June 6, 2025 • 44 mins
On this episode of the Dougout, Doug goes solo for a full breakdown of the wild ride that is the College Baseball postseason.
He covers what stood out in Regionals and how he'd handle the reseeding issues in the bracket, the antics, controversies, and the chaotic energy in college baseball, and previews the Super Regionals.
Doug also gives his take on the Kevin O'Sullivan drama, Brian O'Connor's surprising move to Mississippi State, and final thoughts on NIL, NCAA decision-making, and Kim Ng's new softball league.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's up, everybody. Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm
your host, Doug man Kabage. This episode, we're going to
touch on a lot of college athletics, college baseball, college softball,
regional breakdowns, super regional matchups, coaches getting salty, sec kind
of humbled a little bit. Should the NCAAA recede to me?
(00:31):
I think it's a most definite. We'll get into that.
We'll go over the super regional matchups. We'll go over
some umpiring, some the antics in college baseball which have
gotten out of hand. We'll also touch on some rules
that go into the game of baseball and softball that
are changing the outcomes of games. Which is, if you
(00:51):
ask any official in any sport, the last thing they
want to do is change the outcome of the game,
and it's not their fault. So with that being said,
we'll go into the regional breakdown. Okay, what it's the
best week in sports If you're a college baseball fan,
It's like Bowl week in football. Regionals. You get to
see a lot of teams that you probably never heard
(01:13):
of and don't think they're very good, but I think
the world got to see how good they really are
this year, and they have been coming for years and
now they're starting. Every year you get a couple guys,
a couple of teams that sneak up and might bite
a one seed. Some one seeds, actually the number one
overall seed should have got swept in their own regional
(01:34):
we're talking about. Vanderbilt was Wright States stud starter, they're
number one, had a no hitter going through six seventy
eight eighty pitches. Must have went to the Kevin Cash
Tampa Bay Ray School of Managing. For some strange reason,
they pulled him and Vandy came back and won that game.
(01:54):
But you know, hats off to hats off to that
club going up against the number one seed in the
entire in the entire country, in the entire bracket and
goes head to head with them. It reiterates my point
just because you never heard of them does not mean
that they can play. A lot of these mid majors
(02:16):
are really, really, really good players. We've talked about this
previously on other episodes about how good uh some of
these you know, maybe not so household names are our
good are good players. I think the SEC took it
on the chin a little bit where they have sixteen
would they have thirteen teams? Make it? And a lot
(02:36):
of them are going home? Vandy going home, Texas going home?
Who else you know you had? Georgia, Old miss Florida, Kentucky,
Mississippi State, Vandy, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama going home. Now. I
don't get me wrong, I'm not stupid. The last five
(02:57):
national champs have all been SEC teams. I am not
saying they are not they don't have elite teams. Yes
they do, they have elite teams. That being said, I
don't want to hear anyone ever again tell me that
winning the SEC is harder than winning the national championship.
Stop it, especially coming from coaches that never won it.
(03:17):
So if that's the case, then I'm not saying again,
if you finished five hundred in your conference, you should
not go to the dance. You should not. Obviously, injuries
take in consideration. I know Florida had a ton of them.
And what Selly has done the last two years with
teams that I don't think when he broke the season start.
(03:40):
When the season started, I don't think that was a
club he thought he was gonna have. He's done a
fantastic job getting that team to where they were and
they ended up making it to OMAL last year. So
but all these things consider, FGCU is a great example.
FGCU should have been in and they got left out
because of you know, I'm I'm over the Georgia thing.
(04:02):
Georgia hosts more than a lot of teams and they
never make it out. And we're gonna touch on that
later too. But ACC took some lumps too. You know,
you'd like to see Miami back. That's awesome. Good for JD.
I always taking a lot of heat down in South Florida.
That's gonna be an intriguing matchup. It ties into receding
(04:24):
after the regionals. If you look at some of these
matchups in the supers, I don't think anybody I think
you look at Tennessee going to Arkansas to have one
of those teams have to go home. I know that's
part of it, don't get me wrong, But Murray State's
going to Duke, Florida State has to go out to
Oregon State, which is a tough place to tough place
(04:47):
to play, tough place to win. If you reced this,
you can't tell me that Tennessee would match up against
Arkansas it's intriguing, it's gonna be musty TV for sure.
All these are gonna be good games. Don't get me wrong,
But there's no reason why Duke should be hosting a regional.
There's no reason why Louisville should be hosting a region
(05:07):
a super regional. Excuse me. You know Coastal Carolina, Well,
watch out. They can flat out hit, they can flat
out play, and they're coached by coach very well, and
that ties into our You know, some coaches are salty.
We already mentioned Sally from Florida. Man oh, man o man.
(05:30):
And look, it's really easy to sit out here from
the outside and whether it's me a fan of either team,
a fan of college baseball, until you've been in those shoes,
I don't think you realize. I don't say the word pressure,
but you have a lot of things going on. You've
got to make sure that bus times are right, kids
(05:52):
are fed at the right time. There's a lot of
stuff that goes on. Let alone the game and you're
playing for your life an elimination game. That being said,
you cannot be rate associate athletic directors. You can't berate
the field stuff. No one works harder in the game
of baseball than the people that get the field ready
(06:13):
for these games. They work long hours. They work a
lot longer hours than you do. They have more responsibility
to make sure the field is safe, especially in a
regional you've got player safety, all that going on. If
you've seen the video, and I I'm sure you have,
if you've been on social media, he went off. He
(06:36):
went off on everybody. And if it's behind, I didn't
really have I didn't like what was said, but I
didn't I understood when they were behind. There's one video
of them like in the back where it's like down
the left field line and it's off the field. That's
bad enough. If you want to pull them aside and
talk to him. Absolutely. The one I had an issue
(06:56):
with was on the field. He did it in the
front of his dugout, in front of his players. Look,
baseball players, we adjust on the fly. We have rain delays,
lights go out, lightning, you know, lightning stops. We're used
to being Yeah, sure, we want to know what time
the game starts with starting pitching and all that other stuff,
(07:18):
But as far as having an adjustment by an hour,
especially and like you just got done playing a conference tournament.
You don't know when your game starts. You have an idea,
but what if the game before you goes longer? You
have to wait. So you tell your kids to be composed.
You tell your kids to we adjust, We work accordingly
(07:39):
to what we were given. You always talk about baseball
lives in the world of control, the things you can control,
and then there you are berating, dropping f bombs in
front of your team about a time change within an hour,
and that's just you know, then you can't turn around
and now you're a hypocrite if you tell your guy
you've got to compose yourself. So it just looked like
(08:03):
he was aspiring out of control, and kudos to the
Coastal Carolina coach for calling it out. Good for him
his team. If you want to watch a team that
does it right, there's not a lot of antics. They
just play. There's passion, there's enthusiasm, but it's it's respectful
(08:23):
and look you're talking to I was extremely passionate when
I played, especially college. I loved I loved the garment
and gold I still do. I absolutely honored to wear
that uniform and I wanted nothing more than I bring
coach Martin a national championship, and I was gonna do
whatever I could do to get it there. But that
being said, Coach Martin was always about by you can
(08:46):
cheer as loud as you want for us, just stay
off them. And yes he had his moments where he
cut us loose within a reason. No, we played Florida,
we played Clemson on the road. It was do what
we gotta do, boys, and I'm all for that. But
some of these antics are getting out of control. I've
(09:09):
said this for years. When the game stopped being able
to police itself, these issues have arose. You have to
fool you got drilled, and you wouldn't do it very
often if you had to fool the guy behind you
got drilled too, so or if you didn't like getting drilled,
you went and took the short stop out. Then we
can't do that either. So we'll tie in. We'll get
(09:29):
into that more as we get going. Moving on receding,
receding after the regionals are over. I get why it's
a pain in the butt. I get it. Reshuffle on
the deck. You're gonna have the same issues of the
people that were voting on in the first place. When
they voted how many SEC teams as host regionals? And
(09:50):
I get why they do. I mean, they packed the stands,
they get people, increased revenue. I'm all for it. I
understand that great venues all across the SEC awesome. I'm
all for it. But if that's gonna be the case,
I would rather have that. Then we have Murray State
(10:11):
going to Duke. There might be fifty one people at
that game. I'm sure there's gonna be more. I'm sure
there's fifty one family members, but let's be honest, like
they're not gonna be They're not gonna pack it like
say Tennessee Wood or Arkansas Wood or Florida State would
I mean, hell, this is kind of an off topic,
but I thought it was extremely comical that a Mississippi
(10:34):
State fan we're complaining about how loud Tellahassee was Mike, Hey,
wait what Dudy Noble used to kick the chain link
fence for years? That's about as crazy as it get.
They don't call you start Vegas because you're quiet, like
hey and James Tibbs, credit, buddy, you said it best.
If you don't like how loud the visiting stadium is,
(10:56):
be good enough to host, you don't have to worry
about the noise. So and that's the one thing. And
I'm not a homer by any searching the imagination, but
I will give the animals of Flora State and Tallahassee
and Florida State fans. They're not rude. They're loud, they're respectful.
The other team makes a great play, other team has
a great pitching performance. They actually cheer sometimes for homers
(11:19):
for the other team. They like baseball, they cheer for
their guys. They're loud, absolutely, but they're respectful. You can't
say that in a lot of other places. I've been
to a lot of them, and that's not the case.
So all right, reseeding, it's just going to be another
sec fest. But if you're you know you've eight nine
(11:41):
and even receding going into Omaha. Take last year for example,
I thought Florida State was the second best team out there.
And I said it before Omaha started. Last year, I
said Game one was Tennessee versus Florida State. The winner
of that was gonna win the national championship, and Tennessee
end up winning. Don't get me started on the check swing.
(12:02):
But that's the case. And like that should have been
reseeded also, And you have so many teams on one
conference on one bracket on one side and on the other.
There's a way to make it better. And I think
that's what we do it in every other aspect of
sports and everything else we try to do in the world,
is to make it better. Is it always going to
(12:23):
be perfect? Absolutely not. But I don't think it takes
too much to recede after each round. It doesn't. This
is not the basketball tournament. You get no benefit. You're
playing at neutral sites. There's no benefit. Maybe locally you
get a closer venue, but you don't get it in
your backyard. Baseball you earn your site throughout the course
(12:46):
of the season, not because what conference you're play in. Obviously,
travel should be involved too. I mean Florid State having
to go three thousand miles across the country. It just
doesn't seem right to be one one spot shy of
hosted a super and that goes for wherever, who goes where,
(13:07):
And I know baseball tries to do it regionally. They
try to keep guys close, and I understand that that
makes sense because we're not football. We don't have the
revenues that that the football or basketball teams do. Some
of the schools, I mean, I'm sure some of these
schools that I've mentioned, you know the you know the
Utah Valleys who had an upset in their regional uts,
(13:30):
a little rock U see Upstate. Like those teams, they
don't have the funds that that that a lot of
clubs have a lot of a lot of universities have,
so that if you're sending them across the country, even
Florida State, that's a that's a tough one for the
athletic department to fly those guys across the country. So
I just feel like resetting is the right way to
do it. Will it be perfect, No, but it'll be
(13:53):
better than what we have right now. I don't like.
I don't like they do it in the regionals where
they haven't asked team and the usually an ACC team,
whether it's the ACC is a one seed and the
SEC is a two seed or vice versa. You have
an SEC one, you have an ACC two. I don't
like having ACC or SEC matchups to get to Omaha.
(14:16):
I just don't think that's the way it should break down.
I would like, if you can't avoid it. Obviously, you
get to the final four in Omaha, it is what
it is. But to have two conferences that, let's be honest,
they're the best two conferences in the sport. They should
not be playing each other inside conference to get there.
(14:38):
That's just my take on it. I just think there's
a better way to go about it than in the
way that they are doing it. Now, all right, we're
gonna move on to the antics in college baseball. Here
we go and say, old hat or whatever you want
to call me. Look, I'm all for individualism, I'm all
for being a little different. But let's take for example, Okay,
(15:00):
the Mississippi State Florida State regional game. From what I gathered,
the NCAA reached out to all the head coaches and
said antics will not be tolerated. Okay, I have a
problem with that. Number One, If you're gonna wait till
the regionals to police it, you've waited too long. You
can't just change the rules as we go. All right, Yes,
(15:21):
you can send out a memo, but if you're gonna
police it in May and June, you better police it
from April so the guys can get used to it.
What's too much and what's not enough. We had a
pitcher from Mississippi State and I'm all for For example,
Florida State, Jamie Arnold comes off the mound after his
(15:43):
last pitch, after his pitch there for three years, and
he looks towards his dugout and screams some stuff. Whether
it's two as the hitter or whatever. He didn't look
at the hitter, he didn't look at the other dugout,
and he just walked off towards his was emotional. I
have no problem with that, and I don't think anybody
would have problem with that. The Mississippi State kid punches
(16:06):
a guy out and he looks right at the hitter
and looks the dugout. Well. Link Jared is the head
coach at Florida State, played with Link, one of the
best college coaches in the last twenty years, one of
the best college shortstops in the history of the game.
(16:28):
Link's very he's he's very good at what he does.
He's very calm. He stays under control. To see Link
lose it, you can see I'm gonna go on Link,
I'm gonna be on onside Link. Obviously he's like a brother,
but the same token. Whenever you see someone that's always
calm in every situation lose it. He has a point,
(16:53):
and I haven't talked to him, but I can I
can assume that this is something that he's Link is
an attention to detail freak when it comes. Everything has
a time, everything has a place, everything has a purpose.
So you send Link something that might seem like nothing,
He's going to read it, dissect it, apply it. They
(17:14):
must have said we're not going to tolerate taunting antics.
Whatever it is. Well, Link goes out there and gets ejected,
which again the guy or the umpire ejected. I think
the Northeastern coach the game before the elimination game. Before that,
Mississippi State played with Northeastern to play Florida State in
(17:35):
the championship round in the regional. So if you're going
to send a memo, you have to do it. And
I look, I'm all for the umpires giving them kids
some leeway in regional games because they played their whole season.
Every college baseball's dream players dream is to get to
oma or win it, win it and get to Omah.
(17:56):
It's special's there's no you can't put it into words
what it like to get out there and play in
those games. So they're doing everything it possibly can to
get there leeway. Well, the kid crosses the line, which
again I wouldn't like it, but I've seen worse. But
obviously there was a point making point told to say
(18:18):
this is not gonna be tolerated. So then they tolerated.
So Link gets ejected. Our guy Mendez goes out there,
and we've all seen it on social media. He said
some things that probably you know, I don't know. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say, I'm I'm sure I have as a
player at some point not gonna be a pot called
(18:38):
kettle black. But if this is if Link got this message,
he told his players this, and yes, emotions sometimes get
the best of you. Whatever. But now the umpire's hands
are tied because if he didn't eject the Mississippi State guy,
he can't inject the Floor State kid. Can't. You can't,
can't throw out Mendez. This is how it gets out
of control. We have so many little tick tack rules
(19:00):
in the game. Now it's nauseating. Okay, we can't take
out the catcher. We can't slide hard in the second.
We have to slide in the second. For the most part,
we can't. We have to have two bags, which is
the dumbest damn rule I've ever seen in my entire life.
And don't give me players safety. If you're worried about
players safety, you wouldn't be throwing your bat in the
(19:22):
stands after a homer. Hell, we pimp singles. Now, stop it,
stop it, we pimp walks. What are we doing If
you want to get on first, that bad. Okay, take
one of the ribs next. But we police the wrong
crap and to boot these college coaches are allowing this.
(19:46):
Look at Georgia, this isn't Saturday night fever. Button your
jersey is unbuttoned mine, but not to the point was
disrespectful to the uniform, the club I was wearing, and
club I was playing for, and the sport itself. And
I had and I had some of these guys looking
around college baseball. I had some of these guys at eighteen.
You the USA national team. They didn't act like this.
(20:09):
They weren't like this. We had rules. You want to
wear your shirt on button, you're not gonna wear You're
not gonna wear the colors across your chest. Guess what
everyone was buttoned weird, I know, very odd, But when
you've laid parameters down, yes, I want them to be passionate. Yes,
(20:29):
I want them to play with passion, play with emotion,
under control emotion. Yes, fiery love it was that as
a player, love it. Let your play be speak so
loud for you that we don't We can't see what
you do or hear what you say. What you hit
a big double in the eighth inning that clears the
bases in a two run game, go nuts. But we're
(20:53):
hitting meaningless singles and we just can't just run it first.
And I don't don't get me on the umpires. There
got a job to do. They're being told to police
this stuff and they're putting way too much on them.
I mean, look at softball, the obstruction call it second
base in the championship game. We're changing the outcome of
games by nick knack junk that shouldn't be involved. You're
(21:16):
trying to tell me a shortstop if you don't remember,
if you haven't seen it, the softball shortstop was girl
was stealing second. The shortstop came across the second base
on the run, on the move, catching a ball in
the air while a girl is sliding. And at the
end of the day, if you go through almost everything
that's argued on social media in the world today, sports included,
(21:40):
it just takes common sense. People blocking the bag at
second base, dropping your knee down like the way they
used to. There's a big difference between a girl coming
across from her position to catch the ball and put
a tag on them. There was no malicious intent there. Oregon,
Oregon lost their best player on a slide at home plate.
Didn't like it. I thought it was a little extreme
(22:02):
to throw the guy out, but that that umpire stance.
That's the rule. But you're leaving. Here's the problem. You're leaving.
You're leaving decisions and the people that are making decisions
never played. It doesn't make any sense. The people that
are making these rules at every level have never stepped
(22:24):
on the field and don't understand how hard it is,
let alone, to officiate it or play it. And you're
changing the outcome of games by making the guys who
have enough on their plate determine what's malicious and what's not.
And to me, it's just common sense. Guy barrels, a
(22:44):
guy over, doesn't slide blocking the plate. That's one thing,
but you're sliding and you kind of pop up and
run into a guy that's not malicious. Stop, like, have
some common sense. Something's are review some things aren't. That
doesn't make sense. If you're gonna have review review everything,
(23:06):
review everything, if it can change the outcome of a game,
review everything, Why is something's not reviewable? I just feel
between everybody's gonna point their finger at Tennessee. Right, Tennessee
does this? Tennessee does that. It's everywhere. It's not just Tennessee.
It's not Tennessee. I see that. You see it all
(23:29):
over the you see it everywhere, but there's also places, Yeah, coastal.
Those guys don't act like that. Nope, Murray State didn't
see much of it. Duke, they do some stuff. The
Duke kid best player brought out a hard helmet. Umpire
ejected them, like there's enough going on to get your
(23:50):
We used to yell at them umpires, and I'm talking
about rap it, get your ears out of a dugout
the games that way. It's not over here. But you
reject the kid for bringing a hard helmet on the field,
I'm gonna go out on the limbs, say that's the First,
that's not the first time that has happened. It's not.
My point goes back to before. If you're gonna eject
the kid in June, you better eject them in April
(24:15):
or whatever it was when February March. You can't expect them.
We're creatures of habit. If something's not police, we're gonna
keep doing it. And now all of a sudden it's
against it's against the rules. We do enough wrong. There's
enough wrong from the plate all around the bases. Then
(24:35):
to eject the kid for bringing the hard hat on
the field, and he was like a step out of
the dugout, like come on, that's just goes back to
common sense. He didn't run on the field and put
it on his head as he rounded third. He was
waiting for him in the dugout. They're like, let the
kids have fun, right, that's everybody's motto, everybody, every parent.
Let the kids play well, yes, you want to, like
(24:58):
they act like we didn't have fun in the eight
in nineties and two thousands. We had fun. We had
a blast, but don't act like that's the problem with
today's game. As soon as like, for example, I saw
some on social media eleven year old kid hits a homer,
first homer. There's a runner on first run on first
runs a second and the ball goes over the fence.
(25:19):
The kid runs back. The kid that's running from first
to second runs back trying to hug the guy, and
the hitter overruns him. Guess what, kids out and I
promise you, I promise you. Their parents in this stand
is going to let the kids play. And you are
the problem. You're the problem. Kid broke a rule. I
(25:41):
don't like it. Kid it a homer. Now it's now
or single whatever. Hell that breaks down, But we're out
seen it many a time. It's a rule. The point
is it's a rule. You have to follow it. That's
just like, that's the problem these kids are. You're telling me,
if you're a parent at home and your kid doesn't
give them a midnight curfew, you comes home at three
(26:02):
in the morning, you're not gonna You're not gonna figure
out a way to discipline them. You're the problem. You're
part of it. Rules or rules are meant to be followed.
Know the rules, learn it, and act accordingly. So I
long and involved. But it's just between the two bases
(26:23):
and everybody's well the player's safety. Look, I played first
a long time. I got into maybe one or two collisions,
maybe one. We're bailing out bad players, bad plays, bad throws,
bad base running. It's like we don't want any responsibility.
We want to put it on somebody else. Like, off
of the balls in foul territory, you got to step
(26:44):
on this bag, and if the balls in fairtary, this
is your bag. This is my bag. Now when he
gets past first, Wait, what baseball has two bags at first?
Base Softball does it? And that game's fifty times faster
than baseball, Like, and all these people telling me that
fundamentals can't be taught, watch a softball game. Girls don't
(27:07):
have any time for a bobble. No bobble on the infield,
you're safe. So fundamentals are still taught, and there's still
kids out there willing to learn them, and we have
to make sure that we can continue that. Look, I'm
not a college coach yet, I'm gonna be one day,
and I get it. I'm sure all this stuff is
gonna come back at me at some point. I'm okay
with that, but we gotta do better. We gotta do
(27:30):
better and I know they're like, well we won't get
the recruits. Then, no, you have a standard set it.
Levin did it. He won a few baseball games. Coach
Martin did it. Yeah, there were moments when he had
some crazy people, right, rest in peace, Richie Lewis, we had,
we had some nut jobs. They were under control for
(27:51):
the most part. Yeah, and a lot of guys I
would call foxhole guys. Yeah, if I had, if I
needed something, if we're at war, I want these guys
with him because I know how they I know how
they act. I know how much they their brothers mean
to them. And that's what college baseball's about. Brotherhood, having
each other's backs, having fun memories for lifetimes. But do better.
(28:13):
You can be better. You can be passionate. You don't
have to just you know, you have to act a fool. Look,
you hit a big homer. Absolutely, I did it. I'm
not a hypocrite. Look I did it at the Olympics.
I knew for a fact that I was probably gonna
get drilled and expected it. Okay, I was worth it
for me at the time. Emotions got me. I didn't
(28:35):
do it after a single. I didn't do it after
a meaningless double in the middle of the fifth inning.
Police it better and will things will start to turn
a little bit. Last thing we're gonna do, We're gonna
go over the super Regionals. We got Louisville against Miami.
Two surprises. Miami goes as Southern miss comes out of
(28:57):
the regional. Good for JD. Louisville's tough. They can pitch
Miami young freshman starter, love him Cisco. I think his
name is Ciscar, Ciscar. Sorry about that. Sinker bawl guy
proven another thing that sinkers still work. Everybody want to
talk about high v low and all this stuff. Movement
still does too. In Louisville. Louisville can steal bases with
(29:18):
the best of them. Excited for Miami to see what
they can do. Miami is one of those teams that
I said it before the regionals started. They might not
win a game the rest of the year, or they
might not lose a game the rest of the year.
They're very streaky. Should be a good matchup. You got
FSU going to Oregon State. That's a tough one. Oregon State,
you know, hiccup in game one and then from there
(29:41):
just steamroll their regional steamrolled it buried people. Oregon State
will make you play a baseball game. They can hit
it over the fence, they can first, they can safety
squeeze you. They're athletic. Their shortstops, if not the best
in the country. He's one to one A if you're
gonna If you like shortstops, don't miss the cor Vallas
(30:02):
Regional with Lodes and the Oregon State kid, they're two
of the best at that position, not only this year
but the last several years. So that's an intriguing matchup.
Jamie Arnold against a more right handed hitting lineup. We'll see.
Oregon State is starting a freshman game one, we'll see.
I'm not really into predictions. I'm hoping Floria State wins. Obviously,
(30:28):
that's a tough one. I just think, you know, going out,
there's three thousand miles away. We'll see. If Lincoln get
the boys ready to go, that'll be an intriguing matchup.
Expect that to go three. I expect Louisville Miami to
go three. Arizona UNC. I think UNC is the best
team in the country. I think they're balanced. I think
their offense is sneaky. They can hit it over the fence.
(30:50):
They have a lot of depth. They have older guys.
They're pitching staffs elite in my opinion, older guys. They've
got starters that can go deep into games. They have
bullpen guys, and they have a freshman who's pretty damn
good at the back end, so they're deep. Their offense
doesn't wow you as far as numbers go, but they
do what they need to do with that given moment,
(31:11):
and they can beat you in many ways. They can
hit it over the fence, they can first to thirdy
to death, they can grind out at bats. UNC sneaky Arizona.
That's a tough one for them coming out there too.
It's a long way for them, but Arizona. Arizona's really tough,
and they're one of the teams that they're a blue
blood from years ago that every once in a while
(31:33):
and they put it together. They always go on along
a deep run in the postseason. This might be it.
Coastal Carolina at Auburn. Auburn's really good, they're really young,
but they're at home. Watch out, watch out Coastal Carolina
is They should be on the map already. They already
(31:53):
won a national championship. They've had really good players for
a while. They're there are a lot of like I
always say, they're they're probably the best team that no
one really pays attention to, and that's a shame. But
years like this year, with the regionals happened the way
they where they did, I think you're gonna hear more
and more about clubs like this, universities like this. Watch
out Coastal's tough. If they go down, they're they're gonna
(32:16):
give your Auburn's gonna have to play their best three
games to beat this team. They're not just gonna roll over.
This team can compete. They're gritty, they get after it.
UTSA versus u c l A another one. UCLA is
not a real no offense. It's not a prime host
super regional. It's just not There's too many things to
(32:36):
do in California. Got to see the facility. It's a
beautiful park, beautiful, gorgeous weather, everything in my opinion. If
anybody has seen a game there at night a regional
back in the day, did you ever it looks like
it's dark. Do they have like I feel like they're
playing under flashlights? Check that out. See if I'm crazy,
but it just seems like they don't have the lights
everybody else has. It's kind of weird, but UTSA, Hey,
(32:57):
anybody that goes into Texas. I always feel like in
regional situations, using tallahassee an example, you never I never
really liked to see the South Florida's the UCFS Central
Florida Stetson. I didn't like to see that, just because
in state teams aren't afraid of the big dog. They're
(33:18):
not UTSA. All the kids that go there probably wanted
at one point, maybe wanted to go to Texas. Right
they didn't. Coach told me weren't big enough, weren't strong enough, whatever,
there's a chip, and they went in there and absolutely
worked them. Now, don't get me wrong, Texas. You take
away someone's Friday Night starter, it makes it tough to win.
(33:41):
They lost their they lost their Friday night starter and
their best player, I want to say a third of
the way through the year. And it's tough for college
programs to withstand that. So, but that being said, you're
at home, you should win. UTSA already went through a
tough environment. The regional environment gonna be tougher for them
than the UCLA one. But UCLA can play, and they
(34:04):
they can hit, they can pitch. The coached well, so
that'll be an interesting one. Also, next one, Murray State Duke.
I made a joke on social media about this one
that I think fifty one people will watch this one.
Obviously baseball fans will as no disrespect, But I love
watching the mid majors. I love watching I love seeing
(34:26):
those games. And I've watched more college baseball this year
and I think I have in the last ten years combined,
just for this reason, to see the difference. It ties
into my recruiting stuff that I do, but just to
see what these programs are about. And man, the more
I watch them, the more I love them. This stuff
is gonna happen more and more than ever because really
(34:48):
good players and there've been good players there before, don't
get me wrong, but these kids are program builders. If
you get a kid this day three or four years,
one you're teaching the right stuff, Two you're developing players,
and three the coaching staff kids want to play for.
And you're seeing this now, and it just ties into
(35:10):
the hole everybody talks about. I always hear it every day,
and the recruiting stuff. We've heard it in the past episodes.
Here it's not big enough, this throw hard enough, blah
blah blaah. I watched a lot of eighty seven and
ninety mile an hour guys shove it right up SEC
and acc team's asses, So don't give me that. One
kid was six no hit innings. He wasn't lighting up
(35:34):
the radar gun. So it still works. So and I
watched the Power Well, yeah, we own power because I
always feel like power arms and power bats. That's for
coaches that can't coach. If you hit it over the fence, yeah,
there's don't get me wrong, there's little things to work
on to make you more efficient to hit it over
the fence, or throw it harder, or throw it or
you want to. But if you get a kid that
(35:56):
might not have the stuff but has the brain and
the we always call the rain and the balls to
figure out how to get people out because at the
end of the day, that's what this game is all about.
How many regional games were lost because of walks, hit
by pitches or airs, most of them, most of them.
You can look at it almost every game and the
team that lost you can pinpoint not throwing it over
(36:21):
hitting a dude or making a mistake on defense and
the other team capitalized. You can look at every one
of them, so you can look at it almost every game,
so that that there's still there's still hope for that.
Now where was I? Okay? We got I like, I
want to see Murray State go to Oma. No disrespect
(36:42):
to Duke because again it just ties into another comment
I always make. I never understood how teams in certain conferences,
as soon as you lose, you root for the conference
like SEC people are there beyond me. I mean, look,
you have crap teams in your conference too. I just
don't understand how as soon as you lose you cheer
(37:04):
for the conference. I don't get that. You'll never like Look,
I respect the hell out of Clemson. I will never
cheer for them, just for my college days and some
of the guys that I've like, we played against, We
talk on social media and we respect each other, support
each other whether they get coaches jobs or whatever they're
doing on their every avenue of their life. But you can,
I promise you when you ask them, they're not cheer
(37:25):
for Florida State as soon as Clemson loses. I just
don't get it. Oh, but look at the conference. Like
you play for Missouri, you're a fan of Missouri. Missouri stinks,
Like South Carolina was brutal this year. Now all of
a sudden, you're an SEC fan. Stop it. Like I
want Duke to do well, I do, but I'd rather
see Murray State go to Omaha. I think the story's better.
(37:48):
I think Duke's a little bit better. But Magic's on
Murray State's side and they're rolling. So we'll see West
Virginia LSU. Now on paper here, everybody would think LSU.
Let's not forget Little Rock. Little Rock was what nineteen
and thirty going into the regional and they slug with
(38:08):
LSU and they had a five to one league going
to the fifth or sixth ending of that game of
the game seven in the regional. So they're vulnerable. But
West Virginia scrappy, they're gritty. I'm a little concerned with
their back end. Closer he had a meltdown in the
Clemson Regional. It was a little scary. Shout out to
(38:30):
Mike Bell giving me that dope. That was awesome. He's
the head coach at Pittsburgh, played with him at Florida State,
he's the head coach there, does a wonderful job there
A little side note, but and then the granddaddy of
them all, the Tennessee Arkansas. Man, oh man, they're gonna
be fro fireworks in this one. I'm pretty sure the people,
the fans of Arkansas hog fans are already there, have
(38:52):
been there for two days and are getting rowdy and
riled up and ready to go because the people love
to hate him. I had him on the show, we
talked about it. I didn't like him until I met him,
and I'm like, this guy's wonderful. He's you know, he
does things right. You know, Yeah, I'm sure he lets
(39:13):
his kids play. But man, they run through a wall
for him again. Knowledge to say, like this year, he's
had his he's had his struggles this year, but look
where he is. He's one step away, one step from
getting back to defending his title. So that one, that
one's gonna be musty TV for sure. Arkansas has some
(39:33):
really good players, really good arms. But you know, you
go back to the trust factor. Look at the trust factor.
I trust L s U. I trust Tennessee over Arkansas, Arkansas.
You don't who else can you trust? You're gonna get
what you think you're gonna get. For State, Well, he's
(39:54):
been ten runs several times, been run ruled a couple
of times. We've also put run rule a lot of people.
So the bottom line is, whoever pitch is better, whoever
limits their mistakes, probably gonna win these super regionals. Florida
State's playing Mississippi State. Mississippi State's in the regional final.
They fired their coach. I want to say midseason? Was
(40:16):
it probably mid season? A national championship winning coach. By
the way, I have a problem with this. Twenty to
thirty minutes after the game, Brian O'Connors announced as the
head coach at Mississippi State. I have a problem with this.
So during the game, they sent the plane to go
get him. Okay, he was the coach at Virginia, won
a national title there, and it has nothing to do
(40:37):
with no nothing personal with anybody involved in this. I
just find it really, really hard what happens if Mississippi
State goes on a magical run and wins the whole thing.
You can't tell me that they haven't already hired this guy.
They're stending a plane for him in the middle of
your regional final game. That just doesn't It doesn't sit well,
(41:00):
It doesn't look it doesn't look right, doesn't smell right.
It isn't right. It's not right. Where your team's battling
for the regional final and who had a legit chance
of winning that game? They were, They were dominating most
of that game, the last game six you already had
a new head coach. Now that ties into also what's
(41:21):
going on behind closed doors, which some are starting to
bring it out. East Carolina's head coach, God would brought
it up. There are coaches calling other players who are
not in the portal. Aren't there enough kids in the portal?
There's four thousand of them. Take one of those. You
should not call other kids, play other teams players who
(41:42):
aren't in the portal. Why if you got texts, if
you got calling out, Look this nil stuff. It's not
going anywhere. I don't disagree with kids getting paid because
not for going to school and only not getting not
be having the ability to get a job. It's frustrating
(42:03):
and I'm all for you know, name image likeness when
it's under control. This is out of control. It's only
gonna get worse. And this is the wild Wild West.
Name another. It'd be like free agency. Think of the
four major sports you've got, basketball, Hockey, football, and baseball.
(42:26):
Could you imagine if you had free agency after every
season and every sport. It would be a free for all.
Patrick Mahomes, I'm a free agency in here. What do
you think he'd make by now? I won the Super Bowl? Again,
give me I want one hundred million. All it takes
is one person to give it to him. It would
be anarchy, and that's what we're dealing with in college.
(42:49):
There's got to be a cap somewhere. There's got to
be Again, it goes back to the saying I said earlier,
common sense people. There's got to be a common sense factor.
I mean, hey, Texas text picture softball pitchers. She's making
a million dollars. Great for her. Absolutely, there's got to
be a stop to it somewhere. One more note, congrats
to Kim Ang and softball in general. Kim Ang is
(43:14):
the commissioner of the solid New Softball League. Awesome. Not
a better person to run that. And I'm very happy
for softball. If you haven't sat down, if you only
watch Oklahoma City the NCAA Softball you're missing out. Watch
If you don't, If you don't really care for college softball,
you're crazy. If you're a baseball fan, please, If you
(43:35):
like baseball, you'll love softball. It's quicker, it's faster. These
girls are phenomenal. My little adage. I did an episode,
two episodes with This Week in Baseball with Jenny Finch,
and she punched me out in three pitches like it
was a joke, like I had no shot. So these
girls are incredible. The game is fast, the fundamentals are there,
(44:00):
are coached, they bunt, they hit homers. You know, it's
it's exciting, and I please, and I'm happy for Kim.
I will be totally in on the in the professional
softball Good for that. I'm looking forward to that league
getting bigger and better and increase in revenue and get
some TV rights and get those games on TV because
(44:20):
I'll definitely be a fan of that. That's gonna wrap
up this episode of The Dugout. Please check me out
wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify, leave
comments on x on Twitter. Love to hear your comments,
love to hear your thoughts on maybe question you want
answered or a future episode give me ideas, love to
hear it, love to interact with you guys on Twitter,
(44:41):
even though there's always some idiot that responds that doesn't
have it as a fake account name and he has
ninety one followers who wants to make it personal and
pop off even you. I enjoy your comments. So until
next week, this is your host, Doug mccavige. Have a
good week and take care.
What's up, everybody. Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm
your host, Doug man Kabage. This episode, we're going to
touch on a lot of college athletics, college baseball, college softball,
regional breakdowns, super regional matchups, coaches getting salty, sec kind
of humbled a little bit. Should the NCAAA recede to me?
(00:31):
I think it's a most definite. We'll get into that.
We'll go over the super regional matchups. We'll go over
some umpiring, some the antics in college baseball which have
gotten out of hand. We'll also touch on some rules
that go into the game of baseball and softball that
are changing the outcomes of games. Which is, if you
(00:51):
ask any official in any sport, the last thing they
want to do is change the outcome of the game,
and it's not their fault. So with that being said,
we'll go into the regional breakdown. Okay, what it's the
best week in sports If you're a college baseball fan,
It's like Bowl week in football. Regionals. You get to
see a lot of teams that you probably never heard
(01:13):
of and don't think they're very good, but I think
the world got to see how good they really are
this year, and they have been coming for years and
now they're starting. Every year you get a couple guys,
a couple of teams that sneak up and might bite
a one seed. Some one seeds, actually the number one
overall seed should have got swept in their own regional
(01:34):
we're talking about. Vanderbilt was Wright States stud starter, they're
number one, had a no hitter going through six seventy
eight eighty pitches. Must have went to the Kevin Cash
Tampa Bay Ray School of Managing. For some strange reason,
they pulled him and Vandy came back and won that game.
(01:54):
But you know, hats off to hats off to that
club going up against the number one seed in the
entire in the entire country, in the entire bracket and
goes head to head with them. It reiterates my point
just because you never heard of them does not mean
that they can play. A lot of these mid majors
(02:16):
are really, really, really good players. We've talked about this
previously on other episodes about how good uh some of
these you know, maybe not so household names are our
good are good players. I think the SEC took it
on the chin a little bit where they have sixteen
would they have thirteen teams? Make it? And a lot
(02:36):
of them are going home? Vandy going home, Texas going home?
Who else you know you had? Georgia, Old miss Florida, Kentucky,
Mississippi State, Vandy, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama going home. Now. I
don't get me wrong, I'm not stupid. The last five
(02:57):
national champs have all been SEC teams. I am not
saying they are not they don't have elite teams. Yes
they do, they have elite teams. That being said, I
don't want to hear anyone ever again tell me that
winning the SEC is harder than winning the national championship.
Stop it, especially coming from coaches that never won it.
(03:17):
So if that's the case, then I'm not saying again,
if you finished five hundred in your conference, you should
not go to the dance. You should not. Obviously, injuries
take in consideration. I know Florida had a ton of them.
And what Selly has done the last two years with
teams that I don't think when he broke the season start.
(03:40):
When the season started, I don't think that was a
club he thought he was gonna have. He's done a
fantastic job getting that team to where they were and
they ended up making it to OMAL last year. So
but all these things consider, FGCU is a great example.
FGCU should have been in and they got left out
because of you know, I'm I'm over the Georgia thing.
(04:02):
Georgia hosts more than a lot of teams and they
never make it out. And we're gonna touch on that
later too. But ACC took some lumps too. You know,
you'd like to see Miami back. That's awesome. Good for JD.
I always taking a lot of heat down in South Florida.
That's gonna be an intriguing matchup. It ties into receding
(04:24):
after the regionals. If you look at some of these
matchups in the supers, I don't think anybody I think
you look at Tennessee going to Arkansas to have one
of those teams have to go home. I know that's
part of it, don't get me wrong, But Murray State's
going to Duke, Florida State has to go out to
Oregon State, which is a tough place to tough place
(04:47):
to play, tough place to win. If you reced this,
you can't tell me that Tennessee would match up against
Arkansas it's intriguing, it's gonna be musty TV for sure.
All these are gonna be good games. Don't get me wrong,
But there's no reason why Duke should be hosting a regional.
There's no reason why Louisville should be hosting a region
(05:07):
a super regional. Excuse me. You know Coastal Carolina, Well,
watch out. They can flat out hit, they can flat
out play, and they're coached by coach very well, and
that ties into our You know, some coaches are salty.
We already mentioned Sally from Florida. Man oh, man o man.
(05:30):
And look, it's really easy to sit out here from
the outside and whether it's me a fan of either team,
a fan of college baseball, until you've been in those shoes,
I don't think you realize. I don't say the word pressure,
but you have a lot of things going on. You've
got to make sure that bus times are right, kids
(05:52):
are fed at the right time. There's a lot of
stuff that goes on. Let alone the game and you're
playing for your life an elimination game. That being said,
you cannot be rate associate athletic directors. You can't berate
the field stuff. No one works harder in the game
of baseball than the people that get the field ready
(06:13):
for these games. They work long hours. They work a
lot longer hours than you do. They have more responsibility
to make sure the field is safe, especially in a
regional you've got player safety, all that going on. If
you've seen the video, and I I'm sure you have,
if you've been on social media, he went off. He
(06:36):
went off on everybody. And if it's behind, I didn't
really have I didn't like what was said, but I
didn't I understood when they were behind. There's one video
of them like in the back where it's like down
the left field line and it's off the field. That's
bad enough. If you want to pull them aside and
talk to him. Absolutely. The one I had an issue
(06:56):
with was on the field. He did it in the
front of his dugout, in front of his players. Look,
baseball players, we adjust on the fly. We have rain delays,
lights go out, lightning, you know, lightning stops. We're used
to being Yeah, sure, we want to know what time
the game starts with starting pitching and all that other stuff,
(07:18):
But as far as having an adjustment by an hour,
especially and like you just got done playing a conference tournament.
You don't know when your game starts. You have an idea,
but what if the game before you goes longer? You
have to wait. So you tell your kids to be composed.
You tell your kids to we adjust, We work accordingly
(07:39):
to what we were given. You always talk about baseball
lives in the world of control, the things you can control,
and then there you are berating, dropping f bombs in
front of your team about a time change within an hour,
and that's just you know, then you can't turn around
and now you're a hypocrite if you tell your guy
you've got to compose yourself. So it just looked like
(08:03):
he was aspiring out of control, and kudos to the
Coastal Carolina coach for calling it out. Good for him
his team. If you want to watch a team that
does it right, there's not a lot of antics. They
just play. There's passion, there's enthusiasm, but it's it's respectful
(08:23):
and look you're talking to I was extremely passionate when
I played, especially college. I loved I loved the garment
and gold I still do. I absolutely honored to wear
that uniform and I wanted nothing more than I bring
coach Martin a national championship, and I was gonna do
whatever I could do to get it there. But that
being said, Coach Martin was always about by you can
(08:46):
cheer as loud as you want for us, just stay
off them. And yes he had his moments where he
cut us loose within a reason. No, we played Florida,
we played Clemson on the road. It was do what
we gotta do, boys, and I'm all for that. But
some of these antics are getting out of control. I've
(09:09):
said this for years. When the game stopped being able
to police itself, these issues have arose. You have to
fool you got drilled, and you wouldn't do it very
often if you had to fool the guy behind you
got drilled too, so or if you didn't like getting drilled,
you went and took the short stop out. Then we
can't do that either. So we'll tie in. We'll get
(09:29):
into that more as we get going. Moving on receding,
receding after the regionals are over. I get why it's
a pain in the butt. I get it. Reshuffle on
the deck. You're gonna have the same issues of the
people that were voting on in the first place. When
they voted how many SEC teams as host regionals? And
(09:50):
I get why they do. I mean, they packed the stands,
they get people, increased revenue. I'm all for it. I
understand that great venues all across the SEC awesome. I'm
all for it. But if that's gonna be the case,
I would rather have that. Then we have Murray State
(10:11):
going to Duke. There might be fifty one people at
that game. I'm sure there's gonna be more. I'm sure
there's fifty one family members, but let's be honest, like
they're not gonna be They're not gonna pack it like
say Tennessee Wood or Arkansas Wood or Florida State would
I mean, hell, this is kind of an off topic,
but I thought it was extremely comical that a Mississippi
(10:34):
State fan we're complaining about how loud Tellahassee was Mike, Hey,
wait what Dudy Noble used to kick the chain link
fence for years? That's about as crazy as it get.
They don't call you start Vegas because you're quiet, like
hey and James Tibbs, credit, buddy, you said it best.
If you don't like how loud the visiting stadium is,
(10:56):
be good enough to host, you don't have to worry
about the noise. So and that's the one thing. And
I'm not a homer by any searching the imagination, but
I will give the animals of Flora State and Tallahassee
and Florida State fans. They're not rude. They're loud, they're respectful.
The other team makes a great play, other team has
a great pitching performance. They actually cheer sometimes for homers
(11:19):
for the other team. They like baseball, they cheer for
their guys. They're loud, absolutely, but they're respectful. You can't
say that in a lot of other places. I've been
to a lot of them, and that's not the case.
So all right, reseeding, it's just going to be another
sec fest. But if you're you know you've eight nine
(11:41):
and even receding going into Omaha. Take last year for example,
I thought Florida State was the second best team out there.
And I said it before Omaha started. Last year, I
said Game one was Tennessee versus Florida State. The winner
of that was gonna win the national championship, and Tennessee
end up winning. Don't get me started on the check swing.
(12:02):
But that's the case. And like that should have been
reseeded also, And you have so many teams on one
conference on one bracket on one side and on the other.
There's a way to make it better. And I think
that's what we do it in every other aspect of
sports and everything else we try to do in the world,
is to make it better. Is it always going to
(12:23):
be perfect? Absolutely not. But I don't think it takes
too much to recede after each round. It doesn't. This
is not the basketball tournament. You get no benefit. You're
playing at neutral sites. There's no benefit. Maybe locally you
get a closer venue, but you don't get it in
your backyard. Baseball you earn your site throughout the course
(12:46):
of the season, not because what conference you're play in. Obviously,
travel should be involved too. I mean Florid State having
to go three thousand miles across the country. It just
doesn't seem right to be one one spot shy of
hosted a super and that goes for wherever, who goes where,
(13:07):
And I know baseball tries to do it regionally. They
try to keep guys close, and I understand that that
makes sense because we're not football. We don't have the
revenues that that the football or basketball teams do. Some
of the schools, I mean, I'm sure some of these
schools that I've mentioned, you know the you know the
Utah Valleys who had an upset in their regional uts,
(13:30):
a little rock U see Upstate. Like those teams, they
don't have the funds that that that a lot of
clubs have a lot of a lot of universities have,
so that if you're sending them across the country, even
Florida State, that's a that's a tough one for the
athletic department to fly those guys across the country. So
I just feel like resetting is the right way to
do it. Will it be perfect, No, but it'll be
(13:53):
better than what we have right now. I don't like.
I don't like they do it in the regionals where
they haven't asked team and the usually an ACC team,
whether it's the ACC is a one seed and the
SEC is a two seed or vice versa. You have
an SEC one, you have an ACC two. I don't
like having ACC or SEC matchups to get to Omaha.
(14:16):
I just don't think that's the way it should break down.
I would like, if you can't avoid it. Obviously, you
get to the final four in Omaha, it is what
it is. But to have two conferences that, let's be honest,
they're the best two conferences in the sport. They should
not be playing each other inside conference to get there.
(14:38):
That's just my take on it. I just think there's
a better way to go about it than in the
way that they are doing it. Now, all right, we're
gonna move on to the antics in college baseball. Here
we go and say, old hat or whatever you want
to call me. Look, I'm all for individualism, I'm all
for being a little different. But let's take for example, Okay,
(15:00):
the Mississippi State Florida State regional game. From what I gathered,
the NCAA reached out to all the head coaches and
said antics will not be tolerated. Okay, I have a
problem with that. Number One, If you're gonna wait till
the regionals to police it, you've waited too long. You
can't just change the rules as we go. All right, Yes,
(15:21):
you can send out a memo, but if you're gonna
police it in May and June, you better police it
from April so the guys can get used to it.
What's too much and what's not enough. We had a
pitcher from Mississippi State and I'm all for For example,
Florida State, Jamie Arnold comes off the mound after his
(15:43):
last pitch, after his pitch there for three years, and
he looks towards his dugout and screams some stuff. Whether
it's two as the hitter or whatever. He didn't look
at the hitter, he didn't look at the other dugout,
and he just walked off towards his was emotional. I
have no problem with that, and I don't think anybody
would have problem with that. The Mississippi State kid punches
(16:06):
a guy out and he looks right at the hitter
and looks the dugout. Well. Link Jared is the head
coach at Florida State, played with Link, one of the
best college coaches in the last twenty years, one of
the best college shortstops in the history of the game.
(16:28):
Link's very he's he's very good at what he does.
He's very calm. He stays under control. To see Link
lose it, you can see I'm gonna go on Link,
I'm gonna be on onside Link. Obviously he's like a brother,
but the same token. Whenever you see someone that's always
calm in every situation lose it. He has a point,
(16:53):
and I haven't talked to him, but I can I
can assume that this is something that he's Link is
an attention to detail freak when it comes. Everything has
a time, everything has a place, everything has a purpose.
So you send Link something that might seem like nothing,
He's going to read it, dissect it, apply it. They
(17:14):
must have said we're not going to tolerate taunting antics.
Whatever it is. Well, Link goes out there and gets ejected,
which again the guy or the umpire ejected. I think
the Northeastern coach the game before the elimination game. Before that,
Mississippi State played with Northeastern to play Florida State in
(17:35):
the championship round in the regional. So if you're going
to send a memo, you have to do it. And
I look, I'm all for the umpires giving them kids
some leeway in regional games because they played their whole season.
Every college baseball's dream players dream is to get to
oma or win it, win it and get to Omah.
(17:56):
It's special's there's no you can't put it into words
what it like to get out there and play in
those games. So they're doing everything it possibly can to
get there leeway. Well, the kid crosses the line, which
again I wouldn't like it, but I've seen worse. But
obviously there was a point making point told to say
(18:18):
this is not gonna be tolerated. So then they tolerated.
So Link gets ejected. Our guy Mendez goes out there,
and we've all seen it on social media. He said
some things that probably you know, I don't know. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say, I'm I'm sure I have as a
player at some point not gonna be a pot called
(18:38):
kettle black. But if this is if Link got this message,
he told his players this, and yes, emotions sometimes get
the best of you. Whatever. But now the umpire's hands
are tied because if he didn't eject the Mississippi State guy,
he can't inject the Floor State kid. Can't. You can't,
can't throw out Mendez. This is how it gets out
of control. We have so many little tick tack rules
(19:00):
in the game. Now it's nauseating. Okay, we can't take
out the catcher. We can't slide hard in the second.
We have to slide in the second. For the most part,
we can't. We have to have two bags, which is
the dumbest damn rule I've ever seen in my entire life.
And don't give me players safety. If you're worried about
players safety, you wouldn't be throwing your bat in the
(19:22):
stands after a homer. Hell, we pimp singles. Now, stop it,
stop it, we pimp walks. What are we doing If
you want to get on first, that bad. Okay, take
one of the ribs next. But we police the wrong
crap and to boot these college coaches are allowing this.
(19:46):
Look at Georgia, this isn't Saturday night fever. Button your
jersey is unbuttoned mine, but not to the point was
disrespectful to the uniform, the club I was wearing, and
club I was playing for, and the sport itself. And
I had and I had some of these guys looking
around college baseball. I had some of these guys at eighteen.
You the USA national team. They didn't act like this.
(20:09):
They weren't like this. We had rules. You want to
wear your shirt on button, you're not gonna wear You're
not gonna wear the colors across your chest. Guess what
everyone was buttoned weird, I know, very odd, But when
you've laid parameters down, yes, I want them to be passionate. Yes,
(20:29):
I want them to play with passion, play with emotion,
under control emotion. Yes, fiery love it was that as
a player, love it. Let your play be speak so
loud for you that we don't We can't see what
you do or hear what you say. What you hit
a big double in the eighth inning that clears the
bases in a two run game, go nuts. But we're
(20:53):
hitting meaningless singles and we just can't just run it first.
And I don't don't get me on the umpires. There
got a job to do. They're being told to police
this stuff and they're putting way too much on them.
I mean, look at softball, the obstruction call it second
base in the championship game. We're changing the outcome of
games by nick knack junk that shouldn't be involved. You're
(21:16):
trying to tell me a shortstop if you don't remember,
if you haven't seen it, the softball shortstop was girl
was stealing second. The shortstop came across the second base
on the run, on the move, catching a ball in
the air while a girl is sliding. And at the
end of the day, if you go through almost everything
that's argued on social media in the world today, sports included,
(21:40):
it just takes common sense. People blocking the bag at
second base, dropping your knee down like the way they
used to. There's a big difference between a girl coming
across from her position to catch the ball and put
a tag on them. There was no malicious intent there. Oregon,
Oregon lost their best player on a slide at home plate.
Didn't like it. I thought it was a little extreme
(22:02):
to throw the guy out, but that that umpire stance.
That's the rule. But you're leaving. Here's the problem. You're leaving.
You're leaving decisions and the people that are making decisions
never played. It doesn't make any sense. The people that
are making these rules at every level have never stepped
(22:24):
on the field and don't understand how hard it is,
let alone, to officiate it or play it. And you're
changing the outcome of games by making the guys who
have enough on their plate determine what's malicious and what's not.
And to me, it's just common sense. Guy barrels, a
(22:44):
guy over, doesn't slide blocking the plate. That's one thing,
but you're sliding and you kind of pop up and
run into a guy that's not malicious. Stop, like, have
some common sense. Something's are review some things aren't. That
doesn't make sense. If you're gonna have review review everything,
(23:06):
review everything, if it can change the outcome of a game,
review everything, Why is something's not reviewable? I just feel
between everybody's gonna point their finger at Tennessee. Right, Tennessee
does this? Tennessee does that. It's everywhere. It's not just Tennessee.
It's not Tennessee. I see that. You see it all
(23:29):
over the you see it everywhere, but there's also places, Yeah, coastal.
Those guys don't act like that. Nope, Murray State didn't
see much of it. Duke, they do some stuff. The
Duke kid best player brought out a hard helmet. Umpire
ejected them, like there's enough going on to get your
(23:50):
We used to yell at them umpires, and I'm talking
about rap it, get your ears out of a dugout
the games that way. It's not over here. But you
reject the kid for bringing a hard helmet on the field,
I'm gonna go out on the limbs, say that's the First,
that's not the first time that has happened. It's not.
My point goes back to before. If you're gonna eject
the kid in June, you better eject them in April
(24:15):
or whatever it was when February March. You can't expect them.
We're creatures of habit. If something's not police, we're gonna
keep doing it. And now all of a sudden it's
against it's against the rules. We do enough wrong. There's
enough wrong from the plate all around the bases. Then
(24:35):
to eject the kid for bringing the hard hat on
the field, and he was like a step out of
the dugout, like come on, that's just goes back to
common sense. He didn't run on the field and put
it on his head as he rounded third. He was
waiting for him in the dugout. They're like, let the
kids have fun, right, that's everybody's motto, everybody, every parent.
Let the kids play well, yes, you want to, like
(24:58):
they act like we didn't have fun in the eight
in nineties and two thousands. We had fun. We had
a blast, but don't act like that's the problem with
today's game. As soon as like, for example, I saw
some on social media eleven year old kid hits a homer,
first homer. There's a runner on first run on first
runs a second and the ball goes over the fence.
(25:19):
The kid runs back. The kid that's running from first
to second runs back trying to hug the guy, and
the hitter overruns him. Guess what, kids out and I
promise you, I promise you. Their parents in this stand
is going to let the kids play. And you are
the problem. You're the problem. Kid broke a rule. I
(25:41):
don't like it. Kid it a homer. Now it's now
or single whatever. Hell that breaks down, But we're out
seen it many a time. It's a rule. The point
is it's a rule. You have to follow it. That's
just like, that's the problem these kids are. You're telling me,
if you're a parent at home and your kid doesn't
give them a midnight curfew, you comes home at three
(26:02):
in the morning, you're not gonna You're not gonna figure
out a way to discipline them. You're the problem. You're
part of it. Rules or rules are meant to be followed.
Know the rules, learn it, and act accordingly. So I
long and involved. But it's just between the two bases
(26:23):
and everybody's well the player's safety. Look, I played first
a long time. I got into maybe one or two collisions,
maybe one. We're bailing out bad players, bad plays, bad throws,
bad base running. It's like we don't want any responsibility.
We want to put it on somebody else. Like, off
of the balls in foul territory, you got to step
(26:44):
on this bag, and if the balls in fairtary, this
is your bag. This is my bag. Now when he
gets past first, Wait, what baseball has two bags at first?
Base Softball does it? And that game's fifty times faster
than baseball, Like, and all these people telling me that
fundamentals can't be taught, watch a softball game. Girls don't
(27:07):
have any time for a bobble. No bobble on the infield,
you're safe. So fundamentals are still taught, and there's still
kids out there willing to learn them, and we have
to make sure that we can continue that. Look, I'm
not a college coach yet, I'm gonna be one day,
and I get it. I'm sure all this stuff is
gonna come back at me at some point. I'm okay
with that, but we gotta do better. We gotta do
(27:30):
better and I know they're like, well we won't get
the recruits. Then, no, you have a standard set it.
Levin did it. He won a few baseball games. Coach
Martin did it. Yeah, there were moments when he had
some crazy people, right, rest in peace, Richie Lewis, we had,
we had some nut jobs. They were under control for
(27:51):
the most part. Yeah, and a lot of guys I
would call foxhole guys. Yeah, if I had, if I
needed something, if we're at war, I want these guys
with him because I know how they I know how
they act. I know how much they their brothers mean
to them. And that's what college baseball's about. Brotherhood, having
each other's backs, having fun memories for lifetimes. But do better.
(28:13):
You can be better. You can be passionate. You don't
have to just you know, you have to act a fool. Look,
you hit a big homer. Absolutely, I did it. I'm
not a hypocrite. Look I did it at the Olympics.
I knew for a fact that I was probably gonna
get drilled and expected it. Okay, I was worth it
for me at the time. Emotions got me. I didn't
(28:35):
do it after a single. I didn't do it after
a meaningless double in the middle of the fifth inning.
Police it better and will things will start to turn
a little bit. Last thing we're gonna do, We're gonna
go over the super Regionals. We got Louisville against Miami.
Two surprises. Miami goes as Southern miss comes out of
(28:57):
the regional. Good for JD. Louisville's tough. They can pitch
Miami young freshman starter, love him Cisco. I think his
name is Ciscar, Ciscar. Sorry about that. Sinker bawl guy
proven another thing that sinkers still work. Everybody want to
talk about high v low and all this stuff. Movement
still does too. In Louisville. Louisville can steal bases with
(29:18):
the best of them. Excited for Miami to see what
they can do. Miami is one of those teams that
I said it before the regionals started. They might not
win a game the rest of the year, or they
might not lose a game the rest of the year.
They're very streaky. Should be a good matchup. You got
FSU going to Oregon State. That's a tough one. Oregon State,
you know, hiccup in game one and then from there
(29:41):
just steamroll their regional steamrolled it buried people. Oregon State
will make you play a baseball game. They can hit
it over the fence, they can first, they can safety
squeeze you. They're athletic. Their shortstops, if not the best
in the country. He's one to one A if you're
gonna If you like shortstops, don't miss the cor Vallas
(30:02):
Regional with Lodes and the Oregon State kid, they're two
of the best at that position, not only this year
but the last several years. So that's an intriguing matchup.
Jamie Arnold against a more right handed hitting lineup. We'll see.
Oregon State is starting a freshman game one, we'll see.
I'm not really into predictions. I'm hoping Floria State wins. Obviously,
(30:28):
that's a tough one. I just think, you know, going out,
there's three thousand miles away. We'll see. If Lincoln get
the boys ready to go, that'll be an intriguing matchup.
Expect that to go three. I expect Louisville Miami to
go three. Arizona UNC. I think UNC is the best
team in the country. I think they're balanced. I think
their offense is sneaky. They can hit it over the fence.
(30:50):
They have a lot of depth. They have older guys.
They're pitching staffs elite in my opinion, older guys. They've
got starters that can go deep into games. They have
bullpen guys, and they have a freshman who's pretty damn
good at the back end, so they're deep. Their offense
doesn't wow you as far as numbers go, but they
do what they need to do with that given moment,
(31:11):
and they can beat you in many ways. They can
hit it over the fence, they can first to thirdy
to death, they can grind out at bats. UNC sneaky Arizona.
That's a tough one for them coming out there too.
It's a long way for them, but Arizona. Arizona's really tough,
and they're one of the teams that they're a blue
blood from years ago that every once in a while
(31:33):
and they put it together. They always go on along
a deep run in the postseason. This might be it.
Coastal Carolina at Auburn. Auburn's really good, they're really young,
but they're at home. Watch out, watch out Coastal Carolina
is They should be on the map already. They already
(31:53):
won a national championship. They've had really good players for
a while. They're there are a lot of like I
always say, they're they're probably the best team that no
one really pays attention to, and that's a shame. But
years like this year, with the regionals happened the way
they where they did, I think you're gonna hear more
and more about clubs like this, universities like this. Watch
out Coastal's tough. If they go down, they're they're gonna
(32:16):
give your Auburn's gonna have to play their best three
games to beat this team. They're not just gonna roll over.
This team can compete. They're gritty, they get after it.
UTSA versus u c l A another one. UCLA is
not a real no offense. It's not a prime host
super regional. It's just not There's too many things to
(32:36):
do in California. Got to see the facility. It's a
beautiful park, beautiful, gorgeous weather, everything in my opinion. If
anybody has seen a game there at night a regional
back in the day, did you ever it looks like
it's dark. Do they have like I feel like they're
playing under flashlights? Check that out. See if I'm crazy,
but it just seems like they don't have the lights
everybody else has. It's kind of weird, but UTSA, Hey,
(32:57):
anybody that goes into Texas. I always feel like in
regional situations, using tallahassee an example, you never I never
really liked to see the South Florida's the UCFS Central
Florida Stetson. I didn't like to see that, just because
in state teams aren't afraid of the big dog. They're
(33:18):
not UTSA. All the kids that go there probably wanted
at one point, maybe wanted to go to Texas. Right
they didn't. Coach told me weren't big enough, weren't strong enough, whatever,
there's a chip, and they went in there and absolutely
worked them. Now, don't get me wrong, Texas. You take
away someone's Friday Night starter, it makes it tough to win.
(33:41):
They lost their they lost their Friday night starter and
their best player, I want to say a third of
the way through the year. And it's tough for college
programs to withstand that. So, but that being said, you're
at home, you should win. UTSA already went through a
tough environment. The regional environment gonna be tougher for them
than the UCLA one. But UCLA can play, and they
(34:04):
they can hit, they can pitch. The coached well, so
that'll be an interesting one. Also, next one, Murray State Duke.
I made a joke on social media about this one
that I think fifty one people will watch this one.
Obviously baseball fans will as no disrespect, But I love
watching the mid majors. I love watching I love seeing
(34:26):
those games. And I've watched more college baseball this year
and I think I have in the last ten years combined,
just for this reason, to see the difference. It ties
into my recruiting stuff that I do, but just to
see what these programs are about. And man, the more
I watch them, the more I love them. This stuff
is gonna happen more and more than ever because really
(34:48):
good players and there've been good players there before, don't
get me wrong, but these kids are program builders. If
you get a kid this day three or four years,
one you're teaching the right stuff, Two you're developing players,
and three the coaching staff kids want to play for.
And you're seeing this now, and it just ties into
(35:10):
the hole everybody talks about. I always hear it every day,
and the recruiting stuff. We've heard it in the past episodes.
Here it's not big enough, this throw hard enough, blah
blah blaah. I watched a lot of eighty seven and
ninety mile an hour guys shove it right up SEC
and acc team's asses, So don't give me that. One
kid was six no hit innings. He wasn't lighting up
(35:34):
the radar gun. So it still works. So and I
watched the Power Well, yeah, we own power because I
always feel like power arms and power bats. That's for
coaches that can't coach. If you hit it over the fence, yeah,
there's don't get me wrong, there's little things to work
on to make you more efficient to hit it over
the fence, or throw it harder, or throw it or
you want to. But if you get a kid that
(35:56):
might not have the stuff but has the brain and
the we always call the rain and the balls to
figure out how to get people out because at the
end of the day, that's what this game is all about.
How many regional games were lost because of walks, hit
by pitches or airs, most of them, most of them.
You can look at it almost every game and the
team that lost you can pinpoint not throwing it over
(36:21):
hitting a dude or making a mistake on defense and
the other team capitalized. You can look at every one
of them, so you can look at it almost every game,
so that that there's still there's still hope for that.
Now where was I? Okay? We got I like, I
want to see Murray State go to Oma. No disrespect
(36:42):
to Duke because again it just ties into another comment
I always make. I never understood how teams in certain conferences,
as soon as you lose, you root for the conference
like SEC people are there beyond me. I mean, look,
you have crap teams in your conference too. I just
don't understand how as soon as you lose you cheer
(37:04):
for the conference. I don't get that. You'll never like Look,
I respect the hell out of Clemson. I will never
cheer for them, just for my college days and some
of the guys that I've like, we played against, We
talk on social media and we respect each other, support
each other whether they get coaches jobs or whatever they're
doing on their every avenue of their life. But you can,
I promise you when you ask them, they're not cheer
(37:25):
for Florida State as soon as Clemson loses. I just
don't get it. Oh, but look at the conference. Like
you play for Missouri, you're a fan of Missouri. Missouri stinks,
Like South Carolina was brutal this year. Now all of
a sudden, you're an SEC fan. Stop it. Like I
want Duke to do well, I do, but I'd rather
see Murray State go to Omaha. I think the story's better.
(37:48):
I think Duke's a little bit better. But Magic's on
Murray State's side and they're rolling. So we'll see West
Virginia LSU. Now on paper here, everybody would think LSU.
Let's not forget Little Rock. Little Rock was what nineteen
and thirty going into the regional and they slug with
(38:08):
LSU and they had a five to one league going
to the fifth or sixth ending of that game of
the game seven in the regional. So they're vulnerable. But
West Virginia scrappy, they're gritty. I'm a little concerned with
their back end. Closer he had a meltdown in the
Clemson Regional. It was a little scary. Shout out to
(38:30):
Mike Bell giving me that dope. That was awesome. He's
the head coach at Pittsburgh, played with him at Florida State,
he's the head coach there, does a wonderful job there
A little side note, but and then the granddaddy of
them all, the Tennessee Arkansas. Man, oh man, they're gonna
be fro fireworks in this one. I'm pretty sure the people,
the fans of Arkansas hog fans are already there, have
(38:52):
been there for two days and are getting rowdy and
riled up and ready to go because the people love
to hate him. I had him on the show, we
talked about it. I didn't like him until I met him,
and I'm like, this guy's wonderful. He's you know, he
does things right. You know, Yeah, I'm sure he lets
(39:13):
his kids play. But man, they run through a wall
for him again. Knowledge to say, like this year, he's
had his he's had his struggles this year, but look
where he is. He's one step away, one step from
getting back to defending his title. So that one, that
one's gonna be musty TV for sure. Arkansas has some
(39:33):
really good players, really good arms. But you know, you
go back to the trust factor. Look at the trust factor.
I trust L s U. I trust Tennessee over Arkansas, Arkansas.
You don't who else can you trust? You're gonna get
what you think you're gonna get. For State, Well, he's
(39:54):
been ten runs several times, been run ruled a couple
of times. We've also put run rule a lot of people.
So the bottom line is, whoever pitch is better, whoever
limits their mistakes, probably gonna win these super regionals. Florida
State's playing Mississippi State. Mississippi State's in the regional final.
They fired their coach. I want to say midseason? Was
(40:16):
it probably mid season? A national championship winning coach. By
the way, I have a problem with this. Twenty to
thirty minutes after the game, Brian O'Connors announced as the
head coach at Mississippi State. I have a problem with this.
So during the game, they sent the plane to go
get him. Okay, he was the coach at Virginia, won
a national title there, and it has nothing to do
(40:37):
with no nothing personal with anybody involved in this. I
just find it really, really hard what happens if Mississippi
State goes on a magical run and wins the whole thing.
You can't tell me that they haven't already hired this guy.
They're stending a plane for him in the middle of
your regional final game. That just doesn't It doesn't sit well,
(41:00):
It doesn't look it doesn't look right, doesn't smell right.
It isn't right. It's not right. Where your team's battling
for the regional final and who had a legit chance
of winning that game? They were, They were dominating most
of that game, the last game six you already had
a new head coach. Now that ties into also what's
(41:21):
going on behind closed doors, which some are starting to
bring it out. East Carolina's head coach, God would brought
it up. There are coaches calling other players who are
not in the portal. Aren't there enough kids in the portal?
There's four thousand of them. Take one of those. You
should not call other kids, play other teams players who
(41:42):
aren't in the portal. Why if you got texts, if
you got calling out, Look this nil stuff. It's not
going anywhere. I don't disagree with kids getting paid because
not for going to school and only not getting not
be having the ability to get a job. It's frustrating
(42:03):
and I'm all for you know, name image likeness when
it's under control. This is out of control. It's only
gonna get worse. And this is the wild Wild West.
Name another. It'd be like free agency. Think of the
four major sports you've got, basketball, Hockey, football, and baseball.
(42:26):
Could you imagine if you had free agency after every
season and every sport. It would be a free for all.
Patrick Mahomes, I'm a free agency in here. What do
you think he'd make by now? I won the Super Bowl? Again,
give me I want one hundred million. All it takes
is one person to give it to him. It would
be anarchy, and that's what we're dealing with in college.
(42:49):
There's got to be a cap somewhere. There's got to
be Again, it goes back to the saying I said earlier,
common sense people. There's got to be a common sense factor.
I mean, hey, Texas text picture softball pitchers. She's making
a million dollars. Great for her. Absolutely, there's got to
be a stop to it somewhere. One more note, congrats
to Kim Ang and softball in general. Kim Ang is
(43:14):
the commissioner of the solid New Softball League. Awesome. Not
a better person to run that. And I'm very happy
for softball. If you haven't sat down, if you only
watch Oklahoma City the NCAA Softball you're missing out. Watch
If you don't, If you don't really care for college softball,
you're crazy. If you're a baseball fan, please, If you
(43:35):
like baseball, you'll love softball. It's quicker, it's faster. These
girls are phenomenal. My little adage. I did an episode,
two episodes with This Week in Baseball with Jenny Finch,
and she punched me out in three pitches like it
was a joke, like I had no shot. So these
girls are incredible. The game is fast, the fundamentals are there,
(44:00):
are coached, they bunt, they hit homers. You know, it's
it's exciting, and I please, and I'm happy for Kim.
I will be totally in on the in the professional
softball Good for that. I'm looking forward to that league
getting bigger and better and increase in revenue and get
some TV rights and get those games on TV because
(44:20):
I'll definitely be a fan of that. That's gonna wrap
up this episode of The Dugout. Please check me out
wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify, leave
comments on x on Twitter. Love to hear your comments,
love to hear your thoughts on maybe question you want
answered or a future episode give me ideas, love to
hear it, love to interact with you guys on Twitter,
(44:41):
even though there's always some idiot that responds that doesn't
have it as a fake account name and he has
ninety one followers who wants to make it personal and
pop off even you. I enjoy your comments. So until
next week, this is your host, Doug mccavige. Have a
good week and take care.
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