The Beast : Gator Bait once again

It’s always depressing when Miami baseball ends its season somewhere other than Omaha. It’s even more depressing when that place is Gainesville … again.

Make no mistake about it, the Gators are a really good team. Maybe even a great team. On the other hand, Miami just wasn’t good enough.

If you take a step out of our orange and green pants, on paper, UM wasn’t supposed to beat UF. The reasons why that was the truth is really the more pressing thing.

A few nanoseconds after 11-4 was in the books the “Fire 3” chants began appearing on various UM message boards, which I personally find amusing. Jim Morris has won two titles, has twice been named Coach of the Year and has brought the Canes to eighteen straight post-seasons, playing his part in the streak of 39 straight – yet people want him gone.

Fans are quick to mention that Miami hasn’t been to the College World Series for three straight years; the first time the Canes have experienced a three-year Omaha drought since the mid-seventies.

There are only eight teams that make it to Omaha every season and at times it seems like this fan base has been spoiled by what The Wizard of College Baseball started and what Coach Morris continued.

Regarding these current struggles, when did they start? You can trace it back to when Miami joined the Atlantic Coast Conference.

I remember covering Hurricanes baseball before UM joined the ACC, listening to Coach Morris and his staff in the clubhouse, talking about other teams across the nation and constantly coming back to the ACC being as good as it gets.

When Miami was an Independent, there’d be the annual series with Florida State, Florida and maybe another ACC squad (usually Georgia Tech), but the rest of the schedule was loaded with teams like Lipscomb, New York Tech, Rutgers, Maine, Northeastern and the season would wrap with someone like Long Beach State or some other west coast power. In other words there were a lot of gimmies mixed in with the handful of tough series played each year.

These days when Miami hits conference season, just about every team on the schedule has a shot at making it to the NCAA Tournament.

I realize some don’t want to buy the ‘joining a tougher conference’ argument, so let’s move to the next point; scholarships. As I mentioned weeks back, you only get 11.7 scholarships to cover a roster of 35 to 40 players. That means most guys get about a quarter of a scholarship.

At UM, despite reports to the contrary, not one player has gotten a full baseball scholarship. That includes Pat Burrell, Yonder Alonzo or even Kiki Bengochea.

For those who don’t feel this is a big deal, it’s important because it means families have to pay big money for their sons to play baseball at Miami. It costs $18,380 to attend Florida annually, $19,354 to go to Florida State and under $10,000 to go to South Florida. Attending the University of Miami is over $50,000 per year.

If you’re Coach Morris or J.D. Arteaga and you’re going down your list of prospects, you now have to ask yourselves if a kid’s family can afford to send him here. Can we get them a loan? Is he bright enough to earn an academic scholarship? The lack of a great walk-on program hurts UM in football, but it absolutely kills the Canes in baseball.

The cost of admission has gone up about $20,000 the past decade or so and that increase is more than the cost to attend any public in-state institution.

If the “cost of tuition” argument doesn’t hold any water, then let’s discuss the fact that the best high school players have the option of going pro and bypassing college. Talented baseball players from Coral Reef, Pace or Westminster Christian have that option.

What do you do if you have a list of the top fifty players in South Florida and you know half of them will be drafted in the first half dozen rounds of the baseball draft? Do you ignore them thinking they’ll sign and never play college ball? Do you recruit them, get them to sign and then sweat profusely as they negotiate with the team that drafted them over the summer, hoping they step foot into a college classroom, guaranteeing at least a three-year college career? Coach Morris is plagued by this predicament every year.

Some years only a few kids show up for the first day of meetings, only to sign a contract and leave UM before the start of classes. Other years, college baseball remains the lone sport that gets killed by the draft on both ends. Killed before kids get on campus and killed when they decide to leave early.

A few decades ago, when money for a rookie contract was much less than it is today, the decision to leave wasn’t as hard. Coach Morris is dealing with something that Ron Fraser didn’t have to worry about as much.

A lot of you don’t want to hear excuses – or facts, for that matter – and I understand that. You just want another College World Series championship. Regardless of all the things I laid out, there’s obviously room for improvement in several areas. This team didn’t hit well this year and while there were new bats to contend with, these issues went beyond the bats.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind Coach Morris bringing in a veteran hitting coach. He has a pretty young staff around him with J.D., Roger Tomas and Joe Mercandante. Of course there’s a limit to what can be done with the money that’s available, but it might not be a bad idea for this staff upgrade.

As much as they might not have gotten along off the field, Morris’ best staff was the Lazer Collazo, Turtle Thomas and Gino DiMare era. I trust 3, though. I’ve seen him adapt in the past. He’ll continue to do it and this team will get back to Omaha.

This was just a weird year from the start. The new bats, the quirky injuries, Coach Morris sidelined with gall bladder surgery, not to mention the NCAA selection committee ignoring common sense and sending the 17th best team to a regional against the nation’s number two seed.

We’re all depressed right now, but thankfully Labor Day isn’t too far off … and speaking of football. I had a great a opportunity to tag along with Mr. allCanes, Harry Rothwell for another recent allCanes road show. We trekked to Orlando days back for the Hurricane Club Spring Tour Stop at the Vineyard Wine Company in Lake Mary. It was a sold out crowd for head football coach Al Golden and another great gathering of Canes fans.

It really seems Coach Golden is hitting his stride when it comes to these types of gatherings and from afar I watched as he went table to table, glad-handing and interacting with fans on a personal level.

Golden was captivating as he answered the audience’ questions – even the most bizarre ones. A waitress even came up to me asking if Miami’s coach was married. I asked why and according to this lady, she felt Coach Golden was “reeeeaally hootttttttt”. In some ways, that sums it up right now. Coach Golden is a hot commodity and let’s home that carries over come fall.

Lastly, we’d like to thank the Jones family – owners of the Vineyard Wine Company – for inviting us to their great restaurant and wine bar for this event. If you’re every up in the Orland area, make sure to check them out. Trust us when we say that Tom and his family are great Canes fans.

Big thanks to Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs, Blake James, Assistant Athletic Director for Development, Amy Ferguson and Jesse Marks for all their efforts in putting together another amazing event.

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