You can say it’s the bats. You can say it’s the park. You can say it’s the pitching.
Or you can say it’s all three.
Whatever you say, don’t say this has been an exciting College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park.
There have been few compelling finishes. South Carolina had a walk-off in its opener. That’s about it.
Heading into today’s Florida-Vanderbilt game, the losing team is averaging 1.9 runs per game. The average score? 5.7 to 1.9.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
The thing is, you’re going to see more teams built to play in this park which puts a premium on defense and pitching. I was all in favor of the new bats because college baseball reached laughable levels in the late 1990s. But with this park and the best pitching in college baseball added to the mix, we have a lot of snoozers. A team gets ahead by three runs and, for the most part, the game is over.
I’m not saying I want a return to gorilla ball, but a little offense wouldn’t hurt. As we sit here right now, the average number of runs scored per game is 7.6.
Maybe it will turn out to be a one-year aberration, but I think not.
