Have you ever wanted to smoke a whole pig inside a stadium while heckling a rival player so close to you that he can hear every word of your booze-filled screed? Maybe you’re looking for some amateur sports entertainment that is somehow more action-packed and compelling than its professional version, one whose cheap tickets and gorgeous, sui generis backdrops make for an outing that can be an electrifying party or a serene family trip, depending simply on where you sit. Maybe you just like to relax and watch a hard-fought game like any red-blooded, sports-loving American.
That “ping” sound you hear might be a lightbulb going off in your head as you ponder why you haven’t yet experienced what sounds like a sports fan’s Make-A-Wish dream.
It’s also the noise that defines college baseball.
The North fawns over college hockey, and the Midwest grapples with its love of wrestling, but the South craves college baseball. And baseball, unlike its collegiate sports peers, has yet to get its national due despite being much more than meets the batter’s eye.
For one, college baseball remains one of the few amateur sports that combines the talent of elite athletes with the bucolic atmosphere of children playing in the park — something all but gone in the moneymaking rackets of college football and basketball. Pitchers still throw in the 90s, batters still crush 420-foot moonshots, and managers still scream at home plate umpires with the flair of Bobby Cox in his prime. But in this version of the sport, the pro talent is synthesized with an unflinching passion and loyalty that can only be found when you’ve walked the same ratty university halls as the starting pitcher.
There are power players and hidden gems, schools that come from seemingly nowhere to storm into the College World Series and those so rich they can buy their way in almost every year.
Some of the big teams can outdraw their own basketball programs and sometimes even the pros. In 2019, Louisiana State University averaged more fans per game than the Miami Marlins. Starkville, Mississippi, the home of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, may be a cow pasture on your way to Birmingham, but in the spring, it transforms into one of the most raucous sporting atmospheres in the country, complete with a Left Field Lounge infamous for its genuine hostility to and grudging respect for the opposing players.
But it isn’t just the powerhouse programs that provide college baseball with its delightful charm. Unlike the pros, college players do more at the plate than just strike out or go yard. As launch angles replace contact hitting in MLB, college baseball retains the sport’s inherent volatility — and fallibility. Teams make tons of errors. Sometimes, those errors lead to dramatic, game-changing swings. Other times, they’re just funny footnotes in the box score for a sports information director to file away. There’s old-school strategy as well: Coaches regularly call on hitters to push a runner over with a bunt or try a timely hit and run, tactics that have virtually disappeared in the majors. When a scorcher is hit up the middle, you don’t just assume the world-class shortstop is going to make the play as calmly and smoothly as if he were checking the mail. And if the college player does end up with a SportsCenter Top 10 grab, it feels even better and the cheers echo even louder because he probably shouldn’t have been able to do it in the first place.
The intimacy of college baseball adds to its wonder. When you join 4,000 Southern Mississippi fans in a rowdy “Throw it in the dirt!” chant and the pitcher proceeds to do what you all so politely requested, you feel as if you conspired with the cosmos to make it happen. Outfielders can feel the mist on their backs from an Ole Miss home run beer shower, and there have been people genuinely freaked out by the “Animals of Section B” from Florida State, which has become so popular since its inception in the 1970s that it has its own Wikipedia section.
More than 300 teams start the season with a shot at making the College World Series. That gets whittled down to 64 by May, and in the end, just eight get to gallop over to Omaha for the big dance. Unlike football and basketball, which rotate championship venues as politicians do suits, every college baseball fan knows where he or she dreams of ending up in June: eating a delicious, cheap steak in a Nebraska diner decked out in his or her school’s regalia.
College baseball has never been easier to watch, with streaming services and conference television networks blasting games from San Diego to Syracuse. Fire up your ESPN+ account on any random Tuesday night, and you’re sure to stumble upon a game that will suck you in and keep you there.
Give it a try next time you’re craving some sports action, and you’ll hear that sound synonymous with college baseball, that “ping” that bounces off the outfield walls when a batter makes a solid connection.
It’s the sound of a good idea.
Cory Gunkel is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter @CoryGunkel.
