READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN
Sports Extra!



SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

FOR THE RECORD
LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US
BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA


Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
College Baseball is Better
Published: 6/2/2008 9:30 AM
Last Modified: 6/2/2008 9:30 AM

College baseball still needs plenty of changes if it hopes to grow with fans.
The use of non-wood bats will be an issue until a solution, such as subsidies from major league baseball, can help the college game make the switch to wood.
But the movement to push the season back, something former OSU coach Gary Ward long advocated, has helped make the game more open to northern schools.
In addition, the format change to four-team regionals followed by super regionals also makes the game more fair.
It is one thing to win a regional. There are a lot of ways to slip through a four-team regional. However, to get to Omaha you must now win a best-of-three series.
That helps make sure that the best teams get to Omaha.
It would be easy to argue there is something wrong with college baseball after our local teams were knocked out.
However, it could be argued that without its best pitcher OSU was not good enough to get out of a regional. Oral Roberts was not as quite as strong as it has been in the past.
And, OU didn't deserve to get into the tournament because of its poor regular season.
So, they are all gone, just like one would expect (after OSU lost its top pitcher).
College baseball still needs more changes (pushing the season back another two to three weeks and making all of the playoffs best-of-three).
Still, no one should be disappointed. The state's three teams were all still playing among the final 32 on Sunday.



Reader Comments 3 Total
larry clem (5 years ago)
what happened to the big four
arkansas is hardly ever mentioned anymore, have the been blackballed?they probaly have a larger alumni base in tulsa than tulsa or oru does
Mark (5 years ago)
Hey ORU did not have a strong pitching rotation as it usually does, but 48 wins is not too bad. Only the second time Nebraska has been shut out at home ever. A two hit shut out of the Big 12 top team was a good win. UC Irvine was a good team.
dan from claremore (5 years ago)
A huge boost for college baseball would be allowing a suitable number of scholarships and eliminating the 11.7 partial scholarship nonsense. We should not hold our breath though.

Oral Roberts does a fine job of competing under the disadvantage that private schools have because of the partial scholarship issue.
3 comments displayed


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.


Klein's Korner

Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

Follow John Klein on Twitter

Subscribe to this blog



Archive

 
John Klein's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  3/2008  
2/2008  1/2008  12/2007  11/2007  10/2007  9/2007  
8/2007  7/2007  6/2007  5/2007  4/2007  3/2007  
2/2007  1/2007  12/2006  11/2006  10/2006  9/2006  
8/2006  





Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.