I’m in the middle of reading Mike Leach’s entertaining New York Times bestseller “Swing Your Sword” and came across this nugget:
“In my opinion, the loudest place on Earth is the closed end zone at South Carolina. The distance from the back of that end zone to the crowd is about the length of my arm, and the stands go straight up. It’s just this wall of people. The stadium overall isn’t as loud, but that spot at Williams-Brice Stadium is like nothing else in college football. It’s just sheer noise.”
Nice compliment, and I don’t recall ever hearing anything that specific about our stadium from anyone else.
Leach is toxic right now in the college football landscape because of the lawsuits flying between he and Craig James and ESPN. But he’s going to make some team’s fan base very happy when he’s hired in the next year or two.
Maybe a replacement for the OBC one day? (Please nobody get excited, I’m hoping Spurrier is here for years to come, just throwing it out there to make conversation.)
It’s a long shot, and would certainly stir a lot of debate on both sides based on his recent past and the fact he was Hal Mumme’s right-hand man. But I have to say, I wouldn’t want to be on the other sideline facing him. If not USC, here’s hoping he winds up somewhere on the West Coast.
The one-year anniversary of The Rubber Chickens Blog is Friday, July 29. We thank each and every one of you for coming by to read our blog and follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook. It’s been a fun year, and we’ve really enjoyed having TRC as a creative outlet to write about Gamecock sports and a few other things.
We realize we have new followers all the time, so we decided to choose some of the top posts from the past year in case you missed them (and yes, also to pat ourselves on the back a little). First up, I’ll pick some of my favorites from the Tbone archives.
Your first look at Tbone. I know, exactly what you expected.
Tbone is an intellect, quite scholarly, and I’ve warned him a couple of times that he might lose some of our fan base (namely me) with his use of big words and faux poems from William Carlos Williams (I still don’t know who this dude is). I admit I try to have dictionary.com open when I read a new Tbone post, just in case.
He has brought us memes like the Sunday Night Snark, Graphic Explanations, and TRC the Magazine. Tbone invented the acronym CTU (he hates them more than anyone I know) and also specializes in bad Photoshop jobs.
Here are some of Tbone’s greatest hits:
Sending Out an SOS (8/9/10) – Amazing how we all felt just one short year ago.
We’d Like to Ask You a Few Questions /flashes badge (3/26/11) – We’ve all seen the SOS “arrest” video, and Tbone takes the opportunity to ask a few questions about the Clemson P.D. and how they handle CTU players.
I am a proud graduate of the University of South Carolina. I spent four and a half of the best years of my life there. For more than ten years I had season football tickets and attended games faithfully. Only after moving out-of-state and having a family did I trade my season tickets for a big-screen TV and Saturdays watching the Gamecocks from afar.
When people ask me what kind of team I think we’re going to have this season, I reply “I think we have a chance to be pretty good.”
Why do I say we?
Because the USC took my money, and in return I received an education. I have a piece of paper that is proof of this exchange.
Because week in and week out, through the good and the overabundance of bad, I watch and cheer and curse and throw furniture for my team.
You see, me and USC, we are “WE”.
"We-worthy". Why? Because we said so.
So when the Gman, the almost silent but extremely important third member of TRC, brought up the topic this morning, it got us to thinking – what are the rules of “we”?
First of all, for you fans that believe you absolutely have to be a graduate of a school to say “we”, I disagree. I think intensity of fandom + loyalty + length of fandom can ultimately warrant a “we”.
Let’s review the situation that started the conversation – Gman met a guy from Indiana who claims to have “adopted” Alabama as “his team” and referred to them as “we” throughout the conversation. Is that we-worthy? Absolutely not, under any circumstances, including the equation listed above. You are never allowed to adopt a team outside of your state or a bordering state. Indiana to Alabama? Preposterous.
If you received your undergraduate from, oh, let’s say, Furman University, and your graduate degree from USC, you are we-worthy. You are also we-worthy to Furman because they are in a lower division, but I’m not sure why you would want to be.
If you received your undergraduate from, oh, let’s say Baylor University, and your graduate degree from South Carolina, you are only we-worthy to one, not both. Pick a side, mister.
If you have been an intense, loyal fan for fifteen years or more, you CAN be we-worthy, but these cases must be reviewed individually for we-worthiness. (Are you a season ticket holder? Do you have more than one golf shirt representing the university? Do you have a sticker on your car? And the list goes on.)
If you are a loyal fan under the age of 20 but are not attending a school, but have a parent that is a graduate, you are we-worthy.
If you are a loyal fan and are not attending the school, but have an uncle you admire and wish you could be like, you are we-worthy. (You are welcome, nephews.)
If you have a son or daughter attending the university, you are we-worthy, because more than likely you are making some sort of contribution the university.
If you are my wife and are only a casual fan, but you are a graduate, you are we-worthy. She is extra we-worthy because watching a game with me is like watching with a rabid chimpanzee that hasn’t been fed in a week and has the ability to hurt your feelings.
If you read obscure blogs about your team because you are so desperate for more, you are we-worthy. (If you manage or write for an obscure blog about your team, you deserve a round of golf with Steve Spurrier.)
Professional sports – you are never we-worthy, so don’t even think about it. You can be loyal, faithful, own the paraphernalia, be a season ticket holder, be neighbors with Prince Fielder, it don’t matter. I have been an Atlanta Braves fan for 35 years and have never once referred to them as “we”. It just ain’t right.
But with collegiate sports, there are gray areas, for certain. You must use your discretion to determine if Johnny Nextdoor is we-worthy, and opinions may differ occasionally.
There are also some exceptions for different universities.
Take Clemson Tiger University (CTU) for example. Rules for CTU fans are, like their subject, slightly different. You can be CTU we-worthy if:
You own more than one tractor.
You own or are married to a goat.
You are on your fourth marriage, but only your third wife.
You are constantly trying to convince your friends to listen to Jimmy Buffett’s “new stuff”.
You have more felony arrests than teeth.
You believe the 1981 “National Championship” is legitimate.
Your family tree fails to branch.
You have a tiger paw painted on the side of your meth lab.
You had your wedding, reception and honeymoon at the Super 8 in Anderson.
The rules of “we” are a work in progress, but we at TRC are determined to be the we-police and exact justice for all true fans. Please help us stamp out we-posing everywhere.
Yesterday Baseball America awarded its 2011 Coach of the Year award to University of Florida head man Kevin O’Sullivan. The same Kevin O’Sullivan whose UF team lost 2 out of 3 regular season and 2 out of 2 National Championship Series games to Ray Tanner’s South Carolina Gamecocks.
When a team that is described with words like “scrappy” and “overachievers” whips a team that is described as “loaded”, don’t you attribute a tremendous amount of that to coaching? Call me biased, because I am, but are there any unbiased observers out there besides Baseball America that can honestly say Kevin O’Sullivan did a better job than Ray Tanner in the 2011 season?
Now look, I’m not real big on preseason or postseason awards. I don’t really care, and I’m certain Tanner and his two rings care even less. But the Twitter exchanges of BA’s Aaron Fitt – a good writer and excellent ambassador for the college game – really got my temperature up. A sampling: http://twitter.com/#!/aaronfitt/status/89025020608774144
Um, “spread the love”? What happened to giving your “Coach of the Year” award to the actual “Coach of the Year”? So Ray Tanner has won it twice, it’s time for somebody else to win? Why don’t you just go the way of Little League these days and give every coach a COY trophy? YAY, WE’RE ALL WINNERS! http://twitter.com/#!/aaronfitt/status/89067594543398913
Honor great coaches – check.
Who did great coaching jobs – check.
Have built elite programs – screeeeeeeeeeeeech!!!
Part of the Coach of the Year award is to honor a coach who has built a great program? That’s up to the universities, and it’s called a pay raise and contract extension.
If that’s part of the criteria, then the guy who probably did the best coaching job in the country – Cal’s David Esquer – shouldn’t have even been considered given his program was almost put in the dumpster a few months ago. http://twitter.com/#!/aaronfitt/status/89068268102483968
If he deserves it, then yes.
Fitt also had a tweet in there where he blasted Gamecock fans who strongly disagreed with him, but in the interest of keeping the peace with the G-Nation he apparently removed it.
My disclaimer is this – nobody is out to get us. This is not personal. There is no great conspiracy against the University of South Carolina, its athletes, coaches or fans.
In awarding its 2011 Coach of the Year, Baseball America quite simply swung and missed.
We saw it, we watched the highlights, we read every article on the internets about it, we watched it again on DVR, we bought the t-shirt, and the hat…and it will never, ever get old.
But there is only so much we at TRC can write about Tanner, Wingo, Roth, Walker, et al, so we’ll leave it to Justin King Media to wrap this season (and a little of last season) into a nice, tidy little bow.
I stood in my living room last night and watched the final out of the 2011 College World Series. When I saw Matt Price point to the sky and Jackie Bradley, Jr. draw a bead on the final out of the season, I clapped my hands a couple of times and gave a little fist pump. After a hug for the wife I sat back down and watched the celebration on the field.
This was in stark contrast to last year when Scott Wingo scored the game-winner against UCLA and I went temporarily insane.
As I watched ESPN I noticed something – like at my house, the celebration seemed slightly subdued. There was a dogpile, and plenty of hugs and high-fives to go around. Ray Tanner was obviously emotional in his interview, but in a different way than last year. I was trying to pin down why this was the case, then it hit me.
You know the old saying, “act like you’ve been there before”?
Well, we’ve been there before.
Don’t get me wrong, this year’s title isn’t any less satisfying or enjoyable. Quite the contrary. This run through the NCAA tournament was about as fun as any sporting event I’ve seen – full of storylines, drama and huge plays. And as I tweeted last night, this team is as likable as any I’ve ever followed.
I think the thing is, for Carolina baseball, this is the new normal. We have the best baseball program in the country, and I don’t think anyone can dispute that at the moment. Making it to the CWS is no longer the goal. Winning the whole darn thing is.
I like the new normal.
So, moving on…
As Tbone wrote yesterday, there were simply too many storylines to try to write a blog post. But I’m going to give it a try, in Tusings-style. My random thoughts over the last couple of days include:
People kept talking about how cool it would be to win the last at Rosenblatt and the first at TDAP. And it is cool. Very cool.
This year’s numbers – 10-0 in the NCAA Tournament; 16 straight tournament wins (NCAA record); 11 straight CWS wins (NCAA record). 16 and 11 won’t be broken any time soon.
Pitching – USC gave up five earned runs in 51 innings pitched in the CWS for an ERA of 0.88. We gave up four runs in the first inning of the first game against Texas A&M, then six runs in 50 innings after that. Crazy.
Maybe Ray Tanner isn’t quite in the company of Dedeaux, Garrido and Bertman just yet, but I would expect a statue of him at Ray Tanner Field at Carolina Stadium in the not too distant future. (Oh yeah, and at least name the field after him.)
Scott Wingo is not the best baseball player in South Carolina history, but he might turn out to be the most memorable. His play on Monday night to save the game is as good as you will ever see with that much on the line. We will miss everything about that guy.
More Wingo – I looked it up, and the CWS MOP batted .230 as a Freshman, .196 as a Sophomore, and .247 as a Junior. I don’t have his updated batting average after last night, but I think he’s been hovering around .330 recently. Wingo always had the reputation as all glove, no stick. He changed that dramatically this year and has given himself a great opportunity to play at the next level.
Christian Walker is a badass, period. And if anyone knows what Tanner meant when he said Walker’s wrist looked like a “stack of pancakes”, please fill me in. I cannot for the life of me form an image that results in Walker playing last night.
I wrote about Michael Roth last week, and he simply added to his legendary status since then. I truly believe he deserved the CWS MOP as much as Wingo. (Throw Matt Price in that mix as well.)
Matt Price, what a clutch, clutch pitcher. He threw 95 pitches on Friday, 16 on Monday, and 15 last night on the biggest stage in college baseball, and gave up nada. He had us worried a few times, but as Roth said about him, “I think he gets into trouble just so he can pitch out of it.”
Do you remember that John Taylor was our closer coming into the 2010 season? He was lit up early and blew a couple of saves, and Matt Price became the man. But this year? A million appearances with an ERA just barely north of one. We probably wouldn’t have made it this far without Every Day Johnny.
Tyler Webb deserves a mention for his performance on Monday. For the better part of two months he was coming out of the pen to face a lefty or two and then was done. His 2 1/3 scoreless on Monday night gave us a chance to win. I hope he can carry that over into a weekend job next year, he certainly has the stuff.
Robert Beary’s backhanded, short-hop snag of Wingo’s wide throw on Monday night was spectacular and so far underrated.
Peter Mooney, we hardly knew ye, but it sure was fun while it lasted. I expect him to move on, but he kept up the tradition of great South Carolina shortstops for at least a year.
ESPN, Dennis Dodd, etc., please quit talking about the bats. Everyone had to play with them.
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