Win, lose or rain
I am a lifelong fan of baseball. It was the only sport that I might have had a bit more talent than my brother, Ernest, who was a superb athlete in any sport he played.
I avidly followed major league baseball as a kid, listening to the Cubs on clear channel radio station WLS in Chicago. When the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, I was hooked for life. When Mary Lou and I retired and moved to Auburn seven years ago, we added college baseball to our list of things to follow. We have not been disappointed.
We are now in the middle of the NCAA College Baseball Playoffs. Since 1999, 64 teams have been selected to make a run for the eight spots at College World Series held each year in Omaha, Nebraska.
Once the 64 teams are selected, they are divided into 16 Regional Double Elimination Playoffs. Teams in the south were well represented with regional playoffs being held at Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas, Texas A&M, Southern Miss, and North Carolina.
The Regionals were completed on Monday. For the first time ever the number one seed, which happens to be UCLA, was eliminated and will not be playing in the Super Regionals. For the second year in a row, zero teams from the previous year’s College World Series bracket made it to the Super Regional Round.
I watched the entire Regional Series held in Auburn, with Milwaukee, NC State, and Central Florida joining the number one seed, Auburn, in a double elimination format. I can honestly say it was one of the strangest baseball events I have ever attended.
Auburn was upset by Milwaukee on Friday by a score of 13 to 8. Milwaukee scored 4 runs in the first 16 pitches and led the entire game. The lost left Auburn in the difficult position of having to play through the loser’ s bracket to remain in contention for the Super Regionals.
Saturday’s game, against NC State, resulted in a hard-fought victory for the Tigers with a score of 17 to 13. Auburn’s pitching staff, ranked #1 in the country, gave up 26 runs in the first two games. There were several rain and lightning delays on both Friday and Saturday.
Sunday was a day I will never forget when it comes to baseball. The first game, scheduled for 2:00 p.m., was five hours late in starting due to rain and lightning. Auburn won the first game, which did not end until just after 9 p.m. The second game, against Milwaukee again, did not start for an hour later.
Auburn had a strong win by a score of 8 to 1. I left the ball park after 1:00 a.m. I had been at the ballpark for 11 hours.
Auburn and Milwaukee had to play for a third time on Monday, with a game scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Thanks to yet another storm front, the game start was delayed for three hours, in what must have been the 10th delay of the weekend. Auburn won again, securing a place in the Super Regionals by the most difficult path possible. I left the ballpark just before midnight.
Despite all the waiting around, it was a great series of games for someone who loves baseball. Auburn’s pitching staff, which got knocked around in the first two games, only allowed seven runs in the last three games. Beer prices were reduced to $2.50 each and hot dogs fell all the way to $1.25 to entice the fans to remain in the stadium during the delays. That probably made for additional indigestion before it was all over.
Patience is not normally a well-known virtue for baseball fans. In this case, thousands of fans waited it out in the worst of circumstances to see their team fight for a chance to just keep playing.
The legendary Casey Stengel once said “there are three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose, or it can rain. For this memorable weekend of baseball, we proved him right on all three counts.
o0o
Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]