To be truthful I had never heard of Hoover, Alabama until this week and I had never paid much attention to the SEC Baseball Tournament since Mizzou moved conferences. With Mizzou being a bubble team for the tournament and having a pretty good season, I decided to watch games when I could. Oh yeah, and because I'm a crazy baseball fan 😊 - the way the Hoover Met was set up for this tournament made me want to be there in person though! The Met, although a little wet, has a nice field and is a nice stadium in general. What was really cool was the "fan fest" areas and activities though! With all the rain delays there has been plenty of time to show the crowd and surrounding areas. They have this large indoor area that had anything from air hockey to bounce houses to ski ball. The players could play these games as well as the fans. Now some may think this is a bad idea seeing that an Ole Miss player had a season ending foot injury due to a freak ping pong accident.. but for fans I think it's great! As someone working her way into the sports industry I see the layout of this "fan fest" as a tremendous idea for the SEC Baseball Tournament and events similar to this! They have a Ferris wheel! And they have a sports bar! It's like a fair is happening in conjunction with the tournament!
We all know that the Olympic sports in college athletics sometimes struggle to fill the stands year after year and it's a shame. When you build an atmosphere and experience that is more than just a baseball game, you spark more interests and it gives your event more to offer. Think about the people who have been in Hoover waiting out 2 hour rain delays back to back (to back?) days. If that were me I'd be a little (okay a lot) tempted to leave after being tired of sitting in the rain and being wet all day. But when they have an indoor area with games and activities inside it gives you a place to go without actually leaving. This is why I think this type of layout and setup are going to become more common. The future of these tournaments and similar events, is having fan fest areas. Take a look at the SEC's article regarding their fan fest here! I'm guessing the lineup their fan fest has to offer will spike your interest at least a little bit!
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I'm excited to welcome y'all to my first post about my favorite sport, softball!! The Women's College World Series is officially under way! Don't worry there's already been controversy though.. we'll get to that, but lets start by giving a round of applause to SEC Softball and getting all 13 of their teams in the playoffs! The opening round of Regionals contains a 64 team field and is hosted at 16 different locations. The hosts locations generally are picked based off of rankings/seedings. (One year Mizzou had to put out bid for this while graduation was happening and there was concern over hotel space, but still ended up hosting. I can tell you that there are very few hotel rooms graduation weekend, so rankings and seeding definitely matter!) - After Regionals they move on to Super Regionals and then down to Oklahoma City for the WCWS. Throughout the season rankings are given out weekly, which means it should be pretty clear as to who is hosting right? Well maybe not.. As an SEC girl I am in full support of the SEC and total dominance by this conference, however when you look at the way this played out it is fair to at least see why some might think it's sketchy. All 13 SEC softball teams made it to a Regional (Vandy doesn't have softball if you're wondering where the 14th went!) and 8 of these teams are hosting. The SEC is tough in softball, I mean incredibly tough, so to have all 13 teams in isn't a stretch. It is an incredible accomplishment! 8 teams hosting though might be a little questionable. Essentially your saying 8 of the best 16 teams are all from the same conference? Okay, it is possible. Is it possible though that these 8 plus 8 others are better than Minnesota who has been higher than #10 for the majority of the season? Minnesota has 3 losses on the year, while the host of the Regional they'll be playing in, Alabama, has 16. -- I can point out the records, but the counter to this would be strength of schedule. As I mentioned before, the SEC is tough, which means their schedules are a lot harder to get through unscathed than the Big 10. I do believe that Minnesota should host a Regional, but what can ya do? The political (and monetary) aspect people are pointing out centers around three big names; NCAA, ESPN, SEC. This is the first year that ESPN will be airing all of the Women's College World Series softball games. (YAY SOFTBALL!!) - With this in mind, think about who owns the SEC Network? ESPN. Also, if you're a college softball fan you know that the popularity around the sport is huge within the SEC. The talent, fan base, and success has shifted from the PAC-12 to the SEC over the past ten years. No other conference really even comes close. (Yeah the Big 12 has Oklahoma and maybe one or two other competitors each year, but not 13 teams making the tournament!) So I say all of this to say that if the SEC fills stadiums during regular season play, they are surely going to sell out in postseason play. Conspiracy theory alert #1: hints why the SEC is hosting 8 of the 16 Regionals. Outside of the 8 teams hosting, one could also question how all 13 made it to postseason play. Conspiracy theory alert #2: ESPN knows that softball games get great ratings on SEC Network and when shown on ESPN, therefore the more teams you have in the playoffs the more SEC fans you have watching. I'd like to dispute this claim though because people need to look at the SEC teams, who isn't a top 64 team?? I think they all belong. Alright that all makes sense for the SEC and for ESPN, but where does the NCAA come in to play? Well tv contracts are huge. The NCAA makes a very, very pretty penny off of allowing ESPN to show these softball games. They make pretty pennies off of the tickets sold at the host institutions as well. Money can assist in mysterious ways. Conspiracy theory alert #3: If SEC Softball is what draws the largest crowds and tv ratings that might incline the NCAA to allow certain schools to host over others, or maybe even invite more from a certain conference to boost tv ratings which may contribute to larger tv deals later. What would the world be without speculation huh? I understand the questioning of the NCAA and the WCWS, but as I reflect on it I realize that the SEC is a great conference for softball. Maybe there is no controversy, maybe the teams really are Just. That. Good. - Let's not take anything away from them, let's acknowledge that Minnesota probably did get screwed over since they've been in the top 16 all season, yet suddenly don't get to host a Regional, and let's enjoy the wonderful time of year that is the Women's College World Series!
We all know that before a baseball game starts no player should step on the foul line and that certain teams have (or have had) some pretty convincing curses to deal with. If you think these things are silly, then it's probably best you pick a different post to read because I'm one of those crazy people who holds the same position all through extra innings after her team ties it up. I started thinking about this post because of my fantasy team.. (Yeah the one that is an epic fail..) - Let me start with this story. So Dexter Fowler dove for a ball in a game a few weeks ago, immediately got pulled out and has been day-to-day ever since. Basically he has pinch hit just a few times and not seen much playing time otherwise. Well I never took him out of my fantasy team lineup even though I knew he wasn't going to play much. After about a week I was getting ready to put him on the bench (again, I'm really bad at this fantasy thing..), but he pinch hit in the Cards game that day and got an RBI to either tie or put us ahead. Uh okay, not taking him out now because even though he's not helping my fantasy team he helped the Cards win! The next game, he got another RBI and we went on to win. I'll take the L for fantasy points if it means the Birds on the Bat are winning games. Because clearly the only reason he's doing this is because I haven't messed with my fantasy team.. I know, I'm crazy. If you go back further, when I played softball we played a national tournament and had played somewhere around 7 games in one day, and won them all. My best friend and I refused to wash our uniforms for the next day. We got 3rd in the tournament and I think still to this day we'd agree our dirty uniforms helped with that. Baseball (and softball) and superstitions just go together, there is no other way to put it. Fox Sports put out an article last year of 10 great baseball superstitions with a little backstory and ranked by effectiveness. I suggest reading it here! - It mentions things like the rally monkeys in Anaheim, nervous tics, and no one speaking of no-hitters while they're in progress. Yep, all things I do. All things that make baseball great. Or maybe just makes it odd. Jonny Gomes has been quoted saying, "You can't explain this stuff. We are all screwed up. That's what the game does to us. And that's why the game is so awesome." Whether you're a player or a fan it's likely you take part in the superstition or believe that they are the reason you are winning or losing. In the same ESPN article I pulled the Gomes quote from there are examples of player's superstitions and the categories they fit in. Five categories to be exact, Random Acts of Strangeness, Food & Drink, Hygiene, Uniforms, and Randy Choate has a category all to himself. There are some pretty great superstitions in the article. My favorites have got to be Torii Hunter cleaning his shoes before and during games, Alex Gordon never using the on-deck circle to the point where they have to resod it, and Chipper Jones playing solitaire on the computer until 6:55pm every night. There are so many more throughout the article and throughout baseball that you'll see if you just watch a few games. Thanks for the read & if you see me pacing with a rally cap on, don't expect me to stop and talk.. ;P
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