May 2, 2019
MCNEESE BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL ARE ON THE AIR!
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This week’s broadcasting schedule includes:
May 3 Stephen F Austin 5:45 PM BASEBALL
May 4 Stephen F Austin 2:45 PM BASEBALL
May 5 Stephen F Austin 12:45 PM BASEBALL
May 8 Prairie View 5:45 PM BASEBALL May 7-May 11 SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT @Northwestern State TIME TBD
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
I love Paul Mainieri and the Saints. I know it isn’t necessarily the in thing to love Paul Mainieri, and I know it is a strange jump to go from Paul Mainieri to the Saints. Stay with me.
There are many “winning” philosophies. Many fans overly stress themselves because the coach or organization they follow do not adopt their philosophy as if only one philosophy works. All we can expect is for the organization we follow to have an organizational philosophy that is consistent and leads to more success than not over time. Paul Mainieri and the Saints have an organizational philosophy that they stick with and they aren’t afraid to be completely transparent about it. The last part is what I love the most.
Last week, I wrote about the LSU baseball team and what I think could develop with the batting order over the last month of the year and into the postseason. Clearly, Mainieri didn’t read my suggestion, but true to himself he made bold changes to the batting order. Mainieri gives his players many chances, makes bold changes, and isn’t afraid to tell everyone about it.
I thought he was going to stick with Duplantis in the three hole and I had just come to accept it. Then he made that change and many others including a freshman coming off a two month injury in the cleanup spot. That is not a decision most college baseball coaches would make. LSU would not have won two out of three at Alabama without that decision.
We see those bold decisions every year. There are so many decisions in a baseball game, and since baseball is a game of failure, many decisions don’t work out as we hope. Since Mainieri is still the coach, those decisions must work more often than they not.
I love it when Mainieri explains a decision from its inception to its execution. Last week, he told us all about moving Hess to the bullpen and then he had to scrap that plan. It doesn’t matter that Mainieri had to change the plan before it had a chance. What matters is that Zack Hess was on board because Mainieri has managed his team and players in a manner that gets them to believe due to the number of chances he gives players.
Let me repeat, you don’t have to agree with Mainieri all the time and I don’t, but I respect the thought process and transparency. We know Mainieri believes you have to have a great bullpen because most games are decided by less than three runs and the 7-9 inning matter the most in close games. Fontenot and Peterson have been shaky as closers. Mainieri knows what an ace starter, ace setup pitcher, and ace closer looks like. All year, LSU has lacked all three.
This year, we have to preface statements with, “when healthy” for this pitching staff. Still, Cole Henry looks like an ace. Walker, Marceaux, and Hill can be very good starters. Peterson, Hilliard, and Fontenot look like great setup pitchers. Zack Hess can be an ace closer. I hope LSU can get to this point with the pitching staff. If they do or don’t, it won’t be because Mainieri is scared to make a tough choice. Either way we will know the reasoning, and I love Mainieri for it.
The Saints are the same way with their free agent and draft philosophy. They have explained it, executed it, and have had success from it. Things don’t always work. When the scouting department was a mess, the Saints drafted poorly. Loomis and Payton assessed the problem, fixed it with Jeff Ireland, and the Saints have drafted well.
The draft experts can go back and forth on who had value, if the Saints made the right pick, and so on. Certainly, some will agree with the choices and others have questions. I appreciate that there is a mission and vision that is clear to everyone in the organization, it is followed, and they don’t mind communicating it with the fans. Actually, I don’t appreciate. I love it.
HEY REF
I had the pleasure of “discussing” my opinion that the NCAA should pay its employees or players as most people call them. The so called “other” side says, you guessed it, that student-athletes get a FREE education. Why do I allow myself to become irritated when a person that looks like they’re educated in the ways of the world spews such a ridiculous reason for not feeding the cow that gives everybody milk? O. K., I didn’t ask for permission from the person that first said that but it fits perfectly.
This person had read my column where I chastised LSU’s athletic dept. for not accepting an invite to the lady’s NIT tournament. Every present day coach is judged on their Won-Lost record and how many bowl games/Tournaments their team plays in. He asked me how LSU could afford to pay players from those sports that don’t draw a big enough crowd and enough money, etc., etc. Well, Boy Wonder I believe LSU pays the coaching staffs of every sport no matter the cash taken in at the gate. He also feels that schools should discontinue any and all sports that don’t pay for themselves.
Oh, really Boy Wonder? In his world there would only be two categories, (A) sports that make money and (B) those that don’t. If a sport doesn’t at least cover its expenses after 3 or 4 years then he’d cut it from those that do make enough. Where do these people come from? I listened to his dribble then asked him what he did for a living and he replied “I’m in sales”. So, if we apply his logic to his chosen profession if he didn’t produce enough sales in say two years then he shouldn’t have a job. And he of course said that wasn’t a fair comparison.
Well, I’m sorry but this is my column and my opinion out ranks his ideology no matter how insane he is. I further explained that universities aren’t doing their job in preparing athletes for the real world after their playing days are over. Everyone that reads this column understands how I feel about first year athletes in keeping them from the field of their chosen sport to familiarize them with the real world when they’re cut loose from mom and pop back home.
I’ll cut to the chase as we all are very much aware most students when they start college life “party” like it’s 1999 and text books are hardly opened that first year. I just believe we are doing these young kids an injustice by not stressing life after college. The stress of learning at a higher level than most are accustomed to and learning a playbook are too much to ask of these young students. So why not have them concentrate on books and grades before we apply pressure of knowing how far to go downfield before cutting across the middle, etc.?
I’d also like to call attention to the crisis in student debt and trying to pay off student loans. Seems each year schools raise tuition and fees for students because of state cutbacks to education. This problem is home made since too many universities are allowing athletic departments to keep most of the money they draw to pay high profile sports’ coaching staffs. I wrote some time ago that athletics should be required to deposit all its cash in the general fund. This way the seemingly unstoppable rise in coaching salaries would be kept in check. But I know some will still be getting $300,000.00 for steering a player to certain basketball programs.
I’ve talked to professors that claim they aren’t receiving salary raises because the school can’t afford it yet in their next breath announce the signing of new athletic directors and coaches multi-million dollar contracts. And they’re right, hands down, no need to debate that issue. And when I wrote that LSU’s hiring of yet another high profile AD didn’t make sense in the least bit some say I’m out of touch with reality. That’s fine by me because in my reality spending millions and millions of dollars for somebody to coach a sport is really where we’ve lost touch with reality.
And when I claimed that the job of Athletic Director is an easy one people really got offended. I’m sorry if the truth smacked you like a Mike Tyson right hand but it is the truth. When I was working I told our outside sales guys the toughest part of their jobs is deciding whether to sink a putt on the 18th green and win that round or miss it and hope you’ll score a million dollar contract from the purchasing agent that putts after you.
It doesn’t take a genius to walk around with millions of other people’s money and hire somebody on a hunch they’ll produce a winner. And at LSU it’s more like the dog that keeps chasing cars and exactly what will he do with it if he ever catches it. Come on Tiger fans, you had Little Nicky-Boy but you couldn’t keep him. And this new guy just hired has said over and over; LSU FANS WILL HAVE TO DONATE MORE AND MORE OF THEIR DOLLARS SO HE CAN GIVE IT AWAY ON THE HOPES HE GETS ANOTHER JIMBO FISHER!!!
Tiger fans, here’s a little bit of wisdom I’m going to share; It ain’t hard to spen other people’s money.
Till next week… …
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