June 13, 2019
LSU, SAINTS AND MUCH MORE
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
While the LSU baseball season didn’t end the way we hoped, it certainly was an ending that encapsulated the season.
The season started with very high expectations and LSU entered the super regional with most expecting LSU to beat Florida State. I was not one of those people, but that is not the point.
Very early in the season, injuries to the pitching staff derailed a promising start. LSU started well on Saturday and then Cole Henry left the game with an injury.
Throughout the season, the offense was inconsistent and often struggled with average left handed pitchers. We saw the same inconsistency all weekend, concluding with Florida State’s left hander completely shutting down the offense until Florida State could scratch the winning run.
Defensive issues at catcher and a lack of control by pitchers plagued LSU throughout the season. On Saturday, LSU walked 10 batters and the winning run on Sunday reached second on a passed ball.
It is only human nature to try and assign blame for these shortcomings. The coaches will accept their share of the blame. There could have been more left handed pitchers, but they take too much blame as well. I have coached first and third base in baseball and told the runner exactly what to do before the pitch only to have the runner hesitate in the moment.
It is only fair to also point out that UCLA was the #1 overall seed that only lost 7 games all season. But, they lost to a three seed at home in the super regional. Sometimes teams have great regular seasons and fall short in the postseason.
We tend to forget that even championship teams are flawed. LSU won the national championship in 1993, Brett Laxton struck out 16 in the championship game, and everything was perfect. Except they were far from perfect. They lost 3 midweek games.
In the regional, LSU faced one of the top pitching staffs statically. Kent State had a ridiculously low team ERA and a ridiculously low team batting average. So what happened? Naturally, LSU couldn’t stop Kent State and LSU pounded Kent State pitching.
At one point, LSU took control when Will Hunt was the one pitcher that was able to shut down the bats of the Golden Flashes. Hunt was one of LSU’s best relievers and Skip Bertman knew he would need him again in the regional. So Skip took Hunt out thinking the lead was safe. The other pitchers couldn’t get the job done and LSU lost 15-12. The team overcame the loss, won the next three, and went to Omaha.
In the CWS, LSU trailed Long Beach State in the semifinal 5-2 mostly due to poor defense. LSU committed 5 errors that day and set a dubious team record for most errors in a season. Still, LSU came back to win 6-5, and the rest is history.
This year’s baseball team overcame just as much, if not more adversity this year. Most of the adversity was in the form of injuries, but there were also many slumps as well. If Broussard and Garza had not snapped out of their slumps, LSU would not have made it as far as they did.
LSU made it to the super regionals for the same reason we still held out hope to the very end. Despite all their flaws, LSU could still put out 9 players on the field to play good defense and hit 1-9. Despite the injuries to the pitching staff, LSU could throw 6-7 pitchers with mid 90s fastballs and quality breaking pitches.
For whatever reason, though, those pitchers could not string together quality appearances. Todd Peterson could not get an out against Southern Miss, then he pitched over four great innings against Florida State, and had LSU in position to win game one even though the starter only went 2 innings. Devin Fontenot could barely get an out on Saturday and then on Sunday was dominant.
I don’t know why the consistency was lacking throughout the year, and I don’t know why LSU lacked what Skip used to call the HWA (How to Win Awareness) on the bases on Saturday and Sunday. All I know is that once the injuries hit, this team was always going to fall short of expectations. The expectation was to compete for a national championship and the team LSU was putting on the field at the end of the year was not talented enough.
Naturally, this conclusion leads to the question about next year. Will LSU be capable next year? I can’t remember a time where the determination of success will come down to health like next year’s baseball team.
Without getting into too many details, LSU loses talent in the field, but will have the talent to fill those holes. The issue next year will be the health of the pitchers. Normally, I would say that the 7 months off from now until next January would be enough for everyone to recover. But, recent evidence proves that to not be the case. Nick Storz, AJ Labas, and others have not recovered given a whole off season or two to get healthy. Cole Henry has had multiple MRIs that don’t reveal any structural damage, but still had arm issues.
So for anyone wondering, I am going to take a very cautious wait and see approach to next year’s LSU baseball team. No matter how good or how poor the start is to next year, I am only paying attention to one thing. The health of the pitching staff. Even if they start healthy, they might not end healthy. And the one thing every team that made the CWS this year has in common is two healthy, dependable, quality starting pitchers.
HEY REF
The news coming from the LHSAA annual executive committee’s summer meeting has me (and many others) confused. I say “confused” because when we begin talking about putting in reverse all the gains that have been made these past few years dealing with splitting the schools in two different categories for playoff contests you’ve got to stop and ask “WHY”!
Robin Fambrough who covers just about everything that goes on at the high school level for Baton Rouge’s Morning Advocate (and does a tremendous job) in Wednesday’s edition reported that there’s a movement to go back to the way things were. Niles Riche of Assumption High School made a motion directing Ed Bonine to develop at least two proposals to either bring back the old system or prevent any expansion of sports that’ll use the newer format of splitting schools into the select and non-select school playoff brackets.
The split playoff system that’s now in effect for this school year will only involve football, basketball, baseball and softball. You could make a case that volleyball should also be included in the select/non-select playoff format. But that should be the only other sport needing to make the change. That of course is my opinion as I just can’t see a need to split bowling, swimming, and/or track. I believe any attempt to go back to the “old” ways of playoff pairings will be a detriment to the kids, schools and parents. Many long and hard hours went into making the split playoff system the success it has turned out to be. Going backwards helps no one in this matter. The system in place is working and only needs a very small amount of fine tuning. Let’s hope the LHSAA does the right thing, moves and stays the course.
What follows was first printed back in November of 2015. I wrote this column addressing my reasons for supporting a split playoff format. I still believe the playoff split that was made is the correct way to go. Desegregation was the “law” of the land for many, many years in the E. B. R. parish school system. The Feds just about decimated many schools and kept them unable to field teams that could compete on a regular basis on the field with other schools in the state.
I remember one Friday night when one of the bands took the field for halftime and I saw this kid that looked like a mountain tip toeing with his trumpet across the field. When they had finished their brief halftime show I just had to ask him why he wasn’t playing football. His answer has stayed with me ever since as he told me “Mr. Ref, I’ve been sent to four different high schools. I figured band would be the same instead of having to learn everything over every year”!
And without further delay, enjoy another sampling of The Best of Hey Ref;
The high school football playoffs get into high gear this week as most teams in the “SELECT” divisions get down to business. As many know this writer has been a supporter of the split (Select and non-select) into two divisions, so to speak, simply because it levels the playing field between traditional public schools and private schools.
For too many years the private schools held a gigantic advantage over their public counterparts simply because as a “SELECT” school you are able to recruit players whereas the public schools must field teams from a small certain section of the parish commonly referred to as “attendance zones”. That leaves most schools in East Baton Rouge Parish and the surrounding area unable to consistently field good teams that can compete year in and year out with those private school teams. Desegregation was the main villain for the need to make
As officials when given our assignments for the week we’d hold our breath hoping that we’d not have to work games between a private school and a public one. I’d have to say 90 percent of the time the private schools had their way with the opposition and could just about choose the number of points they were going to score that night. It wasn’t very often where the “SELECT” school would be tested that night and I’d have to say the so called split was needed and didn’t come too soon for this retired official.
High school sports are played to build character or at least that’s what I’ve always thought and been told. In today’s “win at all costs” building character is probably the last thing anyone thinks about. I’ve been involved in many runaway games and it’s not a fun thing to witness. I can only hope that when the LHSAA gets down to planning the future of its playoff system they continue pitting public schools against public schools and the same in the so-called “SELECT” school brackets. In a perfect world someone would start a new organization to deal with the problems of PRIVATE schools in Louisiana. If nothing else the LHSAA should change the word “SELECT” when talking and/or describing PRIVATE schools.
Now onto a promise I made just a few weeks ago. In a three part series in which I discussed some of the problems I found with the caliber of those calling football games in Louisiana. Many have told me they agree things are not the way they should be and have seen the calls getting worse and worse on Friday nights. I’ll try to answer those questions you’ve felt needed answering and concerns you’ve had regarding the officiating problems in high school football here in south Louisiana. But how do I rank those questions? To someone each question has to be the most important one to the person doing the asking. I’ve no answer to that problem so I’ll start off with a couple easy questions. So let’s get started;
(1) You made a comparison of football officials to cannibals, what did you mean?
(A) I found massive amounts of tension among the members in the three associations. I’d hear too many talking about fellow officials and what was wrong with this individual or that individual. There was this unspoken dislike of others transferring from one association to another. I’d just made the switch to a new association, it was week #2 and a couple members of the crew pulled me to one side after our pre-game conference and told me “Nothing personal with you, we don’t really know you but we don’t want any more people from Baton Rouge transferring into our association”! I was in shock as I’ve never had that happen to me. Turned out there was bad blood between the two associations and nothing I had any connection to but they felt they needed to kinda put me in my place. As the season played out not once did this feeling change.
(2) What did the coaches say to you to make you want to try and call games after all those surgeries?
(A) That’s a hard one, I moved from West Monroe after graduation to Baton Rouge. I knew no one and wanted to get involved in officiating. I’d worked hard with many good officials that felt the kids and the game came first. There was respect between the coaches and officials. There was a “clik” so to speak but I worked hard on learning the rules and mechanics. After years of hard work and staying the course I advanced and was noticed by some college officials. They asked two separate years if I was interested in moving up. I turned them down because my job kept me away from my family much of the year and spending more time away just wasn’t anything I wanted a part of. I was doing what I wanted and enjoyed what I was doing so I stayed here and was a part of the best group of officials (Baton Rouge),hands down. We knew we were the best by the number of coaches that called wanting to book us to call their playoff games. But health problems put me on the sidelines and hearing from some of the coaches (Old and new) how far the association had slipped made me try to get back on the field. I mean there were lots of blood, sweat and tears I left on many Baton Rouge sidelines and I respected all the coaches. In the end I just wanted to see what had changed.
(3) What do you think was the biggest change when you went back to “reffing” football?
(A) That’s an easy one, attitude by all the parties. By that I mean coaches, principals, officials, the people in power at the LHSAA and even the assigning secretaries. There is this feeling of a constant pressure on all those I just mentioned. I understand jobs are on the line and all that but the sidelines have become brutal, very brutal for both the official on that side and all the staffs. Officials are talked down to; respect is something many coaches leave in the locker room. I’ve sat in on many conferences with officials and have never been exposed to the constant feeling these crews have and are dreading and some even hating what they’re about to go out to do for the next couple of hours. I’ve asked these officials why they are here and many say it’s purely economics. They need an infusion of cash because either they’ve lost a job or their bills aren’t getting paid and they think this will get them some easy money.
I want to close this week by saying if you want to make some easy cash, calling high school football games is NOT the answer!
Till next week…
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