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Performance of the Week (POTW) 6/22-6/29
I’m giving Wally the lead on this one:
Anyway, this comment will also serve as my nomination for POTW. How about those Fresno State Bulldogs, the new NCAA baseball champion?!?!? What a cinderella story … their run to the NCAA title is nothing less than miraculous … possibly the most unlikely victory march in our memory. This might rank higher than Miracle on Ice, Villanova over Georgetown, Jets over Colts, etc in terms of “upsets”.
Here are the facts: Fresno State entered post-season play as a #4 regional seed … and only because they were able to win the WAC tournament. Since there are 16 regions, Fresno was essentially no higher than a March Madness equivalent of a #13 seed, but they were probably closer to a #16 given their modestly over .500 record coming in and an RPI in the 80’s. Can you imagine a 15 or 16 seed winning the NCAA basketball title??? Nope, nada, never, no way Jose!!!
They are the first #4 regional seed to reach the Elite 8 that go to Omaha for the CWS. They knocked off No. 3 national seed Arizona State in the super regionals and beat No. 6 Rice and No. 2 North Carolina twice to get to the CWS finals. They won potential elimination games 6 times, including two in a row vs Georgia to win the title. Fresno closed the season with a 47-31 record. Miami, the No. 1 national seed, brought three first-round draft picks to Omaha and left after three games. Fresno State’s highest draft pick was second-rounder Tanner Scheppers, and he missed the postseason with a shoulder injury.
Wow … does this define “rising to the occasion” or what?!?!?! Can anyone trump this with a better Cinderella Story?
Who gets your POTW?
3 Responses to “Performance of the Week (POTW) 6/22-6/29”
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Wally
Great run down on Fresno St. I caught the come back they had – great stuff.
As a side note – Georgia head coach, Dave Perno, played and managed in the NYCBL for a team with one of my favorite names: the Cortland Apples.
My POTW (I know it’s not as sexy as Wally’s but it works): Adam ‘Bomber’ Curynski, Webster Yankees, NYCBL. The ‘Bomber’ went 2-0 this past week. He threw 16 innings of shutout ball, striking out 9 and walking one. Going into today’s game the right hander from So. Illinois had an ERA of 1.75.
Kevin McHale for making the Kevin Love trade.
In that deal, they also got a legit outside threat in Mike Miller. I just think O.J. Mayo is eventually going to be more of a distraction to teams than anything – like what Reggie Bush is becoming for the Saints. The T’wolves will have an awesome young frontcourt with Al Jefferson and Love. Kevin Love is a natural leader and will do wonders for that young Minnesota team who has nobody over 32. If they can dump Telfair on someone, they’ll have no nut cases to deal with. We’ll see the kind of GM McHale is in the next few years. He has a lot of room to sign a big time free agent. He needs to go out and get a SG who can score; all the other role players are in place.
The Spanish Midfielders for shutting down the German attack- especially Michael Ballack- in their well deserved 1-0 victory in the Euro 2008 Final Sunday…