pitching staff and PM and felt we would come out of the losers bracket if need be. I just didn't want to take a chance of wasting such a great pitching outing.


Defense wins championships...and we have that. Skip started out that way but we didn't start dominating till we played gorilla ball. I know the bats have changed since then so it's different.

+1 Doc

Yeah, how right on to compare a baseball team to a football team. I don't get the whole "underachieving thing" either. I swear...sometimes I wish we would have just stayed on par with the 6-11-1 SEC record we had last year through April. That 23 game win streak (that we'll never see again) did nothing but make people think that this year's squad is a group of half-arse under-performing brats. Forget 9/10 SEC baseball series, an SEC tourney c'ship, and a losing streak of no more than 2 games. Without 24 in a row, there is nothing good to speak of in '09.


This team, in all seriousness, has come so far. Last year was a fluke and was a team getting the 4 leaf treatment every day. Did any of you see that team in Omaha and how average they looked when in the face of a REALLY good team and not UNO or Southern Miss or mid grade SEC teams? Has anyone not noticed how much better we are a year later - despite not winning 23 in a row? I don't get it...I don't get why some of you fail to see how good we have it. This regional is much tougher than last year.

And the '07 football team...lucky as hell, but they were also good as hell. That's the only similarity I can find between '07 football and '09 baseball.

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(that we'll never see again)

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NEGATIGER!!!

Fresno def threw a wrench into the machine

I think the CWS format, from regional to final game, is great...still, I do not think it is precisely indicative of who is the best team. The only years in recent memory where I feel the best team won the CWS were:

'91 LSU
'95 CSF
'97 LSU
'00 LSU
'01 Miami
'04 CSF
'05 Texas

I feel that the 2/3 c'ship game format would possibly have allowed more of the favorites to win as opposed to being upset (and Warren Morris's homer would mean a lot less under such). I'm not sure what the perfect format is, but rarely do the best teams win the whole enchilada.

FWIW, the teams that I selected above may or may not have been #1 overall seeds...just teams who I feel, looking back, were the best teams coming into Omaha. Last year, #4 Fresno State was certainly not that team. Oh well. I don't really have a solution. I'm merely pointing out that the playoffs - in any sport - are as flawed as a BCS scenario. Just look at the lack of science that is involved in selecting the freaking teams for each regional.

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So, was Fresno State the best team last year? Really?

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they were the hottest team, not the best.

You make it sound like winning an NC with great pitching and average hitting is somehow wrong. Will they give us a different trophy or have an asterisk next to our name because we can't hit lefties?

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I can understand some concerns

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After 64 games, we should all know what we got. Our offense has been streaky all year. And we're not likely to start hitting lefties all of a sudden. It is what it is this year.

I know it's different to see an LSU team with streaky, inconsistent hitting and great pitching, but it'll be good enough to get us to Omaha.

I agree with many of your points. Unlike some of our classier posters, I won't call you a retard or "a fan of some sort" just because you aren't high as a kite that we beat Baylor in 10 innings. A lot of the white knights here forget that having reasoned, well thought and legitimate concerns isn't a reason to be dog-piled.

We are a great team and we can certainly make a lot of noise this year; winning the national championship would not be a surprise. And baseball is a funny sport - thats why we can win the SEC regular season and tourny, yet have our only season series losses to Tennessee and Illinois. Thats the ups and downs that come with the game.

But we are by no means flawless, and we have been susceptible to having flat or straight out dead bats at crucial times in games all year. When our bats are on, we're tough to beat; but what team can't say that? So we'll have to win with more small ball and our proven defense and pitching. Its not sexy, but its effective. And you'll generally win ugly, but you'll win.

I'm rambling now, but I just wanted to express my displeasure with the wolf packing that was going on. People here need to learn the difference between civil discourse and negatigers.