Within minutes of the stories being posted here following Arkansas’ loss to Texas Tech on Monday afternoon, one fan apparently thought I was going to produce a negative piece.
Bless his heart, he implored that I not be allowed to write a certain way … and added for the umpteenth time I be fired.
It’s almost disappointing to tell him no one has told me in the five decades of doing this what to (or not to) write or talk about.
In the biggest of markets I’ve been in (top five in the country), no one has ever so much as hinted at it … to me or anyone else that I know.
Even more, there’s nothing to really be negative about, even with an 0-2 run in Omaha at the College World Series this year.
It’s baseball. Winning a national title in that sport is as hard as any sport.
Yes, that’s one of Dave Van Horn’s sayings that filters down to his players, but it’s an accurate statement. It also applies to just about every other team sport, but especially in baseball, which is (at least in my opinion) the most difficult sport.
Baseball, unlike any other sport, celebrates someone who accomplishes their task of hitting a round ball with a round stick four out of 10 times. Most would crucify a quarterback who completed an average of four-of-10 passes.
The sport creates more “what if” moments than any other form of competition. For a fan base that is still playing that card 60 years after some games in various sports, baseball is often a maddening experience.
Yes, there are questions on decisions. Van Horn knows that’s a gigantic part of baseball, too.
And there were mistakes made in the field and at the plate. That’s part of baseball, too.
“It was a good year,” Van Horn said later.
This Hogs team over-achieved from what a lot of folks were expecting back in February. Van Horn said it. Many ignored him saying and assumed another trip to Omaha, which turned out to be correct, and has become the expectation every year.
“I know there’s a lot of people back home disappointed, but probably like me, if they just take a step back and take a breath and kind of realize what we replaced and how we did after we replaced all those players, it was a pretty good year,” Van Horn said Monday afternoon.
The result against Texas Tech is crushing to some, disappointing to others.
But all Razorback fans should just take a step back, suck in a deep breath and realize it was a year that actually was better than most expected.
Next year will be here soon enough.
In the meantime there is football coming up with practices starting in about six weeks and SEC Media Days in about three weeks.
Yes, it’s that close.
