BINGO! thank you cpm! that is why i hate the term. it speaks to that is ALL a team can do. and a good team should be able to do MORE than just hit it out. i love seeing those home runs as much as anyone. jayb will tell you that when that three run homer was hit monday night, as soon as i heard it off the bat i was on my feet screaming (at the top of my lungs) "get out, get out, get out!!!" and then going crazy afterwards. but small ball getting men on base and setting the stage for power hits is the balance i like seeing. and if facing a dominating pitcher that its hard to get homers off of, its gonna bring those runs in one at a time. even itf its few and far between. some may consider that boring baseball, but its good baseball. to me, good baseball is all about what cpm said. "balance".
I agree wholeheartedly! Get a couple of bloops...maybe move the runners with a bunt or steal a base...THEN hit the ball out the yard. That way, the guys who DIDN'T hit it out don't have to trot as far when the other guy DOES hit it out. GORILLA BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!o: And if there's rational thought involved here, this should end the debate. LSU won 5 titles in the 90s...and they didn't play small ball. Period. And Okie...there is no such thing as boring baseball IMHO. I love the strategy of the game. I love small ball when it works. I am however a results oriented person to the nth degree. GORILLA BALL!!! It cannot be argued that pitching and defense and SMART baseball are important. But if you have GORILLA BALL, you can make up for an error...a bad night by your ace...or just a good inning for your opponent. I'm not saying those other things aren't important...they are. We have good pitching...good defense...and CAN play small ball when necessary. But when Ranaudo is struggling like Saturday night, thank God for GORILLA BALL. Without it, we don't win that game. Succop. :wave:
Case in point, when we set that home run record in 97, that was not the only record we obtained. We also committed more errors than any other team in NCAA baseball. It didn't really matter when 1-9 in the lineup were going yard. I for one hate small ball. There are very few, and I mean a veeeeeeery small percentage of times when I think a bunt is a good idea. They are rally killers IMO.
