There’s an aura about the College World Series that makes it more fun to watch than a regular season Major League Baseball game. Why so? There are a few reasons.
The games feature the best teams in the sport. The eight teams that qualify deserve to be there. They all traverse some tough roads to get there, clinching the berth with a best-of-three Super Regional playoff against another high caliber team.
Each game is important. Even though it’s a double-elimination tournament, it’s important to win the first game. When LSU is in the CWS, it’s important to win the first game for the city of Omaha, as the Tigers did in fine fashion Saturday night against Arkansas, to ensure their fans stay there for a decent length of time and spend lots of money.
By winning the first game, you give yourself some breathing room in that you can absorb a loss and still have a path to the finals. And you can better manage the pitching staff and potentially rest key players. Also, although it’s not impossible to win after losing the first game, a team that wins the first game has better odds of winning the championship.
Each CWS game is a pressure cooker. it’s a close game, you may find yourself on the edge of your seat in each inning, especially the late innings. In the final inning, you can live or die with each at-bat, even each pitch.
That college teams are competing stirs the “old school spirit” for the college you attended or the university you liked as a kid. Or you might want to pull for a team simply because it is playing against a team you despise.
The folks behind the cameras at this event are top shelf. The broadcasters are usually good, too.
Someone who doesn’t care to watch the CWS recently told me all that matters is whether the team wins or loses and you can wait until the game is over to find out the answer. So why watch for hours?
That’s like asking, why sit in vigil with a sick patient? All that matters is whether he/she lives or dies. Or why spend days, weeks or longer reading a book, when you can just get the CliffsNotes?
To appreciate going around the block, you cannot cut corners. Life is a journey. It’s about caring for one another over the long haul. The finish line – in life and in sports — is the reward for the sweat, the struggles, the pains. It is the prize for “keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” as Rudyard Kipling wrote in “If.”
There are exceptions for not watching an entire game. During those times when your team is losing and playing poorly, it helps to step out and take a break, take a deep breath, walk off the steam, fire up the weed eater. Do whatever it takes to maintain your sanity and avoid kicking the furniture or the cat.
I unreservedly made an exception last Saturday afternoon for a dear soul I know – a beautiful woman who is confined to her room in an assisted living center. She is confined to her bed, her comfortable chair or, to get around, her wheelchair. She is 100 years old and is scheduled to hit 101 late next month.
Note I wrote “hit 101,” because that’s what she’ll do – with fists clenched — if she makes it to that age. It’s not a goal. She asked me why God doesn’t take her “and let me ascend.” She’s ready. More than ready. And, as she admitted, “I’m tired.”
How do you answer that?
I said, “I understand God’s preparing a mansion for you, and He’s not finished with it yet.”
She smiled weakly, and I said, ”As long as you’re down here …” and gestured as if preparing a bear hug, and she asked, “Hold on?”
I nodded, and, thinking of something she might like to do, I told her she could watch the Tigers play in the College World Series that started that evening at 6 o’clock. She is a big LSU fan.
“I might watch the first part but not the whole game,” she said. “Heck, I’m already ready for bed. But the first thing in the morning, I’ll check to see the score.”
“Sounds good,” I said, giving her a hug before leaving her room.
When you’re 100 and tired, the game is not the thing. It’s the final score that counts.