At no point does your experience at baseball games include winning. I want us to WIN, especially at home. We had double digit losses at home in 2018. There's no home field advantage when you lose that many games at home.
Coach Robe didn't create Centerfield during the 7th inning stretch. He didn't ask fans to get up and sing and clap along. He didn't create the Cajun Cooking Club. The fans created the atmosphere and he has admitted that when developing the new grandstand.
Expectations change over time. For football, it used to be getting 6 wins. Now 6 isn't enough. For baseball, 4th place in the Sun Belt in 2017 and 5th place in the Sun Belt in 2018 and sitting at home after Memorial Day isn't enough. You can't compete for national championships, which Robe wants us to do, if you are sitting at home after Memorial Day.
I have not made up my mind. But everyone seems to be in consensus that the current hitting coach and system are not working. If the status quo is to be maintained, then I know that we will be at home again after Memorial Day in 2019. Is Robe willing to risk 3 straight postseasons at home?
"Being held accountable" means criticizing when the goals aren't reached. That doesn't automatically call for a firing. Take this year for example. We missed a regional for the second year in a row and our batting average was in the bottom 15 of ALL Division 1 programs. That's not our standard. So, that means accountability comes in to where we start raising our eyebrows and questioning what's going on.
Yes, it is true that everyone has his/her own standard, but there's a level of rationality that comes with that. I highly doubt that people will call for Robe's firing if we don't make Super Regionals every season. If so, they need to get their heads checked.
I admire your support for the baseball program because I am the exact same way. I'm at just about every home game. I love the atmosphere, I love the Tigue, and I love clapping and singing along to "Centerfield." But in my view, I don't think a laisez-faire approach to our shortcomings may be the best way. Excusing underachievement and telling them to "take their money elsewhere if they don't like it" is how complacency and apathy take over a program. And that's when the success starts to decrease. Again, there are fans out there with unrealistic expectations. But those same fans fill up seats, chip in the coaches salaries, and create that atmosphere that we brag about every year as well.
I agree with almost all of your comments here. He didn't create the Cajun Cooking Club, but the idea was brought to him to start it from fans with some exchange of services from him side and he approved it. If you think the new grandstand would have been built without him (specifically) in the next five years you'd be wrong. JMO
Yes winning matters but not to the extent that it cause me to lose perspective. My perspective goes back to the Boulenger years... When my wife and I would drag our young kids... an ice chest and hot dogs made at home to join the other 120 or so fans out there....
And I would respectfully disagree.... everything we have today is because of Robe.... every year there was something new added to the game experience.... No he does not cook in the Cajun Club.... no he does not sing in the 7th.... But he created the machine... he got the ball rolling that brought out innovative fans who enjoyed the product... win or lose.... and added to it...
And for the record.. I too have high expectations every year.... every year I dream of another trip to Nebraska.... but those expectations do not in any way diminish the perspective I have and the respect for the man who made it so.
Good post.. A couple of comments. so for you accountability = criticism.... Fair enough... I'm with ya
As to my comment about taking your money elsewhere, it was in response to another poster, not sure who, who said if things didn't change he would consider giving up his box seats and using his disposable money elsewhere. Again fair enough and that is EVERYONE's own personal decision and that is what I was trying to convey... And followed by saying I would continue to spend some of my disposable income at the Tigue
Thanks
The more and more I think of expectations, mine don’t even have anything to do with end result unless that end result is a national title. Hear me out. We could have snuck into a regional this year. Hell, we could have won a regional. But odds are we weren’t dogpiling in Omaha. What is one of the most glaring issue that puts those odds against us? Our putrid offense. What is the almost unanimous thought of why? Jeremy Talbot. If we retain JT, it is a sign of not attempting to get better. In the realm of “that’s baseball” a team that gets bounced in the regional could theoretically be a better baseball team than one that makes a super. Or vice versus. So how many regional, supers, cws to me is irrelevant. I want to be continuously looking at ways to improve the team. I want to see good fundamental baseball. If that means keeping staff in place, fine. I don’t believe that’s the case here. We could have thrown shutouts all the way to Omaha. We still need to improve hitting. We have all the tools to win a championship with this program. Those postseason appearances fall into place if you are continuing to make adjustments to get better.
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