“How could you not be romantic about baseball?” asked the Oakland Athletics General Manager and Minority Owner Billy Beane in the baseball flick “Moneyball.” It is a phrase that possibly confuses some, but when really looked at, isn’t much of a brainteaser.
“Romantic” is defined on dictionary.com as, “Inclined toward or suggestive of the feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.”
While often used when referring to people’s love with one another, in this case, “romantic” is inserted between people and baseball.
Non-sports fans might find this expression bizarre or completely absurd, but anyone who has passion for the game of baseball completely understands.
The 2014 Longwood baseball team could possibly be asked this question.
The Lancers have had a seesaw type of season, which has had more ups and downs than anyone would care to count.
The team has things to be proud of, including leading the Big South Conference in home runs and being in the upper echelon in runs batted in, doubles and slugging percentage to this point.
They have two work- horses in junior pitchers Aaron Myers and Brandon Vick.
Both show guts on the mound, have had good seasons thus far and will most likely be 2014 MLB draft picks.
There is also first year Head Coach Brian McCullough, who has had one of the toughest jobs on the planet this year following the coaching legacy of his predecessor, Buddy Bolding.
Bolding held the helm for 35 years before passing the torch to McCullough, who has put his players in positions to win so far this season.
All the intangibles are there for the Lancers. They have a good coach, talent and great opportunities, but something is missing.
College baseball games are played so frequently that it is easy for them to become a chore in the middle of the season if a team doesn’t come to play each and every day.
This season, the Lancers will play 56 games in 91 days. That is an average of .62 games per day.
If you don’t truly love the game, or want to be out there, a 56 game schedule is going to show it.
Now, I am not making any accusations, but every baseball squad in the country is asked this question sooner or later, so it is only fair to ask the Lancers the same thing.
Does every player on the team love the game? Do they want to be out there everyday? I am not so certain.
As of now, the team is third in the Big South with 53 errors in 33 games. That’s an average of 1.6 errors per game. They are also 10 out of 12 in fielding percentage, at a .958 mark.
Now of course, some of these errors are due to inexperience or bad hops, but a lot of them are the result of routine ground balls being misplayed.
The latest case of the error plague came in this past Friday’s game which featured a team high five errors, while ace Myers was on the mound; this resulted in two unearned runs.
The letter “E” has been a thorn in the Lancers’ side all season as they have had 16 games with two or more errors. In those 16 games, the Lancers are an astounding 2-14.
Hitting has been a shot in the dark as well. The team has 260 strikeouts thus far, which correlates to almost eight per game.
In 2013, the Lancers had a total of 391 errors at the end of the season, a stat that they will likely shatter at the pace they are going.
Senior Captain Matt Dickason was quoted on l o n g w o o d l a n c e r s . c o m earlier this season saying, “I think this is the most talented team we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
It is true. The Lancers definitely don’t lack talent, but their will to win and moxie does come into question.
Talent and will to win, together produce victories, not one or the other. They are at a critical point in the season as a five game losing streak is hanging from their neck, and run support has been at a minimum.
The team has scored two runs or less, nine times and in those games, they are 1-8 overall.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier as they will travel to Blacksburg to face an always stout Virginia Tech team, before sporting a three game series with Big South leader Liberty University next weekend.
I don’t know if the Lancers are “romantic” about baseball or not, but we will surely find out within the next few weeks.
While I personally expect them to come on strong and make a late season run, that is to be determined.
I don’t see this team enjoying the game at the moment. They need to get back to having fun and showing people that they actually love it.
