“We want a pitcher not a belly itcher!”
The shape, configuration and finances of college baseball drastically changed after the 2020 season. The number of players allowed on an NCAA team increased to 40 from 32, despite coaches still having the same, paltry amount of total scholarships available – 11.7 – to divide up among entire rosters.
Also, the required number of players on a Division I team receiving financial aid, solely due to their athletic skills, increased from 27 to 32, with the minimum amount of athletic aid each player must receive being 25% of a full scholarship or total cost of attendance to the college of their choosing.
After doing the math, I discovered that once all of the NCAA requirements are met (providing 32 athletes with at least 25% of an athletic full ride), skipper Dave Van Horn has a whopping 3.7 full scholarships remaining to lure more of the finest talent he can to Fayettenam to play ball on the sacred sod of George Cole Field, located within the friendly confines of Baum Walker Stadium.
After doing some more math, I determined that 33 Razorbacks have suited up and participated so far this season, and more than half are pitchers. Actually, out of the 40 available and allotted Arkansas roster spots – 23 are hurlers, skewing those numbers even more.
Over the weekend, DVH threw 13 pitchers in 25 hours (versus the Gators) and one of them pitched twice. Said he knew they would need extra arms with a strong wind forecasted to blow in from the outfield, so he dropped a position player from the roster and added a pitcher. The dude always seems to be four or five steps ahead of his competition.
Current D1 baseball coaches must recruit well-rounded student athletes who qualify to receive some other form of financial assistance to help offset some of the costs of college. The easiest way to do so is to find playmakers, who graduated with honors, mix in their academic scholly money with the grossly limited athletic amounts available and SHAZAM! – a workable budget.
If it were only that easy.
Thankfully, lotsa kids these days seem to place more emphasis on academics than those who preceded them, and many are top-flight students as well as elite athletes. They provide head coaches with more wiggle room when it comes to juggling tuition finances, particularly when the bill for higher education resembles that of a 30-year mortgage more than four years of college tuition.
Baseball has always been a “thanking man’s sport,” drawing more influences from chess than checkers, but it is still an athletic event measured on a scoreboard. Uber athletes like Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Dave Winfield, Ricky Henderson, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders (merely to name a few) – some of the greatest to ever grace any kind of athletic field – hammer this point home with style and grace.
DVH’s Razorback Swatters (37-7) (16-5) won the first two games of an SEC series over the University of Florida last weekend before losing to the Gators 9-5 in the nightcap of a Saturday twin billing. The loss snapped a 27-game, home-winning streak for the Hogs, tying a mark that stood for nearly 40 years.
Missouri State comes to town for a 2-game series on Tuesday and Wednesday. Arkansas leads the overall series – 55-28 – but there have been many epic matchups between these two border neighbors over the decades – from seemingly meaningless midweek games to nail-biting NCAA Super Regionals – they’ve experienced a little bit of it all.
Keith Guttin, the head coach of the Bears, is retiring after nearly 40 years at the helm, and DVH said it best when he opined – “this may never be accomplished again.”
Speaking of history – the Carnegie Library recently obtained a copy of Kevin Baker’s latest book – The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, and it is a must read for any American History/baseball buffs out there. Much to Christina and staff’s surprise, I actually returned said book before its due date, so get out and scoop it up while it’s hot.
WSP!