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We had one sport left that didn’t expand the playoffs beyond the top teams, and it just cashed in. The rich get richer, the mediocre get paid, and the mid-majors fall further behind.

Nobody is talking about what caused this event in the first place. I've seen a lot worse done to motivate malcontents to get with the program. One of the things scholastic sports does (allegedly) is to teach hard work and teamwork and commitment. Those are severely lacking with the snowflake generation. Nobody brings this up, the lazyass is made the victim. JMHO YMMV.

Alumni watch Chris Bassett (OAK) is 6-2 3.44 with 86 K's in 81 IP and a 1.01 WHIP JT Brubaker (PIT) is 4-5 3.90 with 62 K's in 60 IP and a 1.00 WHIP

Well high grades are going to be a lot tougher to get from me as time goes on. Now if he's the equivalent of 1-17 this time next year...

Well lets fire the coach every year for not being able to recruit underclassmen, bring in a couple upperclassmen transfers, and win the CWS the first year. Ted? Stepien?? Is that you???

I give him/them some leeway for being basically a first year team. Compare that to the 100+ year old football program that has given us 1-17 the past two years, and most fans give Tom Arth a pass and hope like hell he stays. We lost talent and a good coach (when he’s not dipping in the funds) to Oakland. So, yeah, I look at Sabo on the context of what’s happened here the last 6 years to the program. Yeah we do need to play more regional D1 schools in non-con, those prospects should improve as the team does. Without moving to the sunbelt or out west for a month, you’re pretty limited in who you can play (after you clear the snow off the field). Thats the context I look at the program with. If you want instant wins and MAC tournament runs, you’re going to be disappointed for awhile.

The Zips closed out an interesting season with a 9-6 win at Kent State. Like the cherry on top of the sundae lol. They finished 15-36, winning 29% of their games. Which is roughly like winning 3 football games. "He went there". That includes two wins against Kent, going 3-1 against the Bobkitties and splitting a 4 game series with EMU. Coach Sabo gets an A- from me on building the team. Maybe a strong A. The former coach who went rogue and took several key players with him didn't help a whole lot. Let's just say I doubt we'll be playing Oakland U in the near future... I'm looking forward to see how, with a full season of data and observation, Spuds continues to build the team.

His stuff was nasty today. 1 run on 4 hits. It was a fun double header for fans of pitching. 8 runs total. They were moving along, it took just over 4 hours for the two games. I'm starting to like the 7 inning games in double headers. I bet the pitching coaches and managers love it.

Great day for baseball, I would say perfect weather for a day game. The Zips split the double header with Ohio. This team impresses me, I’m excited for the future. The stands were closed due to Rona, but there was still a very nice crowd. The leveling of the field created a mound all the way around the outfield, and it was a popular place to watch from. Of course the hill along the third base line was also popular. I stood between the ballpark and the soccer stadium most of the double header. Good place to watch the game, and the bullpen action. I might bring a folding chair next year even if the stands are open. Players were going back and forth from the dugout to the soccer restrooms. Several said hi to the fans, or nodded. Jackson Hickert came through and was very friendly and upbeat, said rehab is going well. I hope he has a great season next year. I get a good vibe from these kids. It was a good atmosphere. The announcer could have engaged the fans better. Not quite like a minor league announcer, but maybe throw out more info. That was a problem with the previous program. Glad I made it out, hope to see some more games next season (if it’s not still snowing in late April and my work isn’t off the chain again).

I’m sitting here in the shadow of LJF watching baseball play Ohio U in a light t-shirt, and wondering why the heck the MAC played their “spring” soccer season so early?

Four conference wins thus far, and an overall record >25%. 9-16 at home. Better than I expected. If work (and Mother Nature) cooperates I'll finally get out to the ballpark Friday.

They could have given us season tickets and a Zips gear voucher and we could have come up with better candidates for no cost.

Awesome!!! Get well soon.

Some MAC baseball sources: https://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-baseball https://d1baseball.com/conference/mid-american-conference/ https://www.baseball-reference.com/schools/?key_school=bf479b5c https://d1baseball.com/ http://baseballnews.com/ Some trivia fodder: Keith Dambrot attended Firestone High School, playing baseball and point guard in basketball for the school teams. In college at the University of Akron, he played third base on the Akron Zips baseball team (of which he was captain and MVP) for the school, establishing what at the time was a school record for career hit by pitch, with 28. He graduated in 1982 with a degree in Management. In 1984 he earned an MBA from the University of Akron.

I was adding to your post responding to Meister about the attendance. I don't think we've ever had much of a disagreement on the ball team.

To be fair, should we compare Baseball attendance to 10 or 12 other Zips programs?

Part of it is the weather, there was still snow on my porch this morning when I left for work this morning. Part of it is the losing associated with a brand new program. Along that line people are still pissed about the 100+ year old program being axed a few years ago. It was established, won games and tournament rounds, put players in MLB. That was taken away by the. University. There are fans who don’t want to put a lot of faith in a program that could be cut again tomorrow. I hear several reasons. Mostly, it’s the weather. Fans are skipping out on MLB because of the crappy weather. Come to think of it, it’s very similar to the football program in those regards...

You’re talking about the same site that had the same “Player of the Week” for over a year. And the player skipped town that long ago. It’s pretty sad a “major university” maintains its websites so well. Makes you wonder about the online facilities used in education... If you were a student looking at different universities and checking out their websites, what would you think comparing Akron to say, a Malone (Let alone the three other major universities in the region). Go Zips!!!

It was a joke about the city, but probably a bad one. The campus is getting rocked by the virus, probably in part because of the socio-economic challenges of the area.

Im sorry but if your team tests positive, you should have to forfeit. Other programs stay n the field without a positive all season... And yes I have been to Dayton but that’s no excuse.

It’s really exciting to see baseball’s Brenton Phillips named the Zips Athlete of the Week on GoZips.com. Especially since he transferred to Oakland over a year ago. You can’t make this crap up.

So, what are the things on the players belt? It looks like it has buttons and Heydinger touches it before every pitch.

I'n getting this at GoZips:

I caught the game with Malone today on ZDN. Getting smoked by a D2 school is not the end of the world for basically a first year D1 program, but some of the butchered plays made me glad I didn't make the 22 minute drive to campus. Then figure in Malone doesn't have it's own ball park yet, and is 6-14 in conference against the likes of Trevecca Nazarene and Lake Erie College. We've got a long way to go...