Here's somewhat of an abbreviated musings this morning, as today will be a busy press conference day at Swayze Field. Each team will practice in Oxford and talk to the media following those practices.
I know there's been much discussion about the difficulty of Ole Miss' regional compared to other host sites, and there's certainly some validity to that since the Rebels have to deal with Washington -- one of the top two seeds in the tournament, though the No. 24 RPI makes the Huskies a middle two seed. That's the one area I think Ole Miss can feel slighted. The Rebels have appeared to catch somewhat of a break as Washington is throwing Tyler Davis in the opener, according to the Georgia Tech notes. He's 10-2 with a 1.75 ERA. It has to be the best collection of Saturday starters in any regional around the country. Davis has thrown on Saturdays during the season.
The other two reasons for irritation I don't buy into as much. In some ways having a really good three seed isn't the worst thing. It keeps Washington honest on the first day, and if you take care of business, you just have to win three games in three days. You have to beat one of them on Saturday and one of them again on Sunday. You're not playing both at the same time. And the four seed thing is probably frustrating because Jackson State would have been a much easier game and allowed Ole Miss to think about being creative with its pitching. However, Jacksonville State is still a four seed. You win the game and move on. The Rebels have dual aces with Chris Ellis and Christian Trent. There's not a tremendous fall off when Ole Miss hands the ball to Trent on day two.
Let's see where the Oxford Regional stacks up from an RPI difficulty standpoint. I'm removing the host RPIs because that's irrelevant to which host teams have the toughest road. I'm also removing the four seeds because the only huge disadvantage is if the four seed has a huge prospect arm to throw at the host team. Jacksonville State doesn't have that. Also, the crazy RPI differences among the four seeds distort what I'm doing. So we'll focus on the two and three seeds to gauge difficulty.
Judging by that Ole Miss has the fourth-toughest regional. Miami and Rice are tied for the toughest one. Interestingly enough, though it's seen as the easiest regional, that's a tough draw for Oklahoma State. Fullerton is hot and its head coach is back from a suspension. And Nebraska, coached by Darin Erstad, is a good club.
LSU: Houston (10) and Bryant (45) = 55
Indiana: Indiana State (22) and Stanford (44) = 66
Virginia: Arkansas (33) and Liberty (28) = 61
Miami: Texas Tech (17) and Columbia (37) = 54
Oregon State: UNLV (31) and UC Irvine (43) = 74
South Carolina: Maryland (25) and Old Dominion (35) = 60
TCU: Dallas Baptist (27) and Sam Houston State (39) = 66
Florida: Long Beach State (29) and North Carolina (41) = 70
Rice: Texas (12) and Texas A&M (42) = 54
Lafayette: MSU (30) and San Diego State (36) = 66
Louisville: Kentucky (20) and Kansas (47) = 67
Vanderbilt: Oregon (23) and Clemson (49) = 72
Ole Miss: Washington (24) and Georgia Tech (32) = 56
Cal Poly: Arizona State (40) and Pepperdine (34) = 74
Oklahoma State: Nebraska (26) and Cal State Fullerton (54) = 80
Florida State: Alabama (21) and Kennesaw State (57) = 78
Here's the Baseball America regional preview
*** As many of you have seen, I was asked to be a part of Ole Miss student David Collier's documentary, "Five Outs From Omaha." I thought David did a nice job with the production, and that series loss to Virginia five years ago still seems like the one the Rebels let get away more than any other. There was the monumental bad luck with Scott Bittle getting hurt, but even so that was there for the taking.
I admire Evan Button for appearing on the documentary. That can't be easy to do even after all this time. There's no doubt his play is the one that opened the door, but it wasn't the only thing that broke it down. David Goforth walked the next batter. Best I can remember, Mike Bianco didn't come out to settle Goforth. The Rebels got a runner to third in the ninth with one out but left him stranded. Game three was a lethargic mess after an early 1-0 lead. And it gets forgotten, but a Virginia error at second base allowed Ole Miss to force extra innings in game one.
Hopefully whenever Ole Miss finally makes it to the College World Series Button will lose the Bill Buckner tag. He's handled the event as well as possible and no doubt still thinks about it often. It's one of the biggest what-ifs with a program full of them. Just how electric would Omaha have been? The opening night would have seen Ole Miss vs. LSU. Drew Pomeranz vs. Anthony Ranaudo.
*** It's crazy that it's been 10 years since Washington was last in the postseason and the hiatus has trips to Oxford on both ends. The Huskies have to believe the NCAA committee hates them.
I sat in the stands that weekend that Tulane won the Oxford Regional. I was in my last semester at ICC before transferring to Ole Miss and watched Grady Hinchman flummox the Rebels on Friday and then Washington end Ole Miss' season that Saturday morning. I had the tickets and I like baseball, so I just watched the rest of the tournament. I learned the Hullabaloo chant and sat with Tulane fans. I mean, wasn't that the no-brainer?
We'll see if it's mentioned today at the press conference, but any Washington employees who were around 10 years ago will get a surprising sight when they see the Oxford-University Stadium expansion since 2004. Washington coach Lindsay Meggs was in Oxford the year before the expansion was complete. He was the coach at Indiana State when the Sycamores played the No. 2 Rebels in 2008. Matt Smith hit a walkoff on Sunday to sweep the series. The ball hit a girl in the head in left field. She was reading and no one told her to watch out. Really weird.
LINKS
HUSKIES ARE A TAD QUIRKY
I TRY TO MAKE IT A LITTLE DUSTY EACH WEEK. HERE'S THE LATEST ONE
I'm not getting into politics here, and you can debate Edward Snowden all you want on the Square Board, but I did get a chuckle when Snowden said the second season of The Wire was "not so great." I like The Wire. It's good, it's smart and it deserves to be in the canon. However, I get annoyed by the segment of people who act like you're beneath subpar intelligence if you don't say it's the great thing that has come across television times 1,000. When I saw Snowden's remark, I knew it would ruffle feathers. And it did. I think he was trolling, and I am all about it. He came at the king and he didn't miss. But, also, I think he was just taking a shot at David Simon because there's history there.
KEEP ON RUNNING, NEAL
This post was edited on 5/29 7:35 AM by Chase Parham
I know there's been much discussion about the difficulty of Ole Miss' regional compared to other host sites, and there's certainly some validity to that since the Rebels have to deal with Washington -- one of the top two seeds in the tournament, though the No. 24 RPI makes the Huskies a middle two seed. That's the one area I think Ole Miss can feel slighted. The Rebels have appeared to catch somewhat of a break as Washington is throwing Tyler Davis in the opener, according to the Georgia Tech notes. He's 10-2 with a 1.75 ERA. It has to be the best collection of Saturday starters in any regional around the country. Davis has thrown on Saturdays during the season.
The other two reasons for irritation I don't buy into as much. In some ways having a really good three seed isn't the worst thing. It keeps Washington honest on the first day, and if you take care of business, you just have to win three games in three days. You have to beat one of them on Saturday and one of them again on Sunday. You're not playing both at the same time. And the four seed thing is probably frustrating because Jackson State would have been a much easier game and allowed Ole Miss to think about being creative with its pitching. However, Jacksonville State is still a four seed. You win the game and move on. The Rebels have dual aces with Chris Ellis and Christian Trent. There's not a tremendous fall off when Ole Miss hands the ball to Trent on day two.
Let's see where the Oxford Regional stacks up from an RPI difficulty standpoint. I'm removing the host RPIs because that's irrelevant to which host teams have the toughest road. I'm also removing the four seeds because the only huge disadvantage is if the four seed has a huge prospect arm to throw at the host team. Jacksonville State doesn't have that. Also, the crazy RPI differences among the four seeds distort what I'm doing. So we'll focus on the two and three seeds to gauge difficulty.
Judging by that Ole Miss has the fourth-toughest regional. Miami and Rice are tied for the toughest one. Interestingly enough, though it's seen as the easiest regional, that's a tough draw for Oklahoma State. Fullerton is hot and its head coach is back from a suspension. And Nebraska, coached by Darin Erstad, is a good club.
LSU: Houston (10) and Bryant (45) = 55
Indiana: Indiana State (22) and Stanford (44) = 66
Virginia: Arkansas (33) and Liberty (28) = 61
Miami: Texas Tech (17) and Columbia (37) = 54
Oregon State: UNLV (31) and UC Irvine (43) = 74
South Carolina: Maryland (25) and Old Dominion (35) = 60
TCU: Dallas Baptist (27) and Sam Houston State (39) = 66
Florida: Long Beach State (29) and North Carolina (41) = 70
Rice: Texas (12) and Texas A&M (42) = 54
Lafayette: MSU (30) and San Diego State (36) = 66
Louisville: Kentucky (20) and Kansas (47) = 67
Vanderbilt: Oregon (23) and Clemson (49) = 72
Ole Miss: Washington (24) and Georgia Tech (32) = 56
Cal Poly: Arizona State (40) and Pepperdine (34) = 74
Oklahoma State: Nebraska (26) and Cal State Fullerton (54) = 80
Florida State: Alabama (21) and Kennesaw State (57) = 78
Here's the Baseball America regional preview
*** As many of you have seen, I was asked to be a part of Ole Miss student David Collier's documentary, "Five Outs From Omaha." I thought David did a nice job with the production, and that series loss to Virginia five years ago still seems like the one the Rebels let get away more than any other. There was the monumental bad luck with Scott Bittle getting hurt, but even so that was there for the taking.
I admire Evan Button for appearing on the documentary. That can't be easy to do even after all this time. There's no doubt his play is the one that opened the door, but it wasn't the only thing that broke it down. David Goforth walked the next batter. Best I can remember, Mike Bianco didn't come out to settle Goforth. The Rebels got a runner to third in the ninth with one out but left him stranded. Game three was a lethargic mess after an early 1-0 lead. And it gets forgotten, but a Virginia error at second base allowed Ole Miss to force extra innings in game one.
Hopefully whenever Ole Miss finally makes it to the College World Series Button will lose the Bill Buckner tag. He's handled the event as well as possible and no doubt still thinks about it often. It's one of the biggest what-ifs with a program full of them. Just how electric would Omaha have been? The opening night would have seen Ole Miss vs. LSU. Drew Pomeranz vs. Anthony Ranaudo.
*** It's crazy that it's been 10 years since Washington was last in the postseason and the hiatus has trips to Oxford on both ends. The Huskies have to believe the NCAA committee hates them.
I sat in the stands that weekend that Tulane won the Oxford Regional. I was in my last semester at ICC before transferring to Ole Miss and watched Grady Hinchman flummox the Rebels on Friday and then Washington end Ole Miss' season that Saturday morning. I had the tickets and I like baseball, so I just watched the rest of the tournament. I learned the Hullabaloo chant and sat with Tulane fans. I mean, wasn't that the no-brainer?
We'll see if it's mentioned today at the press conference, but any Washington employees who were around 10 years ago will get a surprising sight when they see the Oxford-University Stadium expansion since 2004. Washington coach Lindsay Meggs was in Oxford the year before the expansion was complete. He was the coach at Indiana State when the Sycamores played the No. 2 Rebels in 2008. Matt Smith hit a walkoff on Sunday to sweep the series. The ball hit a girl in the head in left field. She was reading and no one told her to watch out. Really weird.
LINKS
HUSKIES ARE A TAD QUIRKY
I TRY TO MAKE IT A LITTLE DUSTY EACH WEEK. HERE'S THE LATEST ONE
I'm not getting into politics here, and you can debate Edward Snowden all you want on the Square Board, but I did get a chuckle when Snowden said the second season of The Wire was "not so great." I like The Wire. It's good, it's smart and it deserves to be in the canon. However, I get annoyed by the segment of people who act like you're beneath subpar intelligence if you don't say it's the great thing that has come across television times 1,000. When I saw Snowden's remark, I knew it would ruffle feathers. And it did. I think he was trolling, and I am all about it. He came at the king and he didn't miss. But, also, I think he was just taking a shot at David Simon because there's history there.
KEEP ON RUNNING, NEAL
This post was edited on 5/29 7:35 AM by Chase Parham
