Chanticleers rewrite CWS protocols

Published 6:29 am Sunday, July 3, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It could be a prominent chapter if anybody ever gets around to writing the book Profiles in Sportsmanship.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This would be back in 2001. Tulane had just clinched its first trip to the College World Series with a 7-1 victory over LSU in the deciding super regional game at Zephyr Field in Metairie.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Green Wave dogpile, as one might guess, commenced apace.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Tulane coach Rick Jones took it all in approvingly, and thought briefly about asking LSU coach Skip Bertman to speak to his team.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Bertman had just coached his last college game, and with an uneven season now ended, the legendary career would not, as any reasonable script might call for, end in Omaha.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Bertman approached Jones and beat him to the punch — he asked if he might have a word with the celebrating Green Wave team.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Bertman congratulated the Wave players and told them — he could inspire with the best of them — that they belonged in Omaha, that they’d be as good as anybody there, that there was no reason they couldn’t win it all, blah, blah and blah.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Just what the Green Wave needed to hear.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">As he departed, he stopped off with Jones for one final bit of wisdom and (insert your best Bertman impersonation here) whispered, “You have noooo chance. Your teeeeam, is fine. But noooo-body wins in Omaha on their first trip.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Wave went 1-2 in Omaha that year, including blowing an 8-0 lead to lose to Stanford 13-11 in its debut game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nothing to be ashamed of. As Bertman well knew, it’s tough until you learn the lay of the land in Omaha, the best places to practice, most importantly where the best steak houses are.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But college baseball evidently is changing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Omaha standbys get no respect. The blue bloods are ignored. The nouveau riche strut into the place and act like they own it, like it’s no big deal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You noticed, of course, that Coastal Carolina won the latest national championship Thursday afternoon with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Arizona.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They are surely now the only Chanticleer-mascoted team to win a national championship in any sport.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Coastal Carolina needed no introduction in these parts, of course, the Chanticleers having stamped their Omaha ticket from LSU’s Alex Box Stadium with what did not appear to be a fluke of a two-game sweep in the super regional.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU fans had been warned that it was no bargain that the No. 2 seed had come out of the North Carolina State regional to get to Baton Rouge.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Coastal Carolina looked like the best team in Alex Box Stadium that weekend. The Chanticleers — if you missed the prelims, it’s a fictional rooster of some sort, bred exclusively for Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” — looked like the best team in Omaha, too.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And proved it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They always looked about one or two innings from running out of pitching, particularly in the final inning of the final championship game, but it never quite happened.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Too much grit, too much heart, too much experience, too much self-confidence and — yes — too much talent, along with a veteran coach in Gary Gilmore who could aw-shucks you to death but always appeared slyly comfortable on the big stage and let it rub off on his troops.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The championship game didn’t surprise anybody who watched that team play in Baton Rouge.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In fact, it was amazing how, with LSU’s season having ended, Tigers fans adopted the Chanticleers and this time made a vicarious trip to Omaha with them.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For that matter, Louisiana-Lafayette couldn’t lose in the championship game. It was runner-up Arizona that eliminated the Cajuns in regionals. Yet Coastal came within 8</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">1</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">⁄</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">2</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">hours of giving ULL’s Sun Belt Conference its first national championship that anywhere with sunshine would recognize — Denver apparently once won the NCAA hockey championship.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Coastal Carolina officially joined the Sun Belt at midnight after the victory. OK, the Big South (which otherwise really was awful in baseball) would probably still claim it if rain had delayed the final another day.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But did it signal a whole new ballgame with college baseball?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In other words, Bertman’s honest warning/disclaimer to Jones back in the day might not apply anymore.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The way college baseball works these days, it’s anybody’s game. Omaha has become an equal-opportunity free-for-all, experience optional.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Understand that in college baseball the major/mid-major argument doesn’t really work.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Power Five conferences really apply only to football.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The so-called mid-majors have been mainstays in Omaha for years, although it was mostly West Coast teams like Cal Fullerton, Fresno State and Long Beach State. This year Cal Santa Barbara sneaked into town.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Coastal Carolina was a Cinderella story in (lack of) name recognition only. The Chanticleers’ trip to Baton Rouge was their third super regional trip. If you can get that far, you can stumble into Omaha.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But let this season be a warning late next spring when all the posturing and jockeying for position is to secure one of those coveted national seeds. Or even a home regional.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It didn’t mean squat this year.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Only three national seeds — No. 1 Florida, No. 3 Miami and No. 5 Texas Tech — even made it to Omaha. Florida and Miami were the first two sent packing. Texas Tech was next.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In fact, the eight non-national seeds that hosted regionals were only 2-6 in winning them.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But hat’s off to the Chanticleers. What a fun team to watch.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>

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<p class="p1">Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress"><span class="s1">twitter.com/ScooterAmPress</span></a>

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