Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Chicks dig the long ball. Having a grand total of zero home runs in my little league career, I certainly don’t know from personal experience.
But despite a lack of first-hand knowledge, I know this to be true. Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddux told me so in a late ’90s Nike ad. And the first thing they teach you in journalism school is that you can always trust everything you’re told in commercials.
But, true as the ad may be, it could have taken things even further. Other demographics love home runs as well. Like, oh, I don’t know, Kansas baseball coaches named Ritch Price. Like the aforementioned trio of then-Braves pitchers, Price would probably like to see a few more balls leave the yard. Not so he can get a date (at least I don’t think so), but so his Jayhawks can register a few more victories.
Not that there isn’t value in playing small ball. And of course, every old-timer will swear by the truism that pitching and defense win championships. That’s all well and good, but that tried-and-(maybe not so)-true phrase omits one fact: No matter how well your pitchers perform, you still have to put runs on the board. Kansas, currently sitting at 20-12 (4-5 in Big 12 play), illustrates that point quite well.
As of Sunday (the last day the NCAA baseball stats page updated), Kansas had the 28th-best ERA in all of college baseball at 3.96. Although a recent pummeling at the hands of Baylor helped bump that number up, Kansas’ hurlers have generally performed well.
The offense... not so much. Kansas’ 17 home runs (eight of which have been provided by sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson) sit firmly in the bottom half of the NCAA rankings and fall well behind what the elite teams in college baseball produce. Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in the Big 12 right now, has 57.
And yes, there are other ways to score runs. If Kansas was excelling in those, there wouldn’t be cause for concern. But that isn’t happening. The Jayhawks have scored five runs or less in 11 of their 30 games. In college baseball, where the bats go ping, not crack, that kind of production doesn’t cut it.
Of course, all the numbers in the world don’t count for jack if they don’t factor into wins and losses. Thankfully, there’s a pretty direct correlation to be found between Kansas hitting home runs and Kansas winning. When Kansas fails to leave the yard, it’s 10-8. Admittedly, that’s pretty good. Certainly better than what most teams manage with similar power outages. Credit the Jayhawk pitching staff and bullpen on that one. But when Kansas does manage one homer or more, its record improves to 9-4.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for Kansas in Big 12 play. With nine games and 298 at bats in the books, conference play has yielded only two Jayhawk home runs and four wins.
Which is why — all due respect to Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux — no one digs the long ball more than managers whose teams hit them. Price would probably like to dig them a lot more often.
— — Edited by Brandy Entsminger
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