There’s something beautiful going on in Omaha.
It surpasses Texas coach Augie Garrido’s 13th College World Series appearance. It isn’t phased by LSU’s ridiculous .520 slugging percentage. The Longhorns’ last-inning comebacks? Just a blip on the radar.
No, the magic in Omaha is of a much simpler ilk, and as American as apple pie: It’s baseball without reservations.
There was no mention of steroids when Longhorns Cameron Rupp and Connor Rowe nailed back-to-back homers in the bottom of the ninth Friday, no subpoenas have been issued yet and the only mention of Cooperstown came three weeks ago when the bat of Travis Tucker and the cap of Austin Wood became the subject of impromptu induction.
You’d have to go back a few months to find another instance of baseball this pristine.
Despite relatively low viewership in the U.S., the 2009 World Baseball Classic drew the highest ratings of any sporting event ever televised in Japan, with ratings above 35.0 for all games between Japan and South Korea. The tournament contained heroics and comedy, triumphs and tragedies, all without a large number of the MLB’s top talent.
Daisuke Matsuzaka and Ichiro Suzuki, pro stars in their own rights, subjected themselves to the month-long tournament while many of their professional brethren opted to rest at home. While both of the aforementioned players were seen to suffer slight “post-tournament” slumps at the beginning of this year’s MLB season, they walked away with World Baseball Classic hardware — Team Japan’s second straight championship.
It’s that type of dedication we’ve come to see, and believe in, during this year’s College World Series. It’s the type of baseball that should bring us back in, make us smile and remind us why we started loving this sport in the first place. Bud Selig’s vocal support of the World Baseball Classic and ESPN’s continued carrying of the CWS are both promising developments to this regard.
But why don’t more people — more fans, and more baseball fans in particular — tune in? Attendance and viewership improved markedly between the 2006 and 2009 world tournaments, and 2009’s CWS is off to a strong start in the ratings. Nevertheless, the overall ratings for both events continue to hover between 1.0 and 2.0, and even on a good day the CWS draws less than 1.5 million viewers in this country.
But these games are priceless. The matchup between LSU and Texas is the stuff of supernova. These two schools, with nearly a dozen championships between them, will clash like titans this week, battling for nothing more than the chance to call themselves No. 1.
In another mythological parallel, only one will emerge on the other side of this week’s championship series as the nation’s unequivocal best. And yet, the clearest winner this summer is any baseball fan that has sat down and noticed just how exciting the sport can still be.
Like the World Baseball Classic, the College World Series doesn’t celebrate salary cap-straddling contracts or revel in doping scandals. Like the CWS, the Classic is an instance of all that is right with America’s pastime when all we can seem to hear about is what is wrong.
Professional baseball isn’t a total loss just yet. The best-of-three format embraced by the CWS is a welcomed change and a better reflection of the teams that have earned the right to play for our hearts. And the continued elevation in the overall skill of players owes a lot to the majors.
But take a second to appreciate the stark beauty of something like the College World Series. There are no A-Rods playing in Omaha tonight and the only performance enhancer is Texas’ seemingly undeniable fortune to win at the last minute. No PEDs. No HGH. And the payday? That won’t come until one team wins it all, as anything less, according to Augie, just isn’t acceptable.
As fans of this sport, anything less than a game without reservations should be seen as the same.
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