There Is No Joy In UGAville… June 26, 2008

 …The mighty Diamond Dawgs have struck out.

 

Damn.

I do not remember a time of late where I felt so heartbroken about a Georgia loss. It ticked me off when our Women’s Tennis Team had their dreams of a National Championship dashed by Yech’s much lesser program. When the Dawgs lost to South Carolina and UcheaT last year, it made me so mad my blood boiled! I screamed, ranted, & raved for days.

But watching the Diamond Dawgs work so hard, capture some of the most thrilling wins I’ve ever witnessed, and then lose it all in two games… Heartbreaking just doesn’t quite describe it.

Kit and I were talking after the game Wednesday and everytime he’d even mention it, I couldn’t talk about it. I still don’t want to talk about it.

I feel crushed and I’m just a fan. I cannot begin to imagine how low Perno and the team feels.This is no doubt the most talented team to ever grace Foley Field to date. They deserved that CWS trophy. I refuse to believe Fresno State was the Cinderella the media made them out to be - the facts are on my side. And I refuse to believe they wanted it more, they were more talented, or they deserved it more. Again, the facts are on my side. So I have to believe Fresno State just played a couple of better games than we did. That’s all.

When I woke up this morning and read some more news on the Diamond Dawgs and their magical year, all I could think about was a line from my brother’s favorite story (really a poem) when we were kids. At bedtime our parents would read to us and we could each pick out 1 story we wanted to hear. Rob almost always picked Casey At The Bat. 

“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.”

Next year’s team will be full of new faces, personalities, and eventual stars - no doubt. Coach Perno continually proves that he’s one of the best recruiters in all of college baseball. So as heartbroken as I am right now, I know this isn’t the last you’ve heard from the Diamond Dawgs at the College World Series.

Thank you Coach Perno and the Diamond Dawgs from this diehard fan, for a fantastic season. Congratulations on making it to the Championship game - finishing 2nd is an accomplishment you should all be extremely proud of. I know I sure am.

 

 

Go Dawgs! 

Dawgs Chop Trees June 22, 2008

 

Unbelievable! Dawgs win!!! After last night’s win by the Tarheels, Georgia is now the only undefeated team to enter the Championship series on Monday. Despite Josh Fields nearly giving the game away (4 freakin’ runs in the 9th?) we escape with the win and sweep the bracket.

I’m a huge Diamond Dawg fan and a true homer, but I never thought we’d get past Miami. Hell, I was worried that Stanford would even up the series and force a game two for today. Never in my life am I so glad to say that I was way wrong!

Perno made a big deal to the team about how history repeats itself. A little lame, but it worked apparently. His 1990 National Championship team had to get by a heavily favored Stanford team looking for 3 consecutive CWS titles. And now this squad had to do the same. Whatever works.

I happen to think it has a lot more to do with redemption than history. Last year’s pathetic season was too much of an embarrassment for arguably the most talented team we’ve ever seen at Georgia. This year though has been all about hard work, tough opponents, confidence - maybe even borderline arrogance. But mostly, its been about a dertermined group of athletes focused on redemption. Lately I’ve been seeing this quote from Gordon Beckham in a lot of articles that speaks to that edge:

“We came here to play, and now we’re in the National Championship Game, and you couldn’t ask for more. All we wanted to do was be playing on the last day.” [emphasis added]

Every game it seems someone different in the lineup has a brilliant day. I think back recently to Olson’s MVP performance throughout the Regionals & Supers. Peisel’s clutch hits against Miami in game one at the CWS.  Stephen Dodson’s command pitching & Matt Cerione’s 2-out, bases loaded, single to win game two against Stanford. And then yesterday’s parade of hits by Rich Poythress to send Stanford home & sweep our bracket. Outstanding.

I’ll be biting my nails Monday night, for sure. But more than anything, I’ll be watching to see which Bulldawg gets his due for another brilliant day. Hopefully it will be accompanied by many of these…

 

Go Dawgs!

 

Btw, There’s a great article up this morning on espn.com about yesterday’s game. In it there’s a great quote from Rich Poythress where he talks about his injury last year and how that affected his attitude coming into this season. It earns him Damn Good Dawg status for life:

“Poythress had shown plenty of “want to” in the fall of 2006 and last spring. After tearing an ACL while trying to avoid a tag during his first at-bat of a fall scrimmage, he worked hard at rehabilitation and was lucky enough to be able to return four months later.

“That was a reality check. I told a bunch of people that more than anything it made me appreciate the opportunities I get every day,” Poythress said. “A million kids would give the shirts off their back to play baseball for the University of Georgia. I’m still trying to take advantage of that.”  

I’ll say it again…GO DAWGS!!!

 

No, he’s not bitter… June 11, 2008

 

I was just reading a piece from the Red and Black about the Diamond Dawgs going to the College World Series and the last lines nearly made me spit out my sweet tea!

“but Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent was less than enthusiastic when asked how they compared with the juggernauts of his league, including a possible first-game matchup with Miami.

“I could say something, but that’s not fair,” he said. “Georgia’s a
great baseball team, they’ll found out in maybe a week how they really compare.”

I can’t help but laugh really. This is just one of several snotty comments from this guy. Unbelievable. And who could forget him making an issue out of Dodson’s dirty hat on Friday. After realizing Dodson was not trying to cheat, he still insinuated on national television that something was up. And this is the moral compass of the program? Nice.

All week I’ve seen postings on mesage boards from NC State fans talking about how classless our team was during that series. Apparently its absolutely uncouth and in poor form for a player to have un unbottoned jersey. Seriously? And we’ve been slammed because some players would “flip their bats” after slamming a home run, or take their helmets off as they were crossing home plate. To the wolfpack this is absolutely inexcusable and a display of poor sportsmanship.

Yeah, but a Pitching Coach giving Georgia fans the finger and quotes like the one from Head Coach Avent above are completely within Emily Post’s guidelines of respectable behavior? Was it an accident that their pitchers hit 8 of our players (Gordon Beckhmam was hit 3 times), all above the letters, and always when they were losing? Oh, and let’s not forget what NC State pitcher Drew Taylor intentionally did to Lyle Allen right after getting burned AGAIN for a home run by Joey Lewis. I guess that’s what passes for class & good sportsmanship by Avent & Co., huh?

I went to Saturday’s game and the fans around us couldn’t have been nicer. Maybe that had something to do with the fact they were whippin’ our asses at the time, I don’t know. But we met some very gracious people who had nothing but great things to say about the Classic City, our fans, and our program. Too bad the NC State program didn’t share the same warm, fuzzy feelings of their fans.

Whatever Coach Avent. You showed what poor sports and sore losers you & your team really are. With this behavior and pathetic attitude its no surprise to anyone that your program can’t earn a trip to Omaha. Oh well, we’ll be happy to send you a postcard. Thanks for the memories asshat.

 

Go Dawgs!