Dores against those Bruins

Tomorrow, Belmont will face Vanderbilt in baseball and my loyalties will be torn.

I went to Vanderbilt as a wee lad back in the day and adopted all of their sports teams because I was a fan and that’s what you do for your school. I went to the popular sporting events like football and men’s basketball but also enjoyed going to some of the other sports, especially baseball.

Baseball was my first love growing up and I continued this interest in college, accept many of my fellow Commodores didn’t share this interest. I remember heading to Vanderbilt games back in 2000 and 2001 and just walking in with my free student tickets. I literally remember seeing games against LSU and Alabama when both teams were ranked in the top-10 and seeing only about 75 people in the stands. No one cared about Vanderbilt baseball because honestly they weren’t that good. How things have changed…

The Dores hire arguably the best coach in the game in Tim Corbin, renovated the dump that was Hawkins field, increase commitment to the program, recruit top-tier talent and now they have one of the top programs in the country.

Interest in college baseball has increased over the years as well. There was a time that the only games that you would see on TV would be the finals of the College World Series on CBS. I know you old heads remember those times. Now, with the increase of cable coverage and a good amount of top players actually going to college, the attention has gotten bigger. Also the emergence of teams like Vandy, Rice, North Carolina, Michigan and even Oregon State has made the top teams consist of just of warm southern and west coast teams.

Anyway, back to the game tomorrow. It was making me laugh when a few weeks ago people were saying that Vandy was having a down year when they were a few games below .500 in the SEC and was like 21-10 overall. If that was a down year when I was an undergrad, I would have been estatic. Now that most of the guys are healthy and rounding into form, they are looking like a College World Series threat.

I’ve also grown fond of Belmont because, one I’m a student and have adopted all of the teams once again, but I also work for the school. I always want Belmont to win all of their games, but my position consists of not cheering for any team and making sure that the game is operated impartially. Tomorrow, I serve as the official scorer and have to be fair to both teams.

So who will I cheer for? Both teams honestly need the game and don’t need the game. Belmont would love to beat a ranked team at home, especially because they don’t play many ranked teams and a win would be good exposure, but its also a mid-week game. The coaches approach these games differently. You will see a lot more bench players and relief pitchers. Honestly, I think it would be better for the team to lose tomorrow and then sweep USC Upstate over the weekend because that would be more beneficial.

Vandy is in the same boat and doesn’t want a loss to hurt their RPI because a loss to Belmont would be bad. Also, these guys know each other and want to beat each other for pride more than anything else.

I guess if I had to choose one, I would go with Belmont because I still owe Vandy some money and I don’t owe Belmont anything…wait, I’m receiving financial aid so now I owe Belmont money too.

Well, I’ll just have to hope for a good, clean game…go Bruins!