Give It Coverage or Give it a Break

Someone please give the College World Series some coverage.

I would be happy for more coverage on the World Series itself, but in my opinion, starting with the first regional makes for the most exciting postseason in any sport at any level at the spectator's level.

March Madness will always be a bigger event because of the gambling aspect a single tournament that large brings. Still, when you break in down, March Madness is not what it is advertised to be.

The big sports networks bill it as the great underdog story, where any Cinderella team can jump out and win the tournament and the hearts of every sports fan. Really? Name one Cinderella team to accomplish this. The last mid-major team to win the NCAA tournament was UNLV back in 1990. As a No. 1 seed in the tournament, can you truly call them an underdog?

On the women's side, it use to be a different story. The Lady Techsters proved they could dominate as a small college, but since 1989 the tournament has been dominate by large conference teams.

That is where college baseball has a step up from the other big time sports. Cal State Fullerton, Rice, Wichita State and Pepperdine have no business competing on the national scale in collegiate athletics, but all schools have won at least one national championship in the last 20 years.

Cal State Fullerton, who may not even crack the top 10 in college enrollment within its own state, has been a perennial powerhouse since the late 70s and has won two national championships since 1995. That should tell people how much of an equalizer the CWS format is.

Look at the 2008 CWS. Fresno State, the lowest ranked team within the CWS, are one of the two only undefeated teams in the tournament and are two wins away from playing in the championship. Yes, this is the same Fresno State that finished the regular season not even ranked by the three largest college baseball polls. Yes, this is the same Fresno State which swept the WAC tournament at the Love Shack last month.

Yes, it could be the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs sitting there right now on the verge of making history. This tournament actually allows smaller schools to compete nationally.

Even so, no matter how big of an underdog story it is to have a WAC team proving it is a contender for a national title, you might get a 10 second clip about it on Sports Center. You got to search for the story pretty hard on the major Internet sites, and even still you'll only get a game recap.

Maybe no one bothers to really cover NCAA baseball during the post season because it's over shadowed by the endless NBA playoffs that started two months ago. Maybe it's because we are almost six months removed from the last football game and we are going through withdrawal.

Regardless, baseball may be America's pasttime, but on the collegiate level America has no time for it.

-Kevin Sims

Silver Covered Experience

After my last post, I feel like I should be owed 30 pieces of silver for betraying the university I attend. Without rehashing what was said, I rather concentrate on what I learned. This is a sports blog and I promise in a round about way it will relate to the subject.

First thing I learned was never ever reply to negative comments. The keyboard transforms to a shovel then a back-hoe for every comment you reply. I know now I need thicker skin. I’m working on it, but it’s exceptionally hard when family is brought into the mix.

More importantly, I found out what a passionate fan was. I think it is a little weird where the source came from and how many examples of this breed of fan I’ve met in the past. I didn’t truly understand what it was to be a passionate fan because I don’t belong in this brotherhood.

I’m a sports nut. I watch football any chance I get, no matter what team or what level of play. Back when I lived in Shreveport, I would go up to the local Dixie fields and just watch kids play baseball in its purest form. In a couple months, I will watch more Olympic sports than a healthy person should. I spend more time online reading sports than I do reading for school. I’m obsessed.

I’m not a passionate fan of any team though. I have my favorites. I’ll leave my preference in college alone, but I love the Saints, Hornets and for some reason the Brewers. I love them, but I’ve never lost sleep over them. I’ve never insulted someone for not liking them or their opinions about them. I can tell you all kinds of facts about them, and just about every player on their roster, but I’m not a fanatic.

That doesn’t mean I think it's wrong to be a fanatic. I’m jealous of fans that lose sleep over their team, riot after their teams win a championship or stay alive longer than someone should just to see their team make it to the promised land.

I’ve heard stories about dying life long Redsox fans using their last words to say, “I wish I would have seen the Sox break the curse.” I’ve read articles about fatalities during soccer riots. That’s passion, for good or ill. That's important.

One thing I’ve learned since I’ve been in journalism was that a good number of people think sports are not important ... irrelevant. People in journalism who like sports usually become sports writers and those who don’t just turn their nose when sports are mentioned and insult it. My response to this is usually passionate and irrational.

I bring this up because in the past week I’ve been on the other side of this debate. Just like every debate I’ve had with people who hate sports, neither side budged on the issue. Even though a good portion of the responses were personal attacks or had nothing to do with the original discussion, at its core the experience is one of the major reason I like sports ... the debate.

While I’m waiting for my bag of silver, I’ll leave the reader with this: debating sports is a time honored tradition. Whether if it's about the best or worst team, best or worst player or if a certain team is relevant or not, personal attacks shows nothing but arrogance and ignorance. Also anyone who has ever studied debate knows when a side resorts to insults it usually the sign they lost the argument. Don’t be that guy.

-Kevin Sims

My Old Gray Hat

When I first started writing for the Tech Talk, I knew what I was doing … or so I thought. I’ve covered sports at my old school for a year and a half before I transferred this spring. I’ve stringed for other publications covering high school sports. Like I said, I thought I knew what I was doing.

Around the second or third weekend series while I was covering baseball at Tech, I rushed getting dressed to make it to the game on time. For some reason, lord knows it doesn’t happen often, I decided to color coordinated, wearing my gray hat with my gray shirt.

I thought nothing of it during the three plus hours the game lasted. I thought nothing of it waltzing into Coach Wade Simoneaux office for a post game interview. I thought nothing of it till the coach turned around and nonchalantly said:

“We burn those kinda things around here.”

I froze. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what I done, but if history tell you anything I did it and did it well. I finally regained composure and figured out where I erred. My hat! My old gray hat!

More importantly my old gray LSU hat!

It was more of a joking around thing but I was pretty embarrassed. Those who have been with me to a dance club know it takes a lot for me to get embarrassed, but there I was in a middle of an interview beet red the entire time. Simoneaux wasn’t mad. I think it was more of him picking on a mark.

I retired the hat shortly after and stocked up on Bulldog paraphernalia. I retired it up until today when I decided to break out the old cap again.

There hasn’t been a repeat of the story yet, but I’ve been thinking on it all day. I’ve really been thinking of my fanhood all day.

I was raised an LSU fan by an LSU fan. More importantly I was raised by an LSU fan who graduated from both Louisiana Tech and University of Louisiana at Monroe. If I’m anything, I’m my father’s son and adopted most of his philosophies.

The point I’m trying to make is, we, my dad and I, are not really LSU fans; we are fans of the state of Louisiana. I’m a diehard Saints fan, a converted Hornets fan. If I’m watching the Little League World Series, I’m rooting for Louisiana. I am a Tiger fan and I am a Bulldog fan. It sounds weird, but that’s the way it is.

I mean no disrespect when I say this, but LSU is the only college team in the state that is relevant. Until Tech or some other college can make an impact in the national scope in Football, Baseball or Men’s Basketball, that’s the way it is. If I show more allegiance to the Tigers, it’s because their tradition has earned it, plain and simple.

I just don’t see any other state team being their rival. It’s like they are in two different classifications. LSU in one, all other state schools in the other. I don’t care how and why this happen, my entire life I’ve known it as such.

One day I hope to see Tech compete on the national scale. It will be a tough choice I will have to make, but one with an easy answer.

This is not an impossible circumstance. Both Boise State and Hawaii showed that even though it’s impossible for a non BCS school to win a national championships, you can be a national player in the WAC. In Basketball the Lady Techsters have shown in years past they weren’t merely a player, but a perennial powerhouse. The men have no excuses. The College World Series has always been the great equalizer. It can be done.

Until the day I’m forced to chose, I will support all the state schools. I will wear any color I want with any logo I want. I don’t care how many stink eyes I get and I’ll return any banter my way.

Well, maybe not in a coach’s office.

--Kevin Sims