Buy/Sell ESPN puts pressure on the NCAA

thatsbaseball

All-American
May 29, 2007
17,855
6,553
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to bring back hotter bats OR smaller field Or a harder ball. Something WILL be different by this time next year.
 

missouridawg

Junior
Oct 6, 2009
9,389
288
83
Sell

The announcers are generally free to say what they want and I'm sure they're required to spout off some company rhetoric...

But safety is something that everyone is going to get behind. ESPN showing guys getting hit in the head over and over and over will do more for the other side of your argument.

ETA: Something else to consider... if the NCAA lessens the bat requirements, it makes our team less likely to win games. Cohen has clearly built his team around small ball, for the most part. Any variance that provides more power in the bats pushes MSU away from Cohen built this team around.
 
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hatfieldms

All-Conference
Feb 20, 2008
8,633
2,203
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Sell

This has been a fun *** World Series, and a few more homers here and there won't bring enough viewers on board fro espn to raise hell about it. This cws has been entertaining as hell
 

godlluB

Redshirt
Sep 24, 2012
504
0
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Buy, at least I hope they do, because I'm really 17'in sick of having it explained to me every fifteen minutes since the beginning of the SEC tournament.
 
Nov 16, 2005
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Aren't they changing the ball next year? Going tighten the seams. Make them more like minor league ball.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
56,618
25,925
113
There's a big push for that from a lot of coaches. Haven't seen anything saying that it will happen, but I think it's inevitable. And it will be good for the game.
 

thatsbaseball

All-American
May 29, 2007
17,855
6,553
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I think you`re dead wrong. Making every game a small-ball pitcher`s dual because homeruns are almost impossible to hit is not going to interest people in watching college baseball. To me that`s the equivalent of limiting the gain on any play in a football game to just so many yards. I don`t want to go back to where we were when LSU dominated with juiced players and juiced bats but I think they`ve over adjusted and need to re-consider some things.
 

Codyd70

Redshirt
Feb 27, 2003
93
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I don't think the ball needs changed. These hits would be out in nearly every college park. If you look at MLB home run leaders their numbers are nearly identical to colleges. MLB has played about 15 more games than most college teams. I think they should bring in the fences some at ameritrade park though. I love small ball but if a pitcher makes a mistake he should pay. Did you see how many high fastballs Plutko for ucla threw because he had no fear of it going out?
 
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PBRME

All-Conference
Feb 12, 2004
10,858
4,517
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There is talk of making the ball the same density of MLB. The reason being is so much money has been invested in these bats that the ball is the only thing they can change.
 

57stratdawg

Heisman
Dec 1, 2004
148,390
24,168
113
But it's about TV time slots. Those live-bat, 12-15 type games didn't sit well with TV networks, because it's tough to get them into a time slot. Is a TV network suppose to allocate 4 hours of broadcast time for a college baseball game?

They implemented the 'pitch clock' and changed the bats partially (primarily, IMO) so that games would shorten. That allows it to be more attractive to TV networks since they they now don't have to show a 3 hour game, a 30 minute post game, and then 'dead air' for 30 minutes after that incase the game runs long.
 

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
11,101
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Do you really feel like these last two games have been pitchers' duels? If so, that's fine, but it just seems to me like there has been plenty of hitting, base running, and scoring to keep the games exciting. I'm sure that most everyone would like to see a homer every now and then which I get, but I also don't feel like the lack of them in the CWS has taken all that much away from the games. I've been on the edge of my seat during every pitch of our first two matchups.
 

thatsbaseball

All-American
May 29, 2007
17,855
6,553
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BUT you and I love college baseball period. Unfortunately we are the tiny minority when it comes to the vast potential TV audience. The most dramatic play in any baseball game is the homerun...you can`t take that almost totally away and hold the casual viewer IMO.
 

thatsbaseball

All-American
May 29, 2007
17,855
6,553
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How long do you think a round of professional golf would take without the officials moving things along ?
 

Heawww

Redshirt
Jun 15, 2013
912
0
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Buy, but the bats aren't changing. They are here to stay. That's a safety issue, pitchers and 3rd basemen were getting creamed in the face too much. If they change something (and they probably should), it'll be the dimensions of that field. While it is helping us this year, it's still a little too deep in CF, and the corners could probably come in 5 feet or so.

I wonder how Minor Leagues and MLB hitters would fare there.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
56,618
25,925
113
You do realize there's a middle ground between the 4-2 ballgames we're seeing now and the 21-14 games we saw in the true live-bat era. There's no reason not to go to the pro baseballs now that we're using pro-caliber bats.