Tony's Take Perfection Comparisons The Butcher Broken Record
By Tony Duckworth, tonyduckworthsr@gmail.com
Perfection. 59 – 0 is the best baseball record in the history of college baseball. History didn't happen in the SEC or Big Ten. Historical runs don't happen often, so let's celebrate a small university who accomplished the unthinkable.
Advertisement
While you may have never heard of LSU Shreveport, the Pilots recently won the 2025 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Championship. For the record, this was the 68th Annual NAIA Baseball National Championship.
LSUS won the championship game 13 – 7. In storybook fashion, the Pilots overcame a 7 – 6 deficit in the bottom of the 5th. How impressive is it that the squad embraced the pressure of the moment and kept this remarkable streak alive to win the hardware? Go Pilots!
Comparisons. The most successful seasons in college baseball history include the 2019 Vanderbilt team (59-12), the 1975 Texas team (59-6), and the 1995 Cal State Fullerton team (57-9). Other notable seasons include the 2011 South Carolina team (55-14), the 1978 USC team (54-9), and the 1983 Texas team (66-14). 66 wins will never happen again, but that season didn't top the 59-0 LSUS season. It does make you wonder how many classes the 1983 team attended given they played 80 games. This was well before remote learning options. Gotta love it.
Dynasty. One of the newest members of the SEC achieve dynasty status several season ago. While they have been eliminated from winning the 2025 national championship, the Oklahoma Sooner's recent successes under Patty Gasso are remarkable.
Advertisement
OU has won eight national championships including four in a row between 2021 – 2024. While the Sooners have taken advantage of playing in front of a home crowd, no one will argue the remarkable run they are on. The college softball world series has been played in Oklahoma City since 1990.
The standard of excellence of winning four naty's in a row is the best in college softball history.
The Butcher. As the AD at Northeastern State University, I told my Senior Associate AD my feelings following meetings with one of our highly successful head coaches. My right-hand man heard me say on more than one occasion that Coach ____ better be glad he wins at a high level. Meaning, this coach's on-the-field success kept me from moving in a different direction.
The New York Knicks have been irrelevant for a quarter of a century until the arrival of Tom Thibodeau. The Butcher led the Knickerbockers to their first Eastern Conference finals since 2000. According to ESPN Research, Thib's led New York to 24 playoff wins which is 17 more than the team's past 13 coaches combined. Re-read the last sentence.
Advertisement
While Thib's isn't without flaws, it is hard to imagine the Knicks making a change despite the dysfunctional ownership. The Butcher made the NYK's relevant again while making the center of the basketball universe, Madison Square Garden, a high-energy home-court advantage again. I, along with the rest of the hoops community, will be watching what direction the organization goes.
Broken Record. The Atlanta Braves do not get hits when runners are in scoring position.
Follow Tony Duckworth on the X platform at @tonyduckworthsr. Duckworth is a native of Macon and serves as the President and CEO of the Albany Area YMCA. Tony worked in intercollegiate athletics for thirty-one years. He was an NCAA Division II Director of Athletics at three universities, including Albany State, following ten years as a head men's basketball coach at two colleges.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
7 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Braves Gave Up A 10-4 Lead In The Ninth, Is This Rock Bottom?
When the ninth inning of Thursday's game in Atlanta began, the Braves, holding a 10-4 lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks, had a 99.77% chance to win. If you had logged on to FanDuel before the first pitch of the ninth, you would have had to have wagered nearly $44,000 to win $1 betting on the Braves. Scott Blewett then struck out Eugenio Suárez leading off the frame. At that moment, the Braves' chances of winning the game went up to 99.96%. So, you are saying there is a chance. The above wager then increased to nearly $227,000. The next batter, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., homered on a 1-0 pitch, making the score 10-5. No matter, the chances still sat at 99.94%. Tim Tawa then walked and advanced to second on defensive indifference. Alex Thomas then laced a homer to right, making the score 10-7. Now things were getting interesting. And yet, even with the fans at Truist Park beginning to hold their collective breath, Atlanta still had better than a 99% chance to win. The next batter, Jose Herrera, walked, and that was that for Blewett (who hadn't quite yet). Corbin Carroll greeted the new pitcher, Raisel Iglesias, with a double, bringing the tying run to the plate. Reminder, there is still only one out. Shockingly, even with all of this activity, the Braves still win this game nearly 93 times out of 100. Ketel Marte followed Carroll's double with an infield single, scoring one run, and putting the tying runs on base. For consistency, at this moment, the win percentage was down to 85.2%. Geraldo Perdomo, having a great season, slashing .275/.373/.422, with 2.1 bWAR about a third of the way through the year, and 1-for-4 on the day with a double and an RBI, popped out to short for the second out. This unproductive at-bat felt like an omen…so close, but just not going to happen. When that second out was recorded, Atlanta moved back above 93% in their chances of winning this game. Just a week after sprinting out of the dugout and colliding with his teammate rounding third to potentially score the winning run in a Triple-A game in Reno, Nevada, Ildemaro Vargas found himself in the batter's box representing the lead run in a wild game. On an 0-1 pitch, Vargas softly lined his first hit of the season into center field, scoring Carroll to make it a one-run game. And yet, Atlanta still had better an almost 87% chance to win. Eugenio Suárez, who you will recall led off this frame with a strike out, stepped to the plate. The tying run was in scoring position, and the lead run, Vargas – no one's great base runner – on first. When the count ran to 2-and-2, the Braves had better than a 9-in-10 chance to win. That dropped to 86.4% when the count went full, as the runners (especially the not-fleet-of-foot Vargas at first) would be running on the pitch. Suárez swung at what appeared to be ball four, an 89 MPH changeup on the inner half, but too close to take. He lined it down the left field line, allowing both runners to score, giving the Diamondbacks an 11-10 lead. Eugenio Suarez may have swung at ball four. -DFF After a walk to Gurriel Jr., Tawa lined out to end the carnage. The Braves got the tying run aboard in the bottom of the ninth (a Matt Olson walk), but the game ended when Marcell Ozuna grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. The Braves had been on a 766-game winning streak in games that they led by at least six runs going into the ninth inning. The Diamondbacks, in their franchise's history, had never won a game in which they trailed by six runs or more going into the ninth inning (0-419). That all changed Thursday after at Truist Park. Atlanta started the season losing their first six games. They have battled to get back into contention, getting over .500 (24-23) about two weeks ago. Since then, they are 3-11, including Thursday's ignominious defeat. There is still a lot of baseball to be played, and the Braves cannot play a lot worse than they have at various times this season. The Phillies have faltered. The Mets are not a juggernaut. Atlanta can still make the playoffs. In the aftermath of their loss to Arizona, former Brave (and potential future Hall of Famer) Craig Kimbrell was called up from Triple-A to (hopefully) improve the bullpen, which currently has a 3.90 ERA and has converted only 10 of 21 save opportunities. After Thursday's game, Hall of Famer and Brave broadcaster said, 'If you were looking for rock bottom, this might be it.' Well, if so, there is nowhere else to go but up.
New York Times
11 minutes ago
- New York Times
USMNT kicks off a summer of redemption and audition
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. – The U.S. men's national team that will take the field here on Saturday against Turkey — and in this summer's Concacaf Gold Cup — will look far different than what would have been expected a year ago. Or, really, even just a few weeks ago. No Christian Pulisic. He's out after requesting a rest. Advertisement No Antonee Robinson (knee surgery), Folarin Balogun (ankle) or Ricardo Pepi (knee). No Yunus Musah (personal reasons) and no Weston McKennie, Tim Weah or Gio Reyna (FIFA Club World Cup). No Sergiño Dest, who was deemed by the U.S. staff to need more time to recover from his knee injury, or Zack Steffen, who left camp with a knee injury of his own. That's a lot of 'no's. So, yes, it's fair to say that the challenge has been a bit different than Mauricio Pochettino and his staff expected when they took the job after last year's Copa América failure. Unforeseen hurdles are to be expected in any job, though. 'The truth is that whenever you start a new project, you're always expecting you might find something,' Pochettino said. 'It's very difficult to foresee the situations that might arise later. The people who contact you and explain a little to you always have a different point of view. But when you're inside, you're already soaking in what's happening — like what's happening this year, what the situation is, the reality you're facing. … We know in soccer that circumstances are the circumstances that exist, and prejudging before arriving somewhere might not do it justice. It's not the reality [you'll face]. So we're always prepared.' It is undoubtedly better that these circumstances are playing out in summer 2025 rather than summer 2026. The absences of players who would typically be expected on a national team roster have opened the door for other players. It will give a chance for the likes of Real Salt Lake's Diego Luna, Charlotte FC's Patrick Agyemang, Orlando City's Alex Freeman and PSV's Malik Tillman to grab hold of a job. 'When these things happen, there are also many positives,' Pochettino said in an interview with Andrés Cantor on his radio network, Fútbol de Primera. Because there are many players who will have the opportunity to be with us, and many players who we thought might need a lot more time, under these circumstances, these players can have the opportunity — and why not? Some of these players will surprise us and become important players a year from now for the World Cup.' Advertisement It's fair to say that the door isn't just open because players are absent. The 'stars' of this group failed to get out of the group stage at Copa América. It was the 'A' team that lost to both Panama and Canada at the Concacaf Nations League in March. There is also an opportunity there because this U.S. team, with all its enormous expectations, is underperforming. The group in camp is not blind to that reality. 'I don't think there's any denying that some of our performances have fallen short over the past year to 18 months,' said center back Walker Zimmerman, who started multiple games for the U.S. at the 2022 World Cup. 'It's something that you know us as players, we obviously aren't satisfied with, and it's a big focus, big focal point for this camp. And I think when you look at Gold Cup, and you look at some players maybe having their first experience with Gold Cup, or even young guys coming into the team in general, it's always such a great opportunity to have a month in front of a staff, get a lot of quality trainings in together, and find yourself, hopefully getting into a rhythm of playing multiple games where you can put everything on the line to try and make a World Cup team in a year's time. So it's a massive opportunity, one that I think every player should take seriously with both hands.' In short: Jobs are up for grabs this summer. But beyond just the year-long vision ahead of next summer's World Cup, there is a more immediate task at hand. The team in this Gold Cup has an opportunity to flip the mood around the U.S. team. Things are about as pessimistic and negative around the U.S. as they have been over the previous two cycles. A team that had so much momentum coming out of the 2022 World Cup now feels like it's headed for an early exit at a home World Cup that was supposed to be the program's big moment. Advertisement The expectations around the 2026 tournament were upped when the federation fired former coach Gregg Berhalter and hired Pochettino, but the results haven't yet improved. While this group may be a 'B' team, there is still a need for results that might inject some belief back into the fan base. U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner was part of the 2021 Gold Cup squad that followed the 'A' team's win in the Nations League with a title of their own. That win reinforced that this national team pool might be capable of something special. 'I'd be lying if I didn't say lifting that trophy on the final day would be what we consider success,' Turner said. 'That's the standard that we've set for ourselves. But at the same time things happen in soccer, and I think what we need to control is what we bring to the table every single day, the intensity, the way we push each other, the passion, the energy, the connection with the fans, the connection with each other, the connection with the staff. We're going to be together for a long period of time right now, and it's a really good opportunity for us to put a lot of things together: tactically, technically, emotionally.' Turner knows firsthand, though, what a Gold Cup can mean. He credited that 2021 tournament with helping him solidify his place on the World Cup roster — and Turner ended up winning the starting job over Steffen. That outcome is somewhat of a program tradition. Since 1993, at least one player who had five caps or fewer on the Gold Cup roster in the year ahead of a World Cup went on to make the World Cup roster the following year. 'There's a lot of guys here with a big opportunity to show the coaching staff and the fans who are desperate to see that passion and that energy,' Turner said. 'They have a really good opportunity to make a case for themselves to be on that World Cup squad and be a contributing member to this team for years to come.'
Fox News
17 minutes ago
- Fox News
WNBA refuses to grant OutKick media credentials; What is the league hiding?
It's been nearly two weeks since Atlanta Dream forward Brittney Griner fouled out of a WNBA game against the Indiana Fever and then was seen on camera shouting something that has been interpreted multiple ways. Some people believe, based on reading her lips, that she said "f---ing white girl," while others believe she said "f---ing whack call." While no one is certain exactly what she said, there's an easy way to find out: ask Griner. However, no one has done that. OutKick has reached out to the WNBA and to Griner's management team several times, but hasn't received a single response. Still, Griner has participated in multiple games since the incident, which means the media has had plenty of access to simply ask the question. Yet, not a single "reporter" has. Would you like to know why? Because there's no such thing as a WNBA "reporter" or "journalist." Sure, there are people who have such titles in their social media bios or on their LinkedIn pages. But they're not telling the truth. The media members who cover the WNBA don't operate with journalistic integrity – instead, they act like PR professionals whose goal is not to report facts, but to simply promote the league. Why is that the case? Because the WNBA wants it that way. OutKick requested a media credential for the Atlanta Dream game in Los Angeles against the Sparks on May 27. The Sparks denied our request. OutKick requested a media credential for the Atlanta Dream game in Connecticut against the Sun on Friday night. The Sun denied our request. Here's the reason provided, via email, by the Sun: "Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate your request for a media credential for Connecticut Sun vs. Atlanta Dream on Friday, June 6. Due to very limited space, priority is given to those that are associated with outlets that have consistently covered the organization for previous seasons." Really? There's not enough space for one more media member for a regular-season game between the 1-6 Connecticut Sun and the Atlanta Dream? Interesting. OutKick asked the team why it refused our request for a credential, if it denied any other credentials and if there is an edict from the WNBA to keep us from covering games. The Sun did not respond to our questions. The Sun granted several media credentials to OutKick last year, including a playoff game that featured the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark, so it's unlikely that their excuse is anywhere near the truth. No, the more likely reason is that the WNBA doesn't want OutKick at its games. Why? Because we refuse to act like a PR firm representing the league and want to ask actual questions. You know, reporting. But the WNBA doesn't want that. That's why not one "reporter" or "journalist" has asked Brittney Griner what she said on May 23. They want to continue to get media credentials. The league has sent the message loud-and-clear: cover the WNBA how we want you to cover it, or you're not going to be invited back. Companies, organizations and governments that have nothing to hide welcome reporters. Why wouldn't they? Transparency builds trust. And if there's nothing to hide, there's no reason not to be transparent. Maybe the WNBA isn't hiding anything. But denying media access to a major news organization raises doubts about whether it is being fully transparent. Take a look at an example from last season. Christine Brennan, one of the most progressive liberals in the sports media, came under fire for simply asking DiJonai Carrington about poking Caitlin Clark in the eye. It was a perfectly reasonable question, and one that needed to be asked. Yet, the WNBA Players' Association issued a statement asking the league to revoke Brennan's media credentials. Cover us the way we want, or you're not coming to our birthday party! But just because the WNBA won't let us into its games doesn't mean we're going to stop asking. And we're certainly not going to give up our journalistic duties just because every other "reporter" who covers the league is willing to do it. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
