Organic chemistry lab was the bane of my existence. Despite the fact that students averaged around a 50 percent on the finalexam (isn't that a delightful exam to take) and the grading system is designed so students are rewarded for the failures of their lab partners, we're repeating the same experiments done by thousands of students for the past century. And we're attempting to achieve decent results while maintaining our distance from the toxic chemicals and fumes that can cause us to wish we were art history majors.
While my chemistry lab skills left something to be desired, Virginia coach Brian O'Connor is concocting quite the potion for success over on the baseball diamond.
Friday night I finally made it out to Davenport Field to see our No. 5 Cavaliers (22-5, 5-4 ACC) clash with the Hurricanes in the ACC home opener.
It wasn't the sweet pitching job by sophomore Jacob Thompson (career best 10 strikeouts in eight innings of work with one earned run allowed) that struck me most, but the behavior of the players who weren't on the infield or in the batting box.
Each time a Cavalier is at bat, the entire Virginia dugout is standing up paying attention to every pitch. Any time a run is scored, the entire team leaves the dugout to congratulate the man crossing home plate. And it's not just the fancy home runs and RBIs that trigger the dugout-clearing celebrations. The full roster leaves the dugout to slap high fives to a batter for the relatively simple but underrated task of advancing a runner.
I mean, could you imagine the entire New York Yankees roster leaving the dugout to congratulate Alex Rodriquez for advancing a running from first to second in the third inning?Overlooking the fact that it would require shortstop Derek Jeter to interact with his third basemen, most of the Yankees are probably thinking how they'd like to get paid $25 million a season to advance a runner -- that's assuming they're watching the game, of course.
As much as I'd love to bash the Yankees, who haven't won the World Series since 2000 despite starting the American League All-Stars every night in their lineup, we must return to the issue at hand.
Even those Wahoos who don't take the field participate in a team jog between innings to keep themselves warm and help with team camaraderie.
It wasn't just a difference between professional and college athletics that set the Wahoos apart, either. Only half of their Hurricane counterparts would stand up while their team was batting and they never left the dugout to jog as a team. I didn't need to see any more of the players than I had to, anyways. As a friend pointed out, the Miami players wore gray uniforms that had ridiculous-looking green patches under the shoulders that appeared to be arm pit pads. (That designer ain't moving into high end fashion any time soon...)
These different modes of team support may seem to be insignificant actions done by O'Connor's boys. Even if the dugout players aren't putting up runs on the brand new jumbrotron or making diving catches in the outfield to stop enemy rallies, they're remaining glued into the game and their attitude of genuine attention to the outcome of the ballgame goes a long way towards keeping those Virginia athletes in the starting lineup motivated. After all, it can be relatively easy to slip into a relaxed state at the ballpark -- it's not as if you have Dave Leitao screaming into your ear every 1.3 seconds for not boxing out both men under the basket.
The turnaround the baseball squad has made in O'Connor's four years from the ACC basement to a national powerhouse is nothing short of phenomenal. While O'Connor's nationally ranked recruiting classes are a critical component of his success, the chemistry instilled by the team unity displayed every inning is a key ingredient to O'Connor's magic.Next time the skipper is on his way to the baseball diamond, he should stop at the Turf Field next to U-Hall.There's a coach over there who just began practice and could use some of his fairy dust.
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