I guess this is a recap? Basically, this just took me forever to write.
Florida's baseball team lost Tuesday night. It lost in a painful fashion, without ever leading, with faint and unsuccessful scrapping to get back into a game that we were never likely to win. It lost two games in a row to a team that beat it four out of five times in the most successful season in school history, a team that was summitting Everest for a second time while we were topping out on K2 again.
It sucked. I'm not gonna lie about that. But I think this is the sort of pain that makes things sweeter at the end.
I don't remember the 2000 NCAA Tournament all that well, in honesty. I remember being home, inexplicably, to see Mike Miller's floater vanquish Butler, and I remember that we beat Illinois, Duke, Oklahoma State, and North Carolina to get to that matchup with Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament final, but I honestly couldn't tell you much about any of those games, beyond my absolute certainty that Teddy Dupay and Brett Nelson were making threes and being annoying.
I don't even remember much of the final, other than Mateen Cleaves being completely awesome and earning every bit of the hate I still have for him. I was 10 years old then; I went to sleep around halftime with a promise from my dad that he would wake me up if it got close, and woke up in the morning to a "It just never got close" explanation.
But that night confirmed my status as a fan of Florida basketball. That hurt. Seeing Mateen Cleaves' impish joy hurt. Every SportsCenter replay of a Mo Peterson jumper hurt. Knowing that Mike Miller and Donnell Harvey leaving was going to make getting back to that stratosphere difficult hurt.
There's something about the transience of college sports, and how small the windows are, that makes each triumph sweeter: My Packers will have Aaron Rodgers for years to come, but I only got four years of Tim Tebow, of Danny Wuerffel; I got three years of Joakim Noah and the rest of the Oh Fours.
And so each game, each year, is that much more important. When Florida baseball gets to the College World Series, the losses hurt that much more because there aren't that many more chances.
Tuesday night hurt. Monday night hurt, maybe more: I'd never used alcohol as a pain reliever before, and doubt I'll do it that often, but there was a lot of wine and a bit of vodka in my system shortly after South Carolina won in 11 innings. It's not like baseball's nearly my favorite sport — soccer might pip it on a scale of sports I enjoy in the abstract, and I loved the one lacrosse game I saw this season — but that hurt.
That made me realize something: I care.
I cared that Kevin O'Sullivan's silly reliance on bunting may have hampered the Gators. I cared that Mike Zunino finally got his moment to shine in the CWS. I cared about us making dumb outs with bad swings on first pitches; I cared that Nolan Fontana's great year will have an error as its last moment of note; I cared that Karsten Whitson's only loss of the year came in the biggest game Florida's ever played. I cared enough to call this team we.
We is a threshold for me; we is what I use for various Gators teams, because I'm a student and will be an alum, and because I'm a Florida-born, Florida-based UF fan. They feel like my family, my tribe. That's been true of football for about 15 years; for men's basketball, about a decade. As of this week, it's also true for baseball.
Sure, there's a bit of admitted front-runnerism here (it's easy to claim a team that was second-best in its sport, I know), but this is a team I care about. It's a team I'm going to follow; it's a team I was looking up recruiting reports for earlier this week.
We'll probably lose in the coming years. The 2012 team will be very, very good, but, then, so was this year's team. I firmly believe a national championship isn't far off, though, and when we win, finally getting to the top of Everest, it's going to be very sweet.
We lost Monday night. We lost Tuesday night. But Florida baseball has at least one new devoted fan. And I'm proud to be part of that we.
0 recs | 12 comments
We didn't bunt enough.
ParadigmShift35 - June 30, 2011
Really like this.
While I’m not quite the same, as baseball season is second only to football. I’ve just never really been a basketball fan, just don’t find a sport where you score 75 points by finding a 7 footer to stand around putting balls in hoops a game that exciting (tongue in cheek…kind of). I like games with goalies and defense, where you earn your points.
But as for the baseball team, Monday night’s loss may have been one of the most painful losses I’ve experienced as a Gator fan, in any sport. Having those opportunities to win game 1, leadoff man on in the 9th, 10th, and 11th. Runners on 3rd, then 2nd with less than 2 outs. And then to give up the winning run on simple over-aggresiveness… you could see it in the dugout after the game, it was a best of 3 series, but everyone knew it was over.
kSelvig - June 30, 2011
Exactly
Game 1 was a must win. Our ace against their rookie. Had to win it. Should have won it. Blew the series.
P.S. Nice post Andy. Glad this team converted you even though they bunted too much.
BKGator - June 30, 2011
you can hardly consider of Freshman that has been thru a seasons worth of grinds against the SEC
a rookie… he was All Frosh, not exactly a lightweight.
Gamecockrock - July 4, 2011
Great post Andy.
I, too, am not much of a baseball fan. I collected the cards when I grew up, but never played the sport (expect for one game of little league where during my one at bat the pitcher tried to decapitate me…I quit the next day) and due to that never had a real connection with it. If I had, I’m sure I’d be much more into the game as a whole and the current Major League season. As it is, I’m just not.
But this team definitely became a “we.” I’m excited to watch more of “us.” I’m looking forward to next season as opposed to saying “wake me when the College World Series starts.” I want to cheer for Florida baseball and want to become a better fan of the team.
I may never become a huge baseball fan (soccer is much higher on my list), but I am a huge Florida baseball supporter and, more importantly now, follower.
The Bull Gator - June 30, 2011
Baseball is the purest sport there is. Ted Williams once said it best…(and remember, he fought in WWII)
“The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, was take a round ball, a round bat, and hit it square.”
FlaGators - June 30, 2011
well spoken
people seem to think Baseball is an easy sport to play and succeed at… not even close. Baseball is right up there with football to me, well over Basketball (and its not because our basketball team SUCKS, just no respect for the sport of basketball).
Gamecockrock - July 4, 2011
I've alway's loved pro baseball
college not so much. I’ve always kept an eye on it but I’ve always considered it a distant third behind football and basketball. But after seeing what these guy’s accomplished this year and how close they actually came to winning it all, I gotta say I’m a much bigger fan of it now than I ever was. Now it will always remain my third favorite college sport, but I can honestly say it is now a close third instead a distant third. In short, I now care about it.
The ending of this season sucked but these guy’s will be back next year. And I for one will be watching very intently.
Great write up Andy!
Gatorbuc15 - July 1, 2011
When it comes to college sports, I follow football. The rest, for the most part, wake me up when it is the post-season.
FlaGators - July 1, 2011
To each his own. I personally have always gotten jacked up by Gator football and basketball.
Gatorbuc15 - July 1, 2011
No doubt. Football yes. Live and die.
FlaGators - July 1, 2011
Great post
colombo259 - July 1, 2011
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