SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Hater's Guide to Mizzou Baseball

In a blatant but personally embarrassing imitation of the folks at Deadspin.com, this week's post is a Hater's Guide to Mizzou Baseball.

My vocabulary doesn't even include some of the potty-mouth words the Deadspin writers use, but my aim here is to give you permission to hate Mizzou Baseball, but in a semi-informed way. I say "semi-informed" because the following will adhere somewhat to the mantra of the Deadspin haters:

"As always, no research of any kind has been done for these entries. In many cases, I don't even know the name of the school's head coach. And that's because ignorance is the lifeblood of good hate. Without ignorance, we'd all be able to understand and sympathize with one another, and sympathy is for women..."  [Quote edited for sensitive and non-juvenile sensibilities]

There are plenty of people who hate Mizzou Baseball.

Kansas certainly does. They hate anything and everything about Missouri, except when they want to drive across the river and make idiots of themselves at the Power & Light District in Kansas City.

SEC fans, though, will have to find their own reasons to hate Mizzou Baseball.  Here's a few to try on and see if they fit your Dixie sensibilities:

Mizzou fans don't dress up for baseball games.  We wear whatever we feel like.   

Mizzou baseball attendance sucks.  I don't know why. 

Our ballpark, Taylor Stadium, is one of the smallest ballparks in the SEC, yet it averages an attendance at 25% capacity. Yes, attendance sucks. 

In spite of the fact that attendance sucks, getting decent parking is ridiculous unless you get there early enough to grab a spot at the top of the Summit.

The concessions are merely adequate.  Maybe that's why attendance sucks.  I don't know. 

There are entirely too many gingers on this team.  Recruiting Coordinator Kerrick Jackson must intentionally devote his time to searching out all the red-headed stepchildren he can find to fill out the roster.  If that's not bad enough, one of those carrot-tops is inordinately proud of his ginger-haired calves.

If you really want to develop a negative impression of Mizzou fans, spend some time lurking at Tigerboard.com, especially on The Shack board (aka "the cesspool").  Make sure you have plenty of antibiotics on hand before you go in, though.

Head Coach Tim Jamieson does not tweet on Twitter.  But his left knee does. 

Mizzou Baseball's first and last National Championship was in 1954, which was before even I was born.   This of course makes Missouri one of only four SEC teams to win the CWS,  tied with Georgia in third place for the most CWS championships (LSU 6, USC 2, UGA 1, MU 1) and 2nd in CWS runner-up finishes..

Paper Tiger

But here, read some entertaining Mizzou hate and Mizzou Baseball hate from highly informed people on the internet:

♦ Missouri did more to destroy the Big 12 than Texas did (Cowboys Ride For Free)

Who started conference realignment? Who has whored themselves out to the most conferences since this started? (Word on the street is they have an invite from the NFL) Who overvalues their program the most? (Besides A&M) Who, out of all teams in the former Big 12, have the most to lose by moving? M-I-Z, Z-O-U. After news broke they were trying to seduce the Big 10 all hell broke loose. Seriously, if their officials could keep a God damn secret maybe we'd all still be one big dysfunctional conference. Listen up Tigers, I have news for your journalism school: In the Big 12 you would have had a shot at winning the conference, but you will never win the SEC. If you're in that conference 200 years, you will never win it.

♦ Missouri has 63% more meth labs than the next closest state (Cowboys Ride for Free)

That's just a fact, you can't argue with that Tiger fans (well, **** like you probably could, but you just look stupid doing so). Misery is doing more to contribute to the decline of America than the Taliban. Maybe if y'all did less meth you'd realize that two of your claims to fame are lies, you don't have America's first football homecoming (Baylor, 1909), and you don't have the worlds first journalism school (Ecole Superieure de Journalism de Paris, 1899).

♦ They banned strip clubs (Cowboys Ride for Free)

Until this bull***t get's repealed I will never travel to, through, or near Missouri. Seriously, I thought Oklahoma was full of bible thumping jerks, but ****, Missouri went too far. They banned fully nude (what the hell is the point of a titty bar if you can't have a errant pube fall in your beer?), banned alcohol, and require dancers to be 6 feet from the customers at all times. Really? I'm disappointed in America. If there's something wrong with getting a pair of tits in your face for cash, I don't want to be right.

♦ Conference realignment: Is Missouri about to play the SEC’s fool? (Big Red Today)

The University of Missouri could be on the verge of making a stupendous mistake of impatience, borne out of a handful of university and state leaders wanting to wipe egg off their face from last year’s Big Ten debacle with a move to the SEC, a league that has neither the academic pedigree nor the competitive atmosphere suited for such a starchy Midwestern institution.

Mizzou in a ditch fight with SEC programs who embrace cheating and slippery ethics like a favorite uncle? The Tigers’ so-so fan base traveling to South Carolina, Georgia and Auburn? In trade for what? A little more TV money? Long-term security?

See, this is how powerful people get. They beg for one thing — the Big Ten — get shut down there, and figure there’s a better move to make outside of waiting. There isn’t. And I’m not going to go into some painful 3,000-word exegesis about this, either. Save exegeses for Occupy Wall Street or child welfare or something. This is a great school making a dumb move and all the Kansas City media and Mizzou alums will stomp and cheer and all the rest of it (the St. Louis media will pay attention when the World Series is over, thank you) while the SEC-centric college football sites that bloat and pillage my Twitter feed will write 4,000-word blog posts comparing this change to the conquest of whole plate of chicken and waffles in Memphis. Or whatever. It’s dumb. It’s the wrong play.

♦ Sound Familiar? Georgia Baseball (And The Rest Of The SEC East) Will Enjoy An Easier Schedule With Expansion (SBNation Atlanta)

Oh, that puckish Mizzou. First they incense a few of their new SEC neighbors simply by existing - theirs and Texas A&M"s addition to the 2012 football slate bumped several "heavyweight" games like Georgia / Alabama off the schedule- and now they're benefitting Bulldog baseball and the rest of the SEC East in much the same manner. The gall!
. . .
Despite the two new schools, the SEC isn't expected to expand its 30 game conference schedule, which breaks down to ten, three-game series. That means every team will play one series against their division foes (six), and one against a rotation of four teams from the opposite division. Power schools like the Gators, Vanderbilt, defending CWS Champion South Carolina and yes, those lucky Bulldogs, will be guaranteed one series a year against Missouri, and less of a chance each season of drawing perennially ranked schools like Arkansas (No. 4 this year), LSU (No. 8) or Ole Miss (No. 22).

Say what you want, that it's a totally logical inclusion of new schools with accidental side affects on particular schools, but we side with South Carolina - this is all a dirty UGA conspiracy, and we're not fooled!

♦ Mizzou is going to get donkey stomped in baseball (SEC Rant Board at TigerDroppings.com)

schlow mo: I don't think this should be overlooked.

They will be able to compete in basketball, they will be a level with us or a little below in football. Baseball is just going to be awful, they might not get out of the cellar for a decade.

When you can't be a better team in the big 12 in baseball, where I think about half the teams don't even play baseball, you are going to be awful in SEC baseball

Just trust me when I tell you when Mizzou starts a 30 game slate against the SEC they are going to cry Friday through Sunday for 10 straight weekends

Your stadium holds 3k which is just sad

Haven't been to the CWS since 64

Haven't won your shitty conference since 80

Yall are going to get curb stomped weekly

Bamainozarks: They will be the worst baseball team ever to dawn an sec uniform

Wildcatmike: Mizzou fans, your team will here me from the deck (not going to point out who I am) ..but from Leon Landry to Webb of USC had great times during games

♦ Mizzou's SEC Application (click here to see the graphic at muckfizzou.com)

From muckfizzou.com

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: 1954 National Champions

1954 CWS Champion MU Tigers

Missouri Tiger Baseball in 1954 was quite different from the modern version in many ways.

Most notably, there was no Simmons Field, not to mention Taylor Stadium. Simmons was the name of the Head Coach - John "Hi" Simmons - and his team played their home games at Rollins Field, in the heart of the campus. The field was located, logically, on Rollins Road, near the still-standing Brewer Field House. As is apparent from the photos on this page (taken during the 1954 season), Rollins Field lacked some of the amenities now available at modern Taylor Stadium.

The Tigers played a 20-game regular-season schedule, including 12 games against Big Seven Conference rivals (Iowa State, Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska -- MU and Kansas did not meet on the diamond that year, due to a rain-out). They then advanced directly to the College World Series, where they played just six games against five opponents on their way to the national championship.

Norm Stewart

University of Missouri Freshmen did not play on the varsity baseball team in those days. The entire roster listing for the '54 Tigers includes only 20 players, compared to 33 ballplayers in '03.

One of the players on that roster was sophomore pitcher Norm Stewart.  Stormin' Norman is better known as the long-time coach of Missouri Basketball, but back then he was a two-sport player.  HE even threw MU's first no-hitter in

For a detailed retelling of the 1954 College World Series Championship season, check out the day-by-day game-by-game recreation of that season I did here on SimmonsField.com back in 2004, on the 50th anniversary.

SEC Baseball Fan's Guide to
Mizzou Baseball

♦ Former Tigers reflect on 1954 national title. (Columbia Tribune, Wednesday, June 16, 2004)

"Certainly nobody would have ever said this would be the only NCAA championship Missouri would ever win in a true team sport in the history of the university," said [Dick] Dickinson, one of three seniors on the ’54 team. "There were some great teams later on in the ’50s and ’60s, but nobody ever did it again. It’s really incredible."
....
"Some ballclubs just seem to find out how to win," said [Norm] Stewart, a sophomore pitcher for the ’54 team. "And everything seems to go well for them in critical situations. … Coach Simmons, if he wasn’t the best coach during that time … then he was one of the top two or three coaches in the country. You take the coaching and those unique players, and everything else seemed to fall in place. It was a loose group, and nobody ever thought about losing a game."
....
George Gleason caught and batted fifth. After a prolific week in Omaha, he was voted the team MVP.
"Our catcher was exceptional at understanding baseball and calling pitches," Stewart said. "He was a very good hitter, too."
....
"We just had the right blend," [Emil] Kammer said. "We had a couple seniors to keep us in line because we were always doing something crazy. But I think it was just one of those years."
....
"As they say, a lot of times a person can’t panic if he doesn’t realize his position," Stewart said. "The seniors and some of the older guys, they kept it serious enough. The young guys, we just figured we’ll just go out and play."
....
"It was a better diamond than Wrigley Field, which I played on as a kid in some all-star games," Dickinson said of Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium. "I told the guys on the bus, ‘If we make errors on this diamond, we ought to be thrown off the team.’ I think we made three errors in six games. They ask me what I hit in the College World Series, and I say, ‘Nevermind that. I was 33 for 33 in the field.’ "
....
Stewart said he doesn’t even remember any of the players’ parents attending the World Series games.
"Heck, my parents didn’t even know I went out for baseball," he said.
....
The team will be honored again this fall, marking the 50th anniversary, during the football team’s opening weekend Sept. 3. Two players, Bob Schoonmaker and Eldon Morgan have died, but 16 of the remaining 18 players have committed to attending the reunion.
"It’s going to be a great weekend for a lot of great guys," Stewart said.

College World Series

Stony Brook headed to Omaha

The 2012 College World Series has several teams of interest to Mizzou fans in the final Bracket of 8:

• Stony Brook, from New York, is one of two mid-major northern teams in the CWS this year.  It's always good to see that a team from somewhere besides the Sun Belt can make it to Omaha.
• UCLA will be SB's first opponent in Omaha.  
• Arizona is in the other part of Bracket 1.  Arizona's road to Omaha started with the Tucson Regional, where they "chopped" their way through the heat to beat both Mizzou and Louisville.
• Florida State is U of A's first opponent.  They may be the most dominant team in the field.
• Kent State is the other mid-major northern team in Omaha.  the last time Mizzou saw Kent State was in that same 2007 Regional in CoMo when the Tigers tangled with Louisville.
• Arkansas is Kent State's first opponent.  The Razorbacks took two games from the Tigers in May.  Arkansas is one of two SEC teams in the field.
• South Carolina is the second SEC team in Omaha this year.  They have won the past two College World Series.  The Gamecocks will be the first SEC team on Missouri's schedule in 2013, with a 3-game series at Taylor Stadium March 15-17.
• Florida will be South Carolina's first opponent.  It's interesting that all three of the SEC teams in the field of 8 are on the same side of on the bracket, which means there will not be an all-SEC finals.  And the two teams in the all-SEC finals last year were Florida and South Carolina, who will meet in the first round of this year's CWS.  Florida visits Taylor Stadium on April 19-21 next season.

♦ CWS Field Loaded With Compelling Storylines (Baseball America)

The big story is the pair of Northern teams crashing the party. No team from Ohio or further Northeast has been to Omaha since Maine in 1986, and this year's field will include two such teams. Kent State is the first team from the Buckeye State to reach Omaha since Ohio University in 1970, and the first Mid-American Conference team to make it since Eastern Michigan in 1976. Stony Brook is the first team from the Empire State to make it since St. John's in 1980.

The warmest winter and spring that many Northerners can remember certainly made a difference this year, allowing cold-weather teams to practice outside in February—a prospect that is ordinarily impossible. . .

♦ ISR-Based Probabilities for 2012 NCAA Tournament -- Before CWS (BoydsWorld.com)

♦ College World Series field is set (ESPN)

♦ Previewing the 2012 CWS field (NCAA.com)

This is the place to find the bracket, schedules and TV coverage

Tough SEC is opportunity for MU baseball team

♦ Some great quotes from Tim Jamieson plus informed insight from Baseball America's Aaron Fitt in Tough SEC is opportunity for MU baseball team (ColumbiaTribune.com)

“It’s both an incredible challenge and an incredible opportunity,” Missouri Coach Tim Jamieson said. “I think it’s something, having witnessed what we did when we went from the Big Eight to the Big 12 and the necessity to step up, we did it. I have no doubt that we’ll do it again when we go from the Big 12 to the SEC.”
. . .
“The bottom line is they’ve just got to recruit at a high level and develop those guys,” Fitt said. “When Missouri had its run there of seven straight regionals, they were doing that very well. They were getting high-caliber talent, and I think if they have years like that, they can absolutely compete in the SEC.”

Read the whole article HERE

SEC Dixie-nary: C is for College World Series

C is for College World Series

The SEC has sent 10 of its 12 schools to the College World Series since 1990 - Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Ole Miss has played in four Super Regionals the last seven seasons.

The SEC has sent 46 teams to the College World Series since 1990. That was accomplished despite no SEC teams making the field in 1992. LSU has been to Omaha 12 times, Flordia six times, Georgia and South Carolina five times, Mississippi State four times, while Alabama and Tennessee have been three times each. Auburn has been twice, while Arkansas advanced in 2004 and 2009.

SEC teams have won nine of the last 22 national championships, with LSU winning six (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009), South Carolina winning two (2010, 2011) and Georgia claiming the 1990 title. The SEC has finished runner up four times in that time, 1997, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011.

And to think we could have gone to the Big 10

This is funnier than a half-hour sitcom. Which is about how long it will take to read it.

■ Jim Delany's fight to change the CWS (Omaha.com)

College baseball is unique, Delany says. No other sport disenfranchises such a large swath of the country, especially regions it once treated equally.

This isn't ice hockey, Delany says, where NCAA participation is limited to 59 predominantly cold-weather schools. Baseball is sponsored by almost 300 Division I schools, most of which are located in northern states.

Delany's numbers breaks down the nation into 15 Sun Belt states and 35 non-Sun Belt states. The Sun Belt has 137 baseball programs, the non-Sun Belt 149.

Since 1987, 91 percent of CWS participants came from 15 states. In the same period, only three national champions were non-Sun Belt teams.

The last Big Ten team to reach the CWS: Michigan in '84.

Mizzou @ the College World Series

■ Former MU Head Coach Gene McArtor, always a straight-shooter, was in the news at the College World Series today.

Florida beats Texas 8-4 in CWS (Sports Illustrated)

Johnson appeared to be robbed of a home run in the seventh after his two-out hit off Nathan Thornill bounced back onto the field after appearing to strike the railing above the yellow line atop the wall in right center. Umpires kept him at second base after conferring.

After the game, NCAA umpire coordinator Gene McArtor issued a statement acknowledging that the hit should have been ruled a home run.