When the decision was made to send Clemson to Columbia for
the baseball regionals again this year, you just knew that somehow it would end
badly for Jack Leggett. Liberty may
very well end up winning the regional and beat Carolina as well, but their
knocking off Jack-Leg was purely hysterical theatre.
Leggett, who at age 86 is going back down the “well we are
young” excuse path, has been given so many opportunities to slay the Gamecock
demons; you would think one of them would go his way. First were the two meetings in Omaha where
Carolina twice came from the losers’ bracket to beat the Tiggers and
crush the championship dreams of those in orange. The 2nd time of course ended with
USC winning their first of 2 national titles.
Then Clemson was set to match up with USC in the
Super-Regionals a couple of years ago but lost to UConn of all teams. After Tiger fans immediately made the case
that UConn was obviously the best team in the nation, the Huskies were destroyed
by Carolina the following week and the Gamecocks were off to Omaha.
Last year, Clemson was excited to be given a chance at full
redemption by being put into the Columbia Regionals. Two losses to USC soon followed and the
Gamecocks would eventually go back to Omaha again.
Which brings us to this weekend. To be fair to the Tigers, I don’t think they
were happy about getting sent back to “The Ray” but they again decided it was a
chance at full redemption. So they lose
to Liberty twice and go home spanked and embarrassed…again. The formula for avoiding losing to Carolina
is clear: lose before you have to play
them.
Old Jack-Leg seriously needs to think about moving on and
leaving his replacement a good hand to work with. Clemson actually does have some awesome young
talent thanks to Leggett doing a “Cocoon”-esque run at recruiting like a young
pup one last time in his twilight. If he
stays to coach them, then he better win a title in the next two years. Otherwise he will permanently damage what
right now is a pretty good coaching legacy.
Seriously, if it weren’t for Ray Tanner, Jack’s coaching
history looks pretty good. He has given
the Klimpletons some of their finest athletic moments ever. But because the Tanner era happened, he has
become The Man of La Mancha, ripped with madness and paranoia. Losing those two games to Liberty will only
exacerbate things too.
Leggett may be Clemson’s Eeyore and Dabo their Tigger but
one thing is clear. You could just
rename Pickens County the 100-acre woods because it is one big Winnie the Pooh
fantasy world up there at this point.
It’s a great time to be a Gamecock!
