Since leaving this newspaper and this school last January, I’ve become an editorial producer for MiLB.com — the official website of Minor League Baseball — meaning I have talked to a lot of baseball prospects over the past few months. From potential AL MVP Mike Trout to 30-something journeymen, chances are if you can think of a Minor Leaguer I or one of my colleagues have spoken to him.
With the season closing down for most teams on Monday, we’ve all been hearing the same story.
Yes, Jim Mora, they’re talking about playoffs.
Matt Buschmann lost a one-hitter for Double-A Montgomery, dropping the Biscuits into a first-place tie for the division lead with Jacksonville. Afterwards, he told me, “I want a ring. We all want a ring.” (Update: Montgomery were just eliminated in the Southern Division Championship Series on Sunday.)
Former Major Leaguer Josh Outman was one strike away from getting a no-hitter for Double-A Tulsa before it was broken up in the ninth. The performance could have vaulted him back into the discussion for a rotation spot with the Rockies. Instead, he said, “All I’m doing is getting in preparation for facing the Springfield Cardinals in Game 1 of the playoffs down here.”
Now, it’s one thing to hear that from two pitchers in their late 20s, both of which may have nothing else to pitch for other than the Minor League postseason. But consider Zach Lee — the 20-year-old right-hander who ranks as the Dodgers’ top prospect and could have been the starting quarterback at LSU had he not chosen baseball over football. The guy knows the big stage.
He said about making his first Minor League playoff start for Double-A Chattanooga, “It’s going to be my biggest game [of my professional career].”
What I’m getting at is the playoffs matter. To everyone.
No boy grew up shooting hoops in the driveway and yelling, “Michael Jordan hits one at the buzzer to beat the Bucks! What a regular-season game!” Same as no girl put one in the back of the net, only to scream, “A great goal by Mia Hamm has just helped the U.S. defeat Costa Rica in an international friendly!”
We aspire for the playoffs. It’s what puts names in lights, a buzz in the air and a definitive name to the title of champion.
Eighteen Boston University teams won’t be in the playoffs this year. And that’s a robbery of the highest degree. It’s a robbery of dreams.
Jump back a bit and consider this. BU is making the move to the Patriot League next season, meaning this will be the Terriers’ last year in the America East conference.
The America East board of presidents didn’t take too kindly to the seven-time defending Commisioner’s Cup champions leaving them behind and unanimously decided to ban BU from all conference tournaments in its final season.
That means four teams — women’s soccer, swimming and diving, women’s indoor track & field and softball — won’t be able to defend their tourney titles.
But those will just be empty spots in a trophy case, soon to be replaced by what we hope will be a multitude of their counterparts from the Patriot League.
What can’t be replaced, though, are the experiences.
Start with the seniors. For most of the men and women who compete in collegiate athletics, the conference tournament — should their team qualify — is the last chance for glory, the last opportunity to leave a mark in the school’s, the conference’s, the sport’s history books.
For BU’s Class of 2013, that’s been taken away. The players’ last games will be held in the regular season.
Unless of course, they qualify for the national tournament, which — let’s face facts — isn’t likely unless a BU squad runs the table. Nationally ranked women’s soccer and field hockey hold the best chances and God bless them if they could make something special happen.
Then, there’s the underclassmen. We’re told time and time again that players and teams are more likely to succeed if they have “playoff experience.” Any hope of that has been dashed for one year, anyways.
It seems like this should have all been taken into account when the AE board of presidents voted on the postseason ban. Alas, perhaps not.
This all seems like the eight remaining colleges are trying to teach a lesson for whoever wants to leave what they believe to be what we’ll call a “destination conference” rather than what it is — a conference you try to dominate for a while so you can move up to one with better academics, athletics or both.
Just ask Delaware, Rhode Island and Northeastern among others how they view America East. By the way, all three left without penalty.
But who are they trying to teach a lesson? Themselves?
If all eight remaining schools truly do want to look out for the best of the conference, then they wouldn’t consider leaving. Ever. End of story.
We all know that’s not true though. You can’t tell me that if the NCAA came calling for Stony Brook, the Seawolves would get on their pedestal and announce that they couldn’t accept because they were too devoted to America East.
Wouldn’t happen in a million years.
Instead, what those other schools did was selfish. They found a way to kick the conference’s best athletic school down because they had the chance to do so for their own personal gain.
America East spokesman Sean Tanish even told Sporting News, “The board of presidents believes it must act in the best interests of the remaining eight institutions who are committed to advancing the league. [Those schools] deserve to be given every opportunity to be crowned America East champions.”
They would have had their chance to be crowned champions legitimately with BU still in the competition.
It would have been fair. It would have been unselfish. It would have been the right thing to do.
When Zach Lee pitches for a chance at a Southern League championship, it’ll be a footnote in what could be a long, storied career.
When the Great Danes, Bearcats, Hawks, Black Bears, Retrievers, Wildcats, Seawolves and Catamounts compete for America East championships in 2012–13, there will be story-book endings for a lot of student-athletes. Too bad America East robbed the Terriers a chance at theirs.
Good riddance.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
The Presidents (including BU’s) agreed after Northeastern left to put in the by-laws of the conference that a team could not get the auto-bid after they announced they were leaving. BU knew exactly what they were getting into when they announced. They knew it was in the by-laws for the past 7 years.