Every day when I walk into work, I see an old Reveille sports section with the headline “Monsters of the Midweek.”
It refers to the LSU baseball team’s dominance in midweek games.
Before their loss to UL-Lafayette in a rain-shortened game on Feb. 25 last season, the Tigers won 34 straight midweek games, outscoring their opponents
305-96, according to the graphic.
LSU went 11-1 in midweek games the rest of the season, dropping an extra-inning game at Tulane and obliterating Northwestern State, 27-0, in a
six-inning game.
This season, the Tigers are 0-1 in midweek competition after what I assume is the greatest win in Nicholls State sports history. Of course, the loss sent some LSU baseball fans into a minor frenzy that the team isn’t good enough for Omaha.
That’s ludicrous, and so is midweek baseball in general.
Who wants to watch a four-hour exhibition game against an in-state team that’s going to play like it’s game three of the College World Series while LSU just goes through the motions hoping not to suffer a pulled hamstring?
The answer is 3,414 on average. That’s the average actual attendance for last season’s home midweek games, so a few die-hards and the parents of
opposing players care.
The LSU Athletic Department cares because it makes money and anything that makes money is good for it.
For LSU coach Paul Mainieri, these games are a chance to get some reserve players a chance in starting roles and for him to throw every pitcher that didn’t throw over the weekend, or at least that’s how it feels.
The only time you need to use seven pitchers is when you get beat by a dozen, and even then you should have an inning-eater to come in and take the lumps.
There are bullpen sessions, practices, intrasquad scrimmages, weekend blowouts and Sunday games to get the back end of the rotation some work.
If you still don’t think these games are meaningless, try this on for size.
Last week, LSU went 3-1 with the midweek loss to Nicholls State and a weekend sweep of Boston College. Common sense would lead you to believe that when a team loses to a bad team like the Colonels, it drops in the polls. But this is baseball, and nothing makes sense in baseball.
Instead, LSU stayed at No. 2 in the Baseball America poll and moved up in others like Collegiate Baseball and
D1Baseball.com.
If you don’t believe me, Google “college baseball poll” on the laptop you’re using to not pay attention in class, click the first link and flip through the polls.
See, I told you.
Other than reps for the bottom end of the roster against inferior competition and the athletic department getting to charge extra money for season tickets, there’s no reason for these games. It’s a scrimmage the athletic departments started making count for something so they can charge money for.
Most of the fans, players and voters know it’s useless. The rest of you need to stop caring about these midweek s
ix-hour snooze-fests.
Brian Pellerin is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Kenner, Louisiana. You can follow him on Twitter
@Pellerin_TDR.