-Late night for sure. I remember flying back from Houston to Atlanta in 2013, just being so depressed on the airplane about the weekend and about the prospects for the rest of the season. It didn't feel that way yesterday. Maybe you just get used to losing, I don't know.... It was a tremendously enjoyable weekend, aside from the games ("well other than that, Miss Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?") and I made the comment yesterday that you really just have to separate the two. That's the new era of Georgia baseball I guess.
-I did think that Bo Tucker did a nice job early. He got some quick outs the first time through. He obviously ran into some trouble after the error, but I'm still not convinced that was what got him unglued. Much like Friday night with Robert Tyler, the second time through the order was a much different undertaking. On both Friday and Sunday, the A&M hitters were more patient and made much better contact the second time through. That's a credit to them, but it also speaks, I think, to the need to approach things differently on our end the second time through as well. I've made the comparison to David Sosebee in 2014 a number of times now as far as Bo is concerned. When Sosebee finally did crack the rotation, his first start, at Vanderbilt, was nothing impressive. But there were some positives there and it generally paid off later (he was terrific the following weekend against South Carolina and was very strong at Oxford also). So I hope Bo sticks in the rotation. I know that he was injured in the fall and it took some time to build him back up. Still, any other team in the conference would have Bo starting and Conner Jones in the bullpen, I think.... I don't know that we have that luxury with Conner, but we did mis-cast both of those guys out of the gate, I believe.
-Haven't seen it yet, but I assume Hunter Melton will win offensive player of the week. He should. And the Boomer White kid really reminded me of Bobby Felmy... It was almost uncanny.
-The solo HR streak finally made it into the game story. Our last 14 in a row have been solo shots. I was happy for Nick King and Stephen Wrenn to card a couple yesterday. And not to detract for either guy, but that was a point in the game where the pitcher for A&M was just trying to get quick outs. I don't think that either player is pitched that way with men on base or in a close game. But still, it was nice that each guy put a good AB together. Those HRs made the difference 30-3 on the weekend instead of 30-1. Really, we are fortunate that it wasn't 35-1. At that point, there's not much difference, it's a total beat down, but it is notable that this weekend could have been much, much worse.
-Three years ago at A&M, and I wrote about this at the time, I passed by Coach Perno after the game on Saturday in the hallway at the hotel. He said "I'm sorry.... you came all this way..." We'd lost on Friday night and were beaten 2-1 in 10 innings on Saturday. It was very much a competitive series to that point. It moved me then, and moreso now looking back on it, that Perno would proactively make that statement to me... I didn't initiate that brief exchange, he did. For all of his faults, he would call a spade a spade, but at that time, what did he really have to apologize to me about? We really fought hard that day, I mean, as limited as the 2013 was, those guys laid it all out there on Saturday in College Station, and just came up a bit short.
The fact that Perno would say "I'm sorry" to a fan after that, to a fan who absolutely expected no apology or thought it was called for, said so much about who he was.
Do I think Stricklin would do the same? No. He doesn't owe me an apology or an explanation or anything like that. But still, I cannot imagine him ever saying "I'm sorry you came all this way for this." I mean, this is a guy who three years ago was genuinely surprised that ANYONE came to watch practice in the fall. Maybe he doesn't realize now that non-blood relatives will travel to see this team away from Athens. Or maybe he just doesn't care. I know when I saw him leaving the stadium on Saturday and Sunday, he sure looked like he was in his own world. Clinched jaw, thousand yard stare, all that stuff. He looks like that standing by himself at the end of the dugout too. I'm sure he knows that something is wrong here, but can't, or won't, admit it publicly.
Ms. RedRain went with me. Leaving the stadium on one of the last two days, she asked me "does he even enjoy coaching?" It reminded me of a similar comment posed at Vanderbilt in 2014 which I thought was very astute... "It's almost like he just doesn't like working with 18-21 year olds." My response this weekend was "It sure doesn't look like it" before recounting the 2014 discussion. Personally I don't care if he loves it or not... A lot of people out there don't love their jobs (and a lot of those actually manage to do their job well anyway). Maybe that's the case here. Maybe Stricklin realized somewhere down the line that he knew a lot about baseball and could make some money coaching it. Then he got himself hired as an assistant by his college head coach, then was hired by his alma mater, then he met Greg McGarity. And he's earned well in excess of one million dollars since he met our fearless AD.
I don't know. Maybe this is just a job for Scott. The level of detachment that we've seen the last few weeks, and especially at A&M would seem to support that. LJ Talley, among whom Stricklin is clearly hitching his wagon, hits a game tying HR on Saturday in Starkville. Our dugout explodes. Stricklin just stands there like a statue. We're down 6-0 yesterday. Stricklin just stands there like a statue. Maybe you could say "he's just cool under pressure" but you'd have to ignore all the moments when he ceases to be a statue and begins behaving like a maniac. Being cool and collected, like Mark Richt in Knoxville in 2001 or Larry Bird in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bulls in 1998 (or 99? Jordan's last year) is an admirable trait when it's universal. It looks, at least to the lay person, like detachment, the rest of the time.
I won't say that Stricklin doesn't care.... If he truly didn't care, he wouldn't bother to treat his players the way he does. I just don't think he knows what he's doing. Three years into it, this is what we are. 30-3. How can anyone argue that he's the right man for this job? How can anyone objectively argue that he is capable of leading this program? What more do you need to see?
-I did think that Bo Tucker did a nice job early. He got some quick outs the first time through. He obviously ran into some trouble after the error, but I'm still not convinced that was what got him unglued. Much like Friday night with Robert Tyler, the second time through the order was a much different undertaking. On both Friday and Sunday, the A&M hitters were more patient and made much better contact the second time through. That's a credit to them, but it also speaks, I think, to the need to approach things differently on our end the second time through as well. I've made the comparison to David Sosebee in 2014 a number of times now as far as Bo is concerned. When Sosebee finally did crack the rotation, his first start, at Vanderbilt, was nothing impressive. But there were some positives there and it generally paid off later (he was terrific the following weekend against South Carolina and was very strong at Oxford also). So I hope Bo sticks in the rotation. I know that he was injured in the fall and it took some time to build him back up. Still, any other team in the conference would have Bo starting and Conner Jones in the bullpen, I think.... I don't know that we have that luxury with Conner, but we did mis-cast both of those guys out of the gate, I believe.
-Haven't seen it yet, but I assume Hunter Melton will win offensive player of the week. He should. And the Boomer White kid really reminded me of Bobby Felmy... It was almost uncanny.
-The solo HR streak finally made it into the game story. Our last 14 in a row have been solo shots. I was happy for Nick King and Stephen Wrenn to card a couple yesterday. And not to detract for either guy, but that was a point in the game where the pitcher for A&M was just trying to get quick outs. I don't think that either player is pitched that way with men on base or in a close game. But still, it was nice that each guy put a good AB together. Those HRs made the difference 30-3 on the weekend instead of 30-1. Really, we are fortunate that it wasn't 35-1. At that point, there's not much difference, it's a total beat down, but it is notable that this weekend could have been much, much worse.
-Three years ago at A&M, and I wrote about this at the time, I passed by Coach Perno after the game on Saturday in the hallway at the hotel. He said "I'm sorry.... you came all this way..." We'd lost on Friday night and were beaten 2-1 in 10 innings on Saturday. It was very much a competitive series to that point. It moved me then, and moreso now looking back on it, that Perno would proactively make that statement to me... I didn't initiate that brief exchange, he did. For all of his faults, he would call a spade a spade, but at that time, what did he really have to apologize to me about? We really fought hard that day, I mean, as limited as the 2013 was, those guys laid it all out there on Saturday in College Station, and just came up a bit short.
The fact that Perno would say "I'm sorry" to a fan after that, to a fan who absolutely expected no apology or thought it was called for, said so much about who he was.
Do I think Stricklin would do the same? No. He doesn't owe me an apology or an explanation or anything like that. But still, I cannot imagine him ever saying "I'm sorry you came all this way for this." I mean, this is a guy who three years ago was genuinely surprised that ANYONE came to watch practice in the fall. Maybe he doesn't realize now that non-blood relatives will travel to see this team away from Athens. Or maybe he just doesn't care. I know when I saw him leaving the stadium on Saturday and Sunday, he sure looked like he was in his own world. Clinched jaw, thousand yard stare, all that stuff. He looks like that standing by himself at the end of the dugout too. I'm sure he knows that something is wrong here, but can't, or won't, admit it publicly.
Ms. RedRain went with me. Leaving the stadium on one of the last two days, she asked me "does he even enjoy coaching?" It reminded me of a similar comment posed at Vanderbilt in 2014 which I thought was very astute... "It's almost like he just doesn't like working with 18-21 year olds." My response this weekend was "It sure doesn't look like it" before recounting the 2014 discussion. Personally I don't care if he loves it or not... A lot of people out there don't love their jobs (and a lot of those actually manage to do their job well anyway). Maybe that's the case here. Maybe Stricklin realized somewhere down the line that he knew a lot about baseball and could make some money coaching it. Then he got himself hired as an assistant by his college head coach, then was hired by his alma mater, then he met Greg McGarity. And he's earned well in excess of one million dollars since he met our fearless AD.
I don't know. Maybe this is just a job for Scott. The level of detachment that we've seen the last few weeks, and especially at A&M would seem to support that. LJ Talley, among whom Stricklin is clearly hitching his wagon, hits a game tying HR on Saturday in Starkville. Our dugout explodes. Stricklin just stands there like a statue. We're down 6-0 yesterday. Stricklin just stands there like a statue. Maybe you could say "he's just cool under pressure" but you'd have to ignore all the moments when he ceases to be a statue and begins behaving like a maniac. Being cool and collected, like Mark Richt in Knoxville in 2001 or Larry Bird in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bulls in 1998 (or 99? Jordan's last year) is an admirable trait when it's universal. It looks, at least to the lay person, like detachment, the rest of the time.
I won't say that Stricklin doesn't care.... If he truly didn't care, he wouldn't bother to treat his players the way he does. I just don't think he knows what he's doing. Three years into it, this is what we are. 30-3. How can anyone argue that he's the right man for this job? How can anyone objectively argue that he is capable of leading this program? What more do you need to see?
