How Great is College Baseball

You live and you learn. That’s how the old adage goes right? Well, baseball is funny that way too. As I’ve aged, the way I approach and look at the game has changed, and I think for the better. As a young kid playing America’s pastime, whether it be throwing that green felt tennis ball around in the backyard with your older brother, running the bases after your dad’s park league softball games, or even hitting that ball through your mom’s kitchen window after she told you not to play in the house numerous times, we watch major leaguers on TV and expect that they play the game the right way.
I can remember watching Dodger games on Prime Ticket, which was then bought by Fox Sports (thanks for those five great years of terrible losing and even worse free agent signings; Murdoch, Malone, et. al.), only to now be renamed Fox Sports West Prime Ticket. What my young impressionable mind saw on TV is what I expected great baseball to be. The onus lies on home runs, strikeouts, and manager’s arguing to entertain us, the fan. What we fail to realize though at such a young age, and what our parents neglect to tell us, thanks dad, is that Major League Baseball is a business, in which it relies on its millions of fans worldwide to survive. I bring this up because over the past five years, I have been fortunate enough to witness some truly great baseball. And I’m not referring to that billion dollar business.
College baseball is a business too. A much different business though. Multi-billion dollar TV deals with media conglomerates like ABC, CBS, and FOX bring in much of the revenue for NCAA and its President Dr. Myles Brand. I feel that because of this, college baseball is much less exposed to the nation than other amateur sports of equal national importance. Which makes sense, right? Who does the average sports fan care about more: Some pitcher from the University of Miami who might make it to the big leagues in five years, or the All-American running back that could be available late in round four of next years fantasy football draft? I’d take Adrian Peterson in the third though. I digress…
Usually the only college baseball that people see is in late spring when ESPN decides to jump on the bandwagon and flex their muscle by showing the super-regional tournaments and every College World Series game. And if you have been watching, these games have been highly competitive and entertaining with everything from 2-1 pitching duels to outright slugfests.
College baseball is pure. Where players don’t hesitate to hit a ground ball to the right side with a runner on second and give themselves up even if their batting average might drop five points. Where bunt defenses are of the utmost importance and you can see a starting shortstop come in to save the same game in the bottom of the ninth. Where players aren’t motivated by a future filled with Escalades, iced-out necklaces, and appearances on MTV cribs.
If I sound bias, it’s because I am. Three players in this years College World Series have been on the same field as me at one time or another. Year after year I see people who I grew up with playing on ESPN and finally getting the attention they deserve. Do yourself a favor and try to catch a game or two over the next two weeks. You will see how the game is supposed to be played.