Geauxmaha vs Omahogs
Another year of college baseball, another year the LSU Tigers are playing in Omaha in June. Despite traveling 950 miles, the Tigers will face a familiar opponent in their opening game: the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Fortunately for us, that means we get to chat with our good friend Tucker Partridge about what the Hogs have been up to on the diamond this year!
1. Well, here we are. Before we start trading blows, let’s take a second to point and laugh at our brethren. Everyone agreed all year, really all decade, the SEC is far and away the best conference in baseball… SO HOW THE HELL ARE WE THE ONLY TWO WHO MADE IT HERE?
My first question to you is this: which SEC team’s failure to get here was your favorite? While I have to shoutout Ole Miss for dangling hope in front of their fans by cutting a 12-3 deficit to 12-11 before getting eliminated, my answer has to be the unanimous preseason No. 1 Texas A&M Aggies missing the postseason entirely. That is truly a special kind of faceplant. Surely their top-seeded softball team also made a deep run right? I saw the final was two Texas teams, I’m just assuming the Aggies were there.
Every once in a while, I look back at this post and just laugh.
I’m all for an Ole Miss heartbreaker, but I feel like a morally better person when A&M is not winning things.
2. Okay, with that out of our systems, how do Arkansas fans feel being massive underdogs that absolutely nobody believes will win this College World Series? Surely that must be the case considering 5 of the 8 teams present have won titles this century and Arkansas isn’t one of them!
I’m glad that we don’t have the pressure of a long-time, legendary coach entering the twilight of his management career while still missing that one elusive title to cement his legacy. Can you imagine if that’s the energy we were taking into this College World Series?
3. The SEC is currently riding a streak of five straight titles in Omaha. Fun fact: that streak would be at seven if one of three Arkansas Razorbacks had simply caught a pop up in foul territory against Oregon State in 2018. Is this the most devastating moment in Arkansas sports history? I’m only talking on the field here. Bobby wrecking his bike coming off the best football season ever doesn’t count!
It’s one of the most devastating gut punches I’ve experienced in my lifetime as a fan of Arkansas athletics. Candidly, I’m not even that big of a baseball fan, but it was impossible not to fall in love with the 2018 team and start to believe we could really get it done. After that drop, I walked silently with my roommate for a mile and a half from the Baum Stadium watch party to my apartment. I never got my security deposit back on that apartment either. Rough year.
4. When LSU and Arkansas met with their ace pitchers earlier this season, LSU won on a walk-off sac fly in the 10th inning at 1:17 a.m. Do you have any idea why these two schools can never get enough of playing each other? The football teams have played so many OT games. We’ve met in Hoover a whole bunch of times. Now we are matched up in Omaha again! Why can’t we quit each other?
5. Sure, a College World Series championship is pretty cool, but how do you expect Hogs players to be motivated to beat LSU if they aren’t playing for the right to hold a massive gold statue that weighs as much as an Aloy brother?
I have a plan to motivate the players of all teams in Omaha, but it’s going to take all the gold reserves in the world, and a construction crew the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the construction of the Bass Pro Pyramid. I’ve got an artist’s rendition of some additions I’d like to see to the trophy, and have those drawn up here, to scale of course:
6. The last time LSU and Arkansas played in Omaha was 2009, where the Tigers won twice and advanced to win the championship series. I think we should do that again! Things at Arkansas aren’t that different from how they were in 2009. For example: Bobby Petrino is entering Year 2!
The parallels don’t stop there. As in 2009, a new Avatar movie is being released, Creed is touring again, and the housing market is looking rough. Looking forward to a new Black Eyed Peas album dominating the charts this year.
7. Arkansas players were getting quite boisterous in their super regional matchup with the Volunteers last weekend. Is this a concerted effort by the Hogs to make themselves the Bad Boys of Baseball this week since y’all sent home the ones who usually “don’t play the game the right way?”
I think this rebrand is great for Arkansas. I think it sent a really strong message when Dave Van Horn showed up to his press conference this week with a lit cigarette and a Pulp Fiction poster to show we have a real bad boy energy:
8. For the record, if Arkansas beats LSU and wins the title, it will be well-deserved. This team is extremely talented and Dave Van Horn is an SEC legend. Seeing him finally win a title would be great for the sport and all the guys who have worked hard over the years.
What I will NOT respect is if any of those other six schools finish above Hogs fans in the Jello Shot Competition. That is the one place where I will actually have SEC pride. If Coastal or someone else finishes ahead, I will begin the petition to ship y’all to the Big 12(17).
I fear that like everything in college sports right now, the push to commercialism is ruining a timeless, sacred tradition. I don’t like that the shots can be sponsored or bought in bulk by companies outside of Omaha. You should have to buy them in the bar, and take them in the bar; otherwise, we have complete anarchy. We, the 99% of jello shot enjoyers, have got to get this big money out of our democratic institutions. If we don’t have a purely democratic jello shot competition, what do we have? The only time I feel SEC solidarity is when it’s CWS jello shot time, because truly it just means more.