Thursday February 21, 2008

Palmetto State Baseball Scenarios

Palmetto State Baseball Scenarios
It is finally here. Stop the countdowns and get out the down comforters. Clemson baseball is back and I am jacked.

This year is a little different for most of the college baseball programs across the country because of the February 22 universal starting date. This change does not affect Clemson as much because the Tigers have started around this date almost every year.

The starting date does effect the non-conference weekends for a lot of schools because now Clemson has only three non-ACC weekends the entire year. Clemson opens up with Mercer this weekend. Next weekend they travel to the College of Charleston on Friday and South Carolina on Saturday before hosting the Gamecocks on Sunday. The last non-conference weekend will be the week before the ACC tournament when the Tigers will travel to Orlando to play Central Florida.

The compressed schedule means more mid-week games for most teams but this again is not a big change for Clemson.

On this morning’s radio show I brought up the idea of changing the Clemson-South Carolina baseball series in an attempt to bring even more exposure to each program. Below are six different ways Clemson and South Carolina can schedule their baseball contests against each other:

Plan A
Go back to the old way of playing each other only twice a year. The two rivals have played each other four times each regular season since 2001 but that was not always the case. In the 1999 and 2000 seasons the teams played just twice.

Advantage: The schedules are extremely difficult especially in conference so this would give each school a couple of more easy home wins.
Disadvantage: The fans would miss the fierce competition between the rivals.

Plan B
Keep the series as it is. Early in each season the Gamecocks get one weekend game and Clemson gets one weekend hosting opportunity. Later in the spring they play a home-and-home on successive Wednesdays.

Advantage: Four games are better than two.
Disadvantage: We get mid-week starting pitchers for half of the series.

Plan C
In 198 and 1986 the Tigers and Gamecocks had home-and-home weekend series. Each team hosted a Friday, Saturday and Sunday affair with the other school.

Advantage: Six games are better than four. More revenue. Plus, we get two series with the starting weekend rotations.
Disadvantage: With less than 60 regular season games, it might be too much to ask that more than 10% of your schedule is set against one school.

Plan D
This one is a new concept. Each school gets one home game and they could play it in one weekend early like we do now. Here is the new part: Clemson and South Carolina could take the rest of the games to neutral sites across the state. Greenville has a new minor league ballpark called West End Field that seats 4,200. Rock Hill/Charlotte has the minor league facility, Knights Stadium that holds 10,002. Myrtle Beach has Coastal Field, another minor league facility that holds about 6,000. Charleston has Joe Riley Park, yet another terrific minor league facility. Home –and-home in March then four neutral sites game across the state in March and April.

Advantage: The Tigers and Gamecocks get to take their shows on the road and play in four very good ballparks. This would give fans of both schools in the upstate, Charlotte area, Pee-Dee and Lowcountry another chance to see their favorite players and team.
Disadvantage: Each school loses some big home gates and big paydays plus each adds expense that comes with road games or neutral site games.

Plan E
Each school would join six of the remaining nine Division I baseball schools in the state to have a Palmetto State Tournament. You could play this one the first weekend each year and the sites could rotate among the four minor league facilities. Clemson and South Carolina would play in the tournament each year and the College of Charleston, The Citadel, Coastal Carolina, Winthrop, Furman, Wofford, Presbyterian, USC-Upstate and Charleston Southern could rotate each year. The tournament would have six or eight teams and have a double elimination format.

Advantage: This gives the entire state an even bigger interest in college baseball. The big winners would be the other nine schools.
Disadvantage: We would not be guaranteed any games between Clemson and South Carolina.

My Vote: I like plan D. First, we get six games between the schools instead of four. Second, it gives the schools and programs more exposure across the state. I also think the players would like playing in these venues and this could help recruiting at both schools. The players would be more attracted to the schools because of the excitement at these games and each school gets to showcase its program to more prospects closer to their hometowns.

I also believe each school could get creative with each game. IPTAY and the Gamecock Club could schedule their local meetings with their clubs in each city around the baseball games. For example, IPTAY and the Alumni Association could organize events that day. You could get Tommy Bowden to have his yearly address to the Charleston Clemson Club at lunch on this day and Steve Spurrier could do the same for the Gamecock Club there.

Each city could embrace the games and have the entire cities wear their school colors that day. It would create a buzz on the local TV news, local radio, local newspaper, etc. Local vendors could dress their stores and restaurants’’ window fronts with Clemson and USC colors.

I even think it would be good for the fans that are not locals. A Clemson family could plan a Myrtle Beach vacation around the game. Gamecocks and Tiger fans might look forward to visiting Charleston for a couple of days in the spring.

I could just see the West End of Greenville buzzing on a Wednesday with Tigers and Gamecocks eating at all of the new restaurants on game day.

South Carolina is building a new ballpark and Clemson is raising $10 million for its park. Imagine four more games at four great parks. Six games played all across the state in six great venues makes a lot of sense.

I do understand the limitation of having less than 60 regular season games and I know that they only have three non-conference weekends in the entire baseball season. However, both schools have some bright people that can figure out how to work this out. I would think the schools could sell sponsorship of the events and actually increase revenue by taking this approach.

As a side note, if I were the College of Charleston, The Citadel, Furman, Wofford, Coastal Carolina, Charleston Southern, Presbyterian, Winthrop and USC-Upstate I would make a tournament anyway and rotate it around the state to create more excitement for our programs.

As usual I encourage your input and ideas into the subject. Thanks.

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