College Baseball *PING*

If you have ever listened to the Jim Rome radio show, you are familiar with his take on college baseball. The aluminum bats with their pinging every time a player gets a hit, along with the weak pitching of college undergraduates add an element of ultra-offense to the game of baseball. But at the University of Central Florida the game is still a lot of fun.

The biggest reason for that is because of the fandom of college sports. I've spoken of this concept before. College sports especially, but really all sports, are made more interesting by the fans that watch them. Without the incessant heckling and over-the-top cheering by the home team, sports would not be as relevant to the public as they are.

In the day of the coliseum events, the vote of the fans, the viewers, the patrons, often swayed the outcome of the event. If you take away the fan interaction, then you take away the reason for the fans to even be there. People want to feel like they have a purpose in what they do. It's the reason that prisoners go insane from digging a hole and filling it back up immediately after. There's no purpose in it.

So with college sports, fandom reaches its ultimate height. Basketball games are won and lost based on the support of the fans. In the case of UCF and their history of fairweather fans, of which I have spoken before, games are more often lost because of a lack of fan support; namely fans sitting behind me asking that I sit down because I am blocking their view.

Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't realize that your free admission was worth more than my free admission, and that the student overflow section was for people who can't support their team against one of our biggest conference rivals. My mistake, jackass.

With college baseball now heating up, I plan on attending a good number of the home games. Making insulting puns based on things the opposing team cannot control, such as their surname or height, really adds to the spirit of the game. These kids are hardened athletes; they are used to criticism. Don't weep for them. The most important thing is that the fans come to the games, as that is how we pay for the facilities and coaching staff and overall, keep my tuition costs down.