UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > June > 02
Monday, June 2, 2008
Athens regional is college ball at its best
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those of you that have said to themselves, “Aw, it’s only college baseball, who cares?”…
For those you that live in Atlanta and thought over the last few days, “I would go but it’s too much trouble to drive over to Athens. I’ll catch it on TV”…
For those of you that have reasoned you had something better to do: I’m here to tell you that you’re missing something special going on at UGA’s Foley Field the past few days.
By now, certainly most of you know that Georgia and Georgia Tech are playing at 7 p.m. tonight for the right to advance to the NCAA’s Super Regionals. The Bulldogs, after losing the opener to Lipscomb, came roaring out of the loser’s bracket and beat Georgia Tech last night 8-0 to set up a winner-takes-all game tonight. And, yes, our good friends at CSS will be there to broadcast it into your homes (those of you with cable at least). But never minding for whom one roots. The real treat lies inside the gates at historic old Foley Field.
Let me first preface my remarks with this: I’m not the biggest college baseball fan in the world. There may be some people that do but I don’t get real excited about a regular-season game lasting four hours before being decided 15-13 in 11 innings. But the NCAA tournament — or college playoffs as they might as well be called — is a different animal altogether.
The NCAA regionals I’ve covered over the years have been some of the most exciting events I’ve ever witnessed. They’re so unpredictable and no lead is ever safe. And when it comes to swinging those aluminum bats with a 314-foot porch in right field and 400 to dead center, you can be sure anything can happen. Add to that formula an intense rivalry such is Tech-Georgia and the loser-goes-home dynamic and you can bet there’ll be some crazy atmosphere tonight.
Besides all that, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting the last couple of days next to veteran sportswriter Jack Wilkinson. “Wilkie” has covered thousands of major-league baseball games and countless events over the years but he said he was taken aback by purity of the scene at Foley Field. And he’s right.
Only a few thousand can fit inside the tiny concrete stadium. Rather than bright lights and fireworks and a 200-square foot matrix board, a good mix of classic rock-n-roll, oldies and dance tunes pours politely from the speakers atop the right-center field scoreboard every half-inning. There are no advertisements on the outfield walls, only understated, white-painted graphics of championships gone by. Venders can be heard barking “peanuts” and “ice-cold Coke” and, no matter what happens on any given play, cheers go up in once section of the grandstands or another. With the name of their school stitched proudly across their chests, the players sprint to their positions and back to their respect dugouts every three outs. And regardless of outcome, the teams shake hands in the middle of the diamond at game’s end. With the exception of aluminum bats, it’s how baseball was meant to be played.
Yeah, you can see what happens on TV. But you can’t smell the hot dogs or feel the breeze; you can’t hear the pop of leather or hear “Blue” yell “strike” when the pitch was clearly an inch-and-a-half outside.
I’d say it’s worth cutting out of work an hour or two early, beating the traffic and going to bed a little late. But that’s just me.
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