Players bring fun, personality to normally serious sport
There is big money at stake for both programs and players, bragging rights for fans and television contracts for conferences. These sports, it would seem, would require focus, intensity and snarling.
Then how in the world have the goofball Gamecocks been so successful?
They shimmy and shake in the biggest of moments, they bowl in the bullpen and they create rifles and binoculars from water cups. This isn't how it should be done. High profile college athletes aren't supposed to look and act like the guys you grew up with. They are supposed to be brooding and unblinking and masters of staring down those who dare get in their way.
South Carolina's baseball players are nothing like this. In fact, they seem to be pretty good guys. They laugh and chatter and appear to be having fun playing a sport they love. Do they not realize that this is not the way teams are supposed to behave?
Look at Florida. That's how baseball players should act. Quiet focus, no nonsense. Yes, they went 0-2 in Omaha this year after being the No. 1 team in college baseball, but let's not get bogged down in frivolous details. The point is they LOOK like champions. No one would ever question their focus or commitment to the game.
You'd never see a Gator pitcher pretending to paddle a boat or moving like Berney, the way Michael Roth has on countless occasions. Never mind that Roth is arguably the most successful pitcher in the history of the College World Series, maybe in all of college baseball. No one does it this way, with this "fun is good" mentality. No one dominates the game's top hitters between the lines, then goes to the dugout and jokes around with his buds between innings.
Do these guys not understand what they're playing for? There are big-league scouts watching these games. What are they supposed to think when they see the Gamecocks enjoying themselves so much? This is not the way you make it to the majors. You can bet the farm Barry Bonds didn't have fun playing baseball when he made it the bigs. You heap pressure on yourself, judge yourself harshly, get angry and temperamental and take enough synthetic testosterone to kill a brontosaurus. That's the way it works.
The demeanor that the Gamecocks have adopted doesn't come from the top. While he isn't an iron-fisted dictator, Ray Tanner is not a happy-go-lucky coach. He's old school and is no fan of all these newfangled jives. He prefers to not watch when his ball club is performing their rituals and skits. He is a baseball guy who just wants to coach baseball. He has no interest in playing a role in the Gamecocks' dugout theatrics.
The Gamecocks are just different. They don't seem to understand tension or pressure. They go out and play the game they love with a passion that is unmatched. Maybe, just maybe, that's the reason they have experienced so much success during the past three years. Maybe they've come to understand that, while baseball is an important part of their lives, it's just a game in the grand scheme of things. Maybe their outlook on the game allows them to remain relaxed when the big moments arrive.
Maybe fun is good after all.