Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones]
[Moderated by Matt Jones]
It’s the best time ever to be a UK baseball fan. But no one is. The team, heading into Starkville for a weekend series, is ranked #8 in the country. That’s higher than the basketball or football team was ever ranked last year. The defending Cy Young winner played here. We’re coming of a season where we saw the first ever regional in Lexington. We have one of the best young coaches in the country who is building UK into an SEC power. But no one cares. You may be saying to yourself, why is this Gerry? Let us explore.
(1) Baseball is boring: It is hard to watch 9 innings of a playoff game in October, much less a full college baseball game. The aluminum bats and UK’s band-box of a field make the long ball commonplace, but that doesn’t make up for the inherently boring sport. As a fan that enjoys the little parts of baseball games lost on most spectators, I still find myself bored watching the old men rake in the infield between innings. Even a bad football game (UL Monroe anyone?) is more entertaining than the most exciting baseball game. Throw in midweek games against the likes of Morehead with midweek starters throwing what equates to BP, it’s hard for even the biggest fans to sit and watch 9 innings.
(2) Amateur Draft: Unlike all other sports, statistics have shown that a player drafted out of high school and one after college performs professionally about the same. Instead of developing in college like the new NBA rule encourages, baseball players can develop in the minors for years while being paid. Baseball players are given the luxury of competitive leagues with many teams to play for and continue to improve, while the drop off from the NBA or NFL to their ‘minor’ leagues is much larger. This encourages a large portion of the high school talent to skip college and play A or AA instead of the three years of college .Generally, we only hear about baseball players after they are in ‘The Show’ rather than in college like other sports.
(3) Tracking players: If you do get to follow a player for three or four years in college, following them once they get drafted is very difficult. I watched John Shelby play all last year but couldn’t even begin to guess what minor league team he is playing for now. The time it takes from the draft to make a Major League roster is long enough that it’s tough to track players after they leave school. This also applies to new recruits. With a much bigger percentage of JUCO players contributing, it’s hard to follow players when they come in and play for one or two years. Players out of high school are much less visible than football and basketball players.
(4) No TV exposure: Even if you wanted to watch this weekends series against Mississippi State, you couldn’t because the Big Blue Network doesn’t carry the games. As UK basketball saw in the post-Sutton era, no TV exposure can kill a program. And for a team that is trying to gain some spotlight, not being able to be seen on TV even for road games certainly does not help.
(5) No Tradition: When I talk about tradition here, I do not mean to compare UK basketball the baseball, but to compare it to other schools across the SEC. Alex Box in Baton Rouge is sold out year after year. Game day in Columbia there are tailgates hours before the games. A following like this will probably never happen, because lets face it, what else is there to do in Columbia on a Saturday, but as the program continues to win and be competitive on a national level, the new stadium expansion will continue to be filled. There is not a baseball culture here yet like there is at other places is what it comes down to.
John Cohen is the Billy Donovan (before he got to Florida) of baseball. He really is building something special here and there’s always room to hop on the bandwagon.
[powered by WordPress.]
Bill Keightley Report : Never to be forgotten.
29 queries. 5.649 seconds
March 30th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Baseball is too beautiful to be boring. I’ve been waiting for the start of the pro season since it ended. I’d watch a meaningless Reds game in September over a meaningful NFL game any day, and cared more about the World Baseball Classic last year than March Madness.
Of course, that could have something to do with Kentucky having no shot.
But that’s just me.
Oh, and I agree with the rest of your reasons. Hopefully something can be done to address 2 and perhaps 3 and 4.
March 30th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I called in and talked about this on the radio show today. Baseball is a social sport that needs to be watched in person. Matt is right about it being boring on tv, unless there is added drama (such as Yankees vs Red Socks)or it is playoff time. But the Unversity of Kentucky is quickly becoming the class of the league. As many people as possible need to take the family to the game. Eat some dogs, have a few drinks (diet coke for me please) and soak up some rays while watching one of the best teams our university has to offer.
Every thing Gerry points out is true. It is hard to build a constant following in a college sport that does not lend itself to catching the imagination and fancies of the locals. But it doesnt mean it has to always be that way. Winning brings the fans in. Bringing in more fans helps to keep the winning going. If you truly love your university and the young men and women that put on the blue in all the sports, then support them when you can be taking in a ball game, going to volley ball game and yes, even seeing a basketball and football game or two.
March 30th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I’m in, unfortunately I don’t live in Lexington. I’d rather watch an SEC baseball game
than MLB.(Unless the Reds are playing) I usually catch 2 or 3 games on Sun Sports down here in Florida. Go Bat Cats! Don’t be hating on college baseball, embrace it. UK has one of the best young coaches in the buisness.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Right on. This team has something special going on. Unfortunately, because of the “other” stuff, it’s being missed. Hell, look at the amount of comments this blog has evoked. In just over an hour, I’m one of only a few people posting. (Can you imagine if this blog was about the new coach???
This is not an indictment of UK, just our overall thoughts towards other sports. And trust me, having been to a couple games last season - these are some of the nicest guys at UK. Well, that’s okay. Basketball first. It should be that way. It will always be mine, our, first love. But remember, success in all other sports will only benefit us when “wooing” recruits… Throw them some love people…
March 30th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Anytime the University of Kentucky excels on the athletic field with our student athletes than that is something that we in the commonwealth should be proud. Hopefully the Bat Cats can get it done and go back to back and advance to the world series this year as that is the ONLY time you will see college baseball get tv exposure. I personally hope that Mitch can continue his hiring successes………………….
March 30th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Gerry,
Never met you but if you are a true baseball fan, these words would never come out of your mouth:
“Even a bad football game (UL Monroe anyone?) is more entertaining than the most exciting baseball game.”
Just NOT true.
March 30th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I can’t argue with a lot you wrote, except for #3. Using baseballamerica.com and their player finder in the top right corner, just type in John Shelby and you’ll see his stats from last year. The minor league season starts April 5th. On the 6th, go to minorleaguebaseball.com and look up the boxscore for the team John is playing for. The boxscores for all the minor league games are on there. f course, having to do all of this may be proving your point, but it is really not that hard. I love baseball and have been to 4 or 5 UK games this year. I live in Louisville and try to go to as many games as possible, especially the SEC series’.
March 30th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Baseball was my family’s sport, and I love watching it or listening to it over all others. Gotta say that while I understand people feeling that basketball is more exciting because of the constant action, that’s just not true about football. Keep track on a stopwatch of all the actual action of a football game and you’ll see that it’s a really small percentage of the gametime. The key is whether you enjoy the action when it does happen. If you’d rather see guys crushing each other than crushing a fastball, more power to ya. I’m the opposite.
As a side note, I’ll add that I never got soccer at all, in spite playing it for a year as a kid, until I spent a year in Germany and watched some big matches with some lifelong fans. Totally different experience, and it made a 3-2 win (think 21-14, football fans) more exciting than you can imagine.
March 31st, 2007 at 10:16 am
Gerry, I know someone else named Gerry except he spells it with a J and he is about as angry as you. I’m sorry you can’t appreciate a baseball game on a sunny afternoon and enjoy a little bourbon and coke while your there.
March 31st, 2007 at 8:05 pm
apperently only 9 people care.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:07 am
Can we hate on baseball somemore? Do a little research and you will find that this state or the greater Lexington area has produced some excellent baseball players in recent years. This area does support baseball at the high school, college, minor and major league level. Maybe you should get out a little bit more and you might realize that quite a few people enjoy the most difficult sport. Remember you are trying to hit a round ball with a round bat.
April 1st, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I will pull for the UK marbles team if and when they field a team, but I
have made a conscious effort to avoid major league baseball since Cinncinnatti
became a farm team for the teams with the money and Arod said he was “fortunate”
to get paid $250,000,000 to play a game. (No I don’t have any pro heroes any
more and Arod does have to have more to play now) As a matter of fact I would
never contribute to the madness by buying a ticket to any major league ball
game since some of my “heroes” were involved in the the 10-10-220 ripoff,
including one who dragged his innocent afflicted kid into it. That said,
go UK baseball!!
April 1st, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Man that field is beautiful!
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Maybe if the Herald-Leader would give UK baseball a front page story like they seem to think this Billy Donovan hoopla every other day is worth printing….then maybe more people would have interest in feeling their blue blood run through their veins and come out and support the team. A simple front page Sports Section story would even be nice. I live in Winchester and go to several games a year. I take the kids and it is a great time. Alot better than the Legends. If your going to Legends games and your not going to UK games ….man your really missing out. I work for a local(Lexington) weekly paper and I am proud to say we give UK baseball coverage almost every week.
April 11th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi