Baseball Coach Resigns!

[Zipsrifle]

After a reasonably successful season, Baseball coach Tim Berenyi resigns. I would have thought the finish in the MAC was a good indication of a coach gradually improving the program. It says it was his own decision. I wonder how much pressure MT brought?

Baseball Coach Resigns

[InTheZone]

Wow....in one year Mike Thomas has cleaned house in all 3 of the major sports.

[KingZip]

Football and Men's Basketball were last year and no one considers baseball to be a major sport at Akron U. Men's Soccer would be far and away more presigious than baseball.

Good year this year or not, this coach was on thin ice. He probably just saw the writing on the wall and said I may as well quit now and save face and maybe get a job somewhere elese. A bad season in 2006 would have been curtains for the guy if you look at the recent trends.

There are some really good baseball coaches at some of the D-11 and D-111 schools in Ohio... Akron should look there for the new boss or at a Big 10 assistant.

[InTheZone]

Football and Men's Basketball were last year and no one considers baseball to be a major sport at Akron U. Men's Soccer would be far and away more presigious than baseball.

Good year this year or not, this coach was on thin ice. He probably just saw the writing on the wall and said I may as well quit now and save face and maybe get a job somewhere elese. A bad season in 2006 would have been curtains for the guy if you look at the recent trends.

There are some really good baseball coaches at some of the D-11 and D-111 schools in Ohio... Akron should look there for the new boss or at a Big 10 assistant.

What are you smoking dude. Nobody on campus gives a rat's ass about men's soccer. I'm not saying anyone gives a rat's ass about baseball, but baseball nationally and locally is a much bigger sport.

Oh, and I'm sorry, two years

[zipper]

Men's soccer at Akron is nationally ranked every year. It is by far our most successful sport. More kids are playing soccer than baseball. More fans go to college soccer games than baseball games.

Your perception is just incorrect on this. In the pros, you're right, but in college athletics, you're off.

[Zipsrifle]

I think soccer is bigger than baseball. Though I like baseball, it's on the way out from a youth perspective. Soccer is only going to grow in popularity, where do you think all the "soccer moms" are driving the kids to?

[InTheZone]

Soccer does not draw any more fans than baseball. They both play for their parents and girlfriends, and that's about it.

On a national stage at the college level, you my friend, are flat out wrong. Take a survey on the street and see how many people can name the winner of the College World Series. Then take a survey on who can name the NCAA Men's Soccer Champion. Guaranteed more people know the national champion in baseball. Do they even televise the soccer national championship??

And look up some figures. ALOT more kids are still playing baseball is this country than soccer. Maybe not in Ohio, but if you've ever traveled to the South, "soccer player" is a synonym for "fag", and you can bet your bottom dollar boys don't want to be playing it. Much of the East Coast is the same way. Baseball is and always will be a bigger sport than soccer.

[Z.I.P.]

We ARE moving a bit off the original top, but let's skip off altogether a moment: There's a radio sports talk show host in my town who -- largely because he does play-by-play of football and basketball -- has a record of dissing anyone who wants to discuss The Beautiful Game of football (or soccer, as you blokes call it). Now that he's a father, his kids are playing youth soccer. However he has only changed his attitude to the point of suggesting soccer helps youngsters increase their athleticism and hand-eye coordination or some such line, and that soccer is a "children's sport" that they'll give up when they become adults. If anyone's been to a MLS game lately, you will see those legions of soccer players are still attracted to the game into adulthood -- even if the culture sees the game as some sort of French Socialist subversion.

Now I would be delighted if in my lifetime the National Football League made the transition to playing the game the rest of the world plays, but at best I see the game being a rival rather than supplanting US football (similar perhaps to the relationship between football(soccer) and rugby in Britain and much of the world).

Akron is lucky to be ahead of the curve in developing their soccer program. Hopefully the new stadium will have real grass (or at the least real Field Turf -- not the imitation at the RB), so it can be used for soccer competitions, including the new fall tournament which could develop into one of the college game's biggest events. Go Zips! Go Futbolisto(a)s!