David Speer
Baseball First
I realize that this is becoming more of a CU baseball blog,
as we continue to strive to give praise to the praiseworthy!
But I really enjoyed watching the baseball team clinch the
Gehrig Division championship on Saturday behind that great pitching performance
by David Speer.
Since 2008, Columbia has now won four Gehrig titles. It’s
important to note that Coach Brett
Boretti’s first season was 2006, so his turnaround program was quite swift.
The progression of the Boretti-led improvement was also clear. Boretti
inherited a last-place Gehrig Division team that had finished 5-15 in 2005. The
team improved slightly to 6-14 in 2006, 10-10 in 2007, and 15-5 with a league
title in year three.
Anyone here think Columbia football is winning a title this
year or even going 5-5?
I am looking forward to continuing the amazing duel Columbia
has established with Dartmouth in baseball when the Lions host the Ivy League
Championship series at Baker Field this Saturday. This will be the fourth time
since 2008 that Columbia and the Green will face off in the ILCS.
Class of 2018 Hype
As I always say, the young men who have signed on to join
Columbia football for the coming fall are already winners in just about every
category that counts. They have weathered a very tough and competitive road and
given themselves a great chance for lifelong success.
But beyond that, those who insist that this is a great
football class and some kind of great achievement by our coaches/recruiters
simply make me sad. Because that kind of judgment can only be made on the field
and these guys haven’t even taken the field for us once.
So again, we welcome and congratulate these young men for
getting here. But the sane among us withhold judgment on your football
abilities until we see you play in college.
Andrews Column
Senior Spec sports writer Peter Andrews wrote this piece today about how he might even be qualified to be Columbia’s
head football coach.
It was tongue-in-cheek and fun to read, but I have to touch
briefly on this quote:
“There is, sometimes, an unspoken animosity emanating from
the athletic department toward those who cover the teams here. And while I
think most of that is undeserved, I understand why it might exist.”
Peter is being very generous and understanding, but I am
not.
I was guilty of excusing this once myself, when Norries
Wilson really verbally attacked a Spec writer after the 2006 loss at Penn. Sadly,
instead of nipping this in the bud, the Athletic Department has made hostility
against any reporters, (students or not), it’s M.O.
Years before I came out publicly against the department, the
daily pushback began from Dodge Hall against the most innocuous comments and
points I made online.
It was maddening.
And every time I got one of those emails I had the same
thought: “just think how much our teams would be winning if the department put
as much effort into getting victories as it does on being so defensive and
paranoid!”
In fact, despite Peter Andrews’ good-hearted thought, there
is NO excuse for how poorly the department has dealt with the media in general.
One day, I hope somebody gets that.
11 comments:
I liked Norries Wilson and really thought he would turn it around. Something with his methods or agenda slipped though. He peaked and then plummeted. Easy to see how that would cause him frustration.
Then again, I thought Bob Shoop would do better as HC as well.
Yeah, but his 2006 rant was in his FIRST season.
My comment was off point to your post. I was just ruminating from a purely football standpoint. I was disappointed at the plummet after the 4 win season. Sad when a fan finds promise in a 4 win season! If Pete can do that my faith in his leadership would shift in his favor as well.
I never saw (or read) Norries at his worst but out of any CU coach since their last conference championship, was anyone better at the job? I liked Tellier personally. A good man with good intentions, given a whole lot of slack to build the program (which he did juuuust for 1 strong season), mostly a few hits and lots of misses for Ray. Who did a better job than Wilson? I am just curious of other perspectives. I realize it all fell apart for Norries.
Bill Campbell was horrendous as head coach other than his winning personality. Regardless of conditions or who or what was at fault, what is the opinion as to who was the best CU coach since the 60's?
Probably Frank Navarro
I'd almost forgotten Navarro although I met him while he was coaching, a nice, earnest guy. But didn't Ray Tellier have a better record? Not sure, would have to check the annual stats.
Close call between Navarro and Tellier. Navarro coached the Cardiac Lions to a 6 and 3 record but the wheels came off the next year. I thought Tellier was an excellent coach whose teams were generally competitive. I understand that Ray is retiring this year. If he had more administration support he could have given us better results than any of his successors.
If Garrett had been permitted to stick around he would have been our best coach.
The Tellier and Norries stories are great examples of how coaching is a daily challenge and you never really can rest on your laurels. Both coaches eventually put together very talented teams and figured out some good angles, but they couldn't sustain it and in Norries' case, we never even got a winning record out of it. Navarro was not a great coach and I don't think he was as good as Norries or Ray.
Navarro struggled at Princeton, too...
I remember reading an interview with Tellier the season following the 8-2 campaign and he seemed emphatic the program was going to consistently competitive. In many ways falling back to below mediocrity was more damaging than if they never broke a winning margin. It took the air out of the sails. I can imagine how it impacted Ray.
Again, a good man and I believe his heart was fully invested in making things right.
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