Michigan Baseball - 2019
For those of you disappointed in the way the 2018 baseball season ended, here's a bit of promising news. Baseball America is out with its way too early predictions for the eight teams to make the 2019 College World Series. Michigan isn't there, but is among the other eight teams to make the Super Regionals. It's been awhile, since Michigan even advanced that far. That happened in 2007 when Michigan beat Vanderbilt (and David Price) twice to reach the Super Regional in Corvallis. In Game 1, Zach Putnam had a no-hitter into the ninth, but the first hit for OSU led to a 1-0 defeat. Then Michigan got blown out in Game 2. Michigan has made seven College World Series, but none since 1984. It's won the National Championship twice, the last in 1962.
We're a baseball-adjacent school now!
Of the 16 teams mentioned in the article, Michigan is the only “cold weather” school. Louisville is probably the closest otherwise. This is another example showing why we may need to find a better way to hold the baseball/softball regionals/World Series. Should we have a separate championship based on north/south? Where would the cutoff be? Or, could the college baseball/softball seasons start later (May)? Or maybe everyone is happy with how it works now?
Maybe one of our wealthy donors could build a dome over the Wilson complex. Just a thought.
I think you mean Wilpon ( as in Fred) ( I just had to edit out Wilson f$@#ing auto correct).
Kids in cold states have a small window of time to play baseball outdoors or else they play other sports in the winter + most kids on B1G rosters come from cold states = B1G players haven't had the time to develop and compete like kids from warm states where they play baseball 12 months.
After scanning the B1G baseball rosters it became obvious that Michigan is by far the most active in recruiting warm weather (or west coast) players. (OSU was close but not to the degree UM recruits from CA). Which makes it obvious why we are predicted to do better than other comparable cold schools.
Not to mention, have you ever tried playing baseball in the snow? I remember playing all the time in high school in snow flurries and sub-freezing windchill. You stand/sit a lot in baseball. Doing it in freezing weather sucks balls and leads to a lot of injuries.
I don't think the issue is the Regionals or world series. It is nice and warm here by then. The biggest issue is baseball is not a sport meant for cold weather but the NCAA is limited by academic calendars. Much like golf, players can't play in Michigan year round so it hinders baseball development. Kids tend to play other sports because hitting in a cage in December/January is way less fun.
NCAA Division 1 already tries to legislate start dates to make it more even. The earliest anyone can play a game was February 12 this year. When I was in college, we typically wouldn't play our first game until our spring break Florida trip at the end of February and would be playing local teams with 15-20 games under their belts. We had to condense the schedule to get the same number of games in but in half the time so we would often play 6-7 games a week while southern teams were playing 3-4 resulting in them being rested come playoff time and us being rundown. Just part of the territory when it comes to being a northern team, playing a warm weather sport.