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'Drunk frat guys?' West Virginia coach rips Clemson for 'bogus' visitors' bullpen setup
'Drunk frat guys?' West Virginia coach rips Clemson for 'bogus' visitors' bullpen setup
West Virginia Mountaineers coach Steve Sabins isn't a fan of Clemson baseball's Doug Kingsmore Stadium -- or at least not the visitors' bullpen area of the stadium.
Sabins, whose team defeated the Tigers 9-6 at the Clemson Regional of the NCAA Tournament last Saturday before clinching the regional the following day against Kentucky, spoke about the environment at Doug Kingsmore on Friday ahead of West Virginia's best-of-three Super Regional showdown with the LSU Tigers at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge.
What does Sabins think of the setup? Plenty, it seems.
Among the adjectives the first-year Mountaineers coach said of the designated area for opposing pitchers to warm up at Clemson's stadium, Sabins called it "bogus" and "kind of a minor league thing."
When asked by a reporter about any "issues" he had with the setup, Sabins sounded off:
"I like that you called them 'issues.' I agree with 'issues.' I think they need to fix that deal... I think it's 8,000 fans at Clemson. They're excited. It's an awesome atmosphere. It's a little bit more like a minor league atmosphere I think than [LSU]. When I've watched ballgames here, they don't pump as much music into the stadium. The crowd here is raucous and really into the game, but it's more of a traditional college baseball setting."
There weren't 8,000 fans on hand for Clemson vs. West Virginia. The State's Chapel Fowler noted that 6,475 people attended the game. And according to Clemson, the Doug Kingsmore Stadium attendance record is 6,891 when the Tigers defeated South Carolina, 5-3, on February 28.
Sabins called Clemson's bullpen setup for opposing teams "bogus":
"At Clemson, it's kind of that minor league thing where it's offensive-oriented. Every time that there's a ball or a walk or a hit, the music gets louder, and so it's a little bit like an artificial heart rate increase I think for pitchers and for defenders. The bullpen thing is bogus at Clemson."
Sabins went on to say that the visitors' bullpen set up at Clemson could allow "drunk frat guys" to interfere with opposing relievers.
"You can get so close and it's a net where as a pitcher is warming up, someone could actually grab a pitcher's arm," Sabins said. "And so I'm all for environment. It's just that as somebody was warming up, somebody could actually reach out and grab an arm."
Did any Clemson fan actually grab a West Virginia player's arm?
"I don't want to say that," Sabins said. "I don't know that for certain. It's close enough to be able to do that, so I think as a pitcher is warming up, psychologically, if you feel like you're in danger, you may adjust your mechanics or you may feel like it's too tight. So there probably needs to be a rule in place just to control that a little bit."
Here's a clip of Sabins' comments, courtesy of and posted by The State's Chapel Fowler.
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