Tennessee Baseball Hits Different
How is it that Tennessee has already played their last game in Neyland in 2022?
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The Tennessee Volunteers football team have two games left in the regular season. They’ve already played their last home game at Neyland until next fall. I was in attendance for the Tennessee vs. Florida game. Somehow, that was almost two months ago already. How is it possible that I will not be able to attend another football game in Neyland until September of 2023? HOW? There is nothing like football season Down Here, and there is nothing like that feeling you get when you realize you it is all going to be over the next time you blink.
Poof.
That’s how it goes, you know? Granted, this year is a little different for Tennessee. We might get an extra game or two of Volunteer football in January if a few things go Tennessee’s way down the stretch. Tennessee has the third-best CFP odds, per ESPN’s FPI. Understandably, that has a lot of Tenneessee fans excited. Not I, though. I would rather be in Neyland for Tennessee vs. Florida again. I would rather be in Neyland for Tennessee vs. Alabama or Tennessee vs. Kentucky. The appeal of college sports, for me at least, is the regular season. (This is what hurts college basketball so. Rick Barnes’ team does not play a meaningful, fun home game until Kentucky on January 14. Two months of neutral-site slop and home games against Your Small School Name Here before the fun starts, and even then, you only get a bit of it until tournament time.) I remember snapping a few pictures as my now-wife and I stared out across Neyland following the Vanderbilt game in 2021. We raced back from Atlanta to make the game that afternoon. It was cold, my wife kept warm with her trusty Petros, and we watched the Vols dominate the Commodores up and close and personal.
But then we left and that was that.
Tennessee football is not the only program at the university to spend time at No. 1 in the sport this year. Tennessee’s baseball program spent a whole lot longer atop the rankings in 2022, but both have reached the top of the mountain in the same calendar year. It’s been a special year all around for Tennessee athletics. However, I was thinking the other day about both teams and how different it is to follow the baseball team and the football team. The biggest, of course, is time.
Time, yes.
You will find all sorts of casual college football fans in this country. You will not find many casual college baseball fans. Following college baseball takes work. A lot of it. It’s easy to carve out a few hours every Saturday for the Vols football team. Everyone here in Knoxville has a Hendon Hooker Take. Most everyone doesn’t have a Christian Moore Take. It’s nearly impossible to carve out a weekend for the baseball team. Unless, you’re in. You know, really in. I started graduate school here at UTK in the fall of 2020. Since my arrival, it has been Tony Vitello’s charamasic bunch headlined by Drew Gilbert and Jordan Beck against the world.
When you consider that, it makes more sense why I’ve found I feel stronger about Tennessee baseball than I do about any of the other programs. And I love them all dearly. It’s just different. After careful consideration, there is no question that a CWS victory for the Vols would mean so much more for me than a CFP victory. Mississippi State and Ole Miss fans feel this way. Oregon State fans feel this way. Stanford fans feel this way. As Tobias Funke would say, “There are dozens of us!”
Put it this way, I’ve been to a whole lot more Tennessee baseball games than I’ve been to Tennessee football games. I’m a note-taker, too. I watch every pitch. I watch every hit. At Lindsey Nelson Stadium, seating is limited and it feels crammed more often than not. This is part of the appeal, though. You’ve got to really love it to spend so many weekends at the ballpark. Standing-room only is COMMON. I’ve watched Drew Gilbert swing a bat far more often than I’ve seen Hendon Hooker throw a football. You watch as guys like Trey Lipscomb, Jorel Ortega, Cortland Lawson, etc., develop in real-time over the course of a long season. You see guys like Drew Gilbert go from good to 2022 MLB first-round pick good.
It’s hard for a lot of folks to believe from the outside, but a packed LNS against a premier SEC team or Super Regional game matches a packed Neyland against a premier SEC team our out-of-conference game. Tennessee going down to Notre Dame in the Super Regional hit me like a ton of bricks. That series hurt, man. It hurt for me, my family, and everyone who spent so much time with these guys who were unfairly maligned nationally all season long. That’s baseball, though. The last three No. 1 overall seeds haven’t even made it to Omaha. Nothing hits you harder than being on the receiving end of a college baseball postseason upset. Nothin’.
(Nothin’ hits harder than a Drew Gilbert walk-off grand slam in the Super Regionals, either.)
Who knows if Tennessee will be the best team in college baseball once again in 2023? It’s going to be hard. They absolutely have a target on their back both within the SEC and beyond. Vitello, like Josh Heupel, is building something special here on Rocky Top. You either love them or hate them. I’m loving every bit of both team’s dominance over the last calendar year, but it feels different for Tennessee baseball. I’ve missed it more in the offseason than the football team. I spend so much time with these guys, it’s impossible not to.
Quite simply, Tennessee baseball just hits different.