Having almost a full day to process the goings on of this baseball season, I still cannot think too many cohesive or organized thoughts of how everything went down. Consider this an all over the place random expression of thought.
First, many folks have compared this year's LSU baseball team to the team of 1997. I wanted to join in the thought that this team was just as good, but I never bought in completely. After losing Game 2 to texas, I was excited in thinking that Game 3 would put all the cards on the table. But it didn't, at least not for me.
During Texas' defensive meltdown in the 6th inning, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were not going to win the game... Texas was giving it to us. I wanted to see what would happen if they brought their best game possible, and if we had brought ours. Many folks thought that Texas did not deserve their #1 seed, but they sure seemed like they did headed into last night's game.
In the early innings, I was convinced that all things equal, we were head and shoulders better than Texas. Then, they battled back.
But, they melted down, and as Augie Garrido said after the game, LSU smelled the blood in the water, and went in for the kill.
Great baseball teams are able to capitalize on mistakes, and we did that last night. But I am still wondering today, what if Texas had not melted down? What if the game had continued at "best baseball versus best baseball" for the rest of the game? Could we have still pulled out the win?
Don't get me wrong, I was moved to tears last night when the last strikeout was recorded... a sense of pride welled up that I haven't felt in a while. Seeing Paul Mainieri with his father at the end was incredible, and I have no doubt that we deserved to win that game.
I just haven't settled yet on whether this year's team was as good as 1997's.
Oh, and by the way, Texas players giving the "Hook 'Em" sign to their fans last night after the game... that was the first time it didn't bother me to see that.