The Daily Sport-February 13th

Tonight's edition will be brief (and yes, I have said that before and then, immediately proceeded to post a long, drawn-out edition, but tonight I actually mean it). It's going to be half-rant, half-opportunity. Tomorrow should be an incredibly important day in the sports world, and it truly is, to an extremely minute (yes, thats "mine-oot" to you phonetically-challenged people out there) percentage of casual sports fans. It is...Opening Day of the NCAA Division 1 College Baseball season.

Of course, every college baseball fan knows that the College World Series, a double-elimination playoff bracket-styled quarterfinal tournament decided by the winners of the original 64-team bracket, is hosted in Omaha, Nebraska at the end of every season. Teams and their fans aspire to make it to the only permanent site-hosted championship in American college or professional team sports. 

The pageantry involved in the College World Series environment that now calls TD Ameritrade Park its home (opening in 2011, it replaced the incredible Rosenblatt Stadium) is incredible to witness. The College World Series, with its permanent home in Omaha (a city and state, that mind you, has zero professional sporting teams) and national appeal and televising is the perfect combination of MLB's World Series and the Little League World Series.

I can only hope though, that tomorrow starts the beginning of a new trend of jumping in with both feet before the end of the season and the concluding tournaments. The regular season in college baseball offers great rivalries, an interesting week-in, week-out grinding schedule that combines an NFL and MLB scheduling mindset amongst many other elements of greatness to intrigue baseball fans of all ages.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUNRZ4lDf0

The other amazing thing to see in college baseball is the love of the game and amount of fun the large majority of the athletes have out there. This link and in the picture on the left are examples of the Cincinnati baseball team last year and some of the pranks they pulled during post-game interviews of the teams' players. Pure greatness. The picture on the right is a reminder that the Harlem Shake video (that got disturbingly popular much too quickly) was fueled by college campus' all across the country having fun and being kids. The schedule is also wildly entertaining (to me, at least) in format. The way it works is fairly simple: Teams play 3-game series every weekend with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games mixed in with mid-week (Tuesday and Wednesday usually) 1 or 2-game sets with teams intermixed throughout the year. This way, the starting rotation in college baseball consists of three weekend starters, and a mid-week starter or two to add depth, with more players available coming out of the bullpen. Knowing your team's "ace" is going to throw every Friday night is such a cool concept to me that it highlights the Friday night game that no MLB game can match as any given team could have any given pitcher going that night (other than Opening Day) depending on how their rotation falls. 

   I would hate myself if I ever wrote a college baseball article without discussing (at least briefly) Florida state and Dick Howser Stadium (pictured above), or as it is more affectionately known, "The DickHouse". FSU is home to an incredible college baseball program and one of the best home stadiums in the country. A fan-base matched by few (if any), the Noles enjoy a home-field advantage including the Animals in Section B, the "Chain Link Monster", and the Chop. So do yourself a favor and get to Tally for a game sometime because its cheap, fun, and truly a great sports experience.

Today will be better than yesterday.