Where did I ever say no one is allowed to express an opinion? If you want to be critical go right ahead. I will continue to spout off with my opinion as well. If I think what you say is stupid, I will say so. If you think I'm full of crap, you will say so. That's the way this forum thing works. Personally, I learned many years ago that getting all upset over a sports team is counter productive. I think that calling for a coaches head over temporary failings is a knee jerk reaction by fans who don't know the first thing about what goes on behind the scenes. That's how I feel and I'm going to respond if I feel an opposing view is off base. But, please, attack my opinions but quit attacking me.
I got into it on another board a few years ago w/ a guy who was complaining because John Brady used "foul language" towards his players. I told him that Skip was every bit as bad if not worse, but this guy didn't want to hear any of that. I know of a starting pitcher we had back in the mid-90s whose father was a minister at a prominent local church, who almost quit the team a few times because of the verbal abuse Skip would heap upon him in practice. He was a very religious young man who wasn't used to that kind of language, hadn't been raised around it. Fortunately for us, he stuck it out and ended up having a decent LSU career.
HELLO. Nobody is calling for Smoke's head. I'm being critical of what I see. Nothing more, nothing less. Given that I agree with you 995/1000 times, and actually consider you something of a friend on this forum, I offer my apology to you for my verbal lash-out. It's been a long day and I was out of line. I'm sorry for taking it out on you.
Attack you? No way. Everybody likes you, you old cantankerous Cajun! Besides, we know that you can take it! :thumb: PS Cal State Fullerton was something like 15-16 last year when they won it all, if I remember correctly. Let's all relax a bit and see how the season plays out. If we have to win on the road to get to Omaha, so what? PSS Let's wait and see what happens.
oh i have one story i can share. it may not come across as funny as it actually was. anyhow it was mid 90s, the time yarnall/brian winders was part of the rotation. it was early in the season and we had played many midweek slouches and weekend scrub teams but our pitching staff was getting shelled. Not to mention no one could throw strikes consistently and you know that was his pet peeve. So, it got to the point where the starter would pitch an inning, then suck and skip would already have the pen warmed. He'd wobble out to the mound (post hip(s)-replacement surgeries) and call for berthelot or whoever it was. berthelot would come in and walk the first batter. Skip would get irate and immediately yank berthelot after one batter. Wouldnt even look at him when he walked back out. he'd just take the ball. Then Daugherty would come in and the cycle continued. this went on for like half the year it seemed. So about that time Skip, at one practice, called all the pitchers out to the mound. He told all of them to move to his left side. He put Winders and Yarnall on the right. Then told the guys on the left saying everytime he called on one of them he felt like he was the fn chairman of the gd make-a-wish foundation and he didn't care how good they were in high school or juco he would sit their asses on the bench for the remaining of the year. Then proceeded to tell yarnall and winders he would pitch them every single game for the remaining of the year regardless if their fn arms fell off and that they could blame those other son of a bitches on his left for it. anyhow thats paraphrasin' my memory of one of those said pitchers stories above and thought the make a wish deal was one of the funniest things ever given it was nice skip. you know, in that classic skip voice, it had to be hard not to laugh.
I wasn't going to mention any names, but Brian Winders was the young man I was referring to in my earlier post. That near-perfect game he threw in Oxford in 1995 (only baserunner coming on a 1-out pinch homer in the 9th) has to be the greatest game ever pitched by an LSU hurler.
