cup of coffee


So you’re Alabama’s baseball coach, Mitch Gaspard. You’re in Tallahassee at the NCAA regional. Fresh off the bone-headed move of overpitching your starter against No. 2 LSU in the SEC Tournament, you’ve made your way into a regional where your team has underachieved, to say the least.

You tank the first game against Troy on Friday, unable to overcome one measley inning of offense from the Trojans. Then Saturday, your team barely escapes lowly Savannah State. But in doing so you get new life, through just three stinking runs. Against Savannah stinking State.

Then Sunday, you’re finally in a position to make some noise in an avenging game against Troy, sending them home and sending you to the championship series of the weekend with host Florida State.

You’re up three runs going into the bottom of the 9th. Your pitching staff and defense has done enough to get you across the finish line. You make it into the 9th inning, and opt to put in the normally dependable closer Ray Castillo. But somehow, you blow it. And as the game crumbles around you and season draws to a close, you sit on your thumb.

The Trojans didn’t just rally in the 9th. They scored four runs on only two hits…”dos,” for our Spanish speaking friends. Two batters were hit by Castillo pitches, and the Trojans drew three walks, including the game-winner.

And at no point…no point…as the final inning began to unravel…did Mitch Gaspard make a move to do something different. Simply, amazing.

Said Gaspard afterwards:

“It was a tough one and a tough way to lose. I thought our guys competed really hard. This has been a season that we’ve been on the edge like that late in games, but we’ve been able to finish most of them off and today we weren’t. We allowed Troy too many opportunities and they did a good job to get some big hits there in the ninth inning. It doesn’t take away that our guys competed extremely hard and I think our young guys learned a lot from the tournament. We’ve just got to regroup and get better for next year.”

This team wasn’t making it much further than the game with Troy. Bama doesn’t have the firepower it once did. There was a day when a regional was just a warm-up for the Tide, usually in their own house. And there is enough quality youth on this team to get there again. You just have to hope that when the day comes, Bama’s puzzling skipper doesn’t get in the way…again.

Separated at birth, Orville and Gordon.
Separated at birth, Orville and Gordon.
Speaking of what people are thinking, what if you’re Gordon Gee today? Ohio State’s president has framed himself for the world as an absolute idiot; a man seemingly incapable of rising to the heights of becoming a university president.

Gee’s comments about Catholics (“they can’t be trusted”), the Southeastern Conference (“they can’t read or write”), and the University of Louisville (“no academic integrity”) are hard to believe on one hand, but on the other, how many times now have we seen a “Mr. Big” out there playing to home crowd, only to be embarrassed later at the comments being recorded…and released? Lane Kiffin, James Franklin and Tim Davis (among others) say “hey.”

In this day of smart phones, each coming standard with any of a number of recording options, how can a man with any level of education be so stupid?

The SEC envy around the country has simply reached unbelievable proportions. Until someone dethrones the SEC from the game’s top crown, you’ll continue to hear this crap.

“We can’t beat them on the field, so we’ll attack the bottom half of their conference.” (Bob Stoops)

“We can’t beat them, so we’ll say they can’t read or write.” (Gordon Gee)

“We can’t beat them (and I can’t eat them), so I’ll go along with what Bob Stoops says.” (Charlie Weis)

It really is hard to watch grown men make idiots of themselves, especially when they look like Orville Redenbacher’s slimy cousin.

How either found mates that wanted to reproduce with them should give us all hope. But that Gordon Gee leads a university more intent on whining and slinging mud than getting down to business and doing what it takes to be a winner should give us even more. Looks like #8 in a row is on its way.

If OSU trustees keep Gee as their president after this they simply don’t have the same integrity that Gee likes to boast about. Like a fat girl who insists she “doesn’t want to go to the dance anyway” only because no one will ask her, we’re seeing the college football minions attempting to change the rules of the game…and perceptions…in order to deal with their inadequacies.

It’s good to be king. And it’s even better not to be Gordon Gee.


(Follow ITK on Twitter for Bama news, commentary and smack.)

5 thoughts on “Has Gordon Gee’s bow tie cut off the oxygen to his brain? The answer is in your Sunday Cup of Coffee”

  1. Wow not a single comment about this article with regards to your baseball team and its performance. One of your earlier articles asked the following two questions -““Does Alabama need a new stadium”? and “Does Alabama baseball deserve a new stadium?”.

    I say if you can’t get one single bama fan to care enough about its baseball team getting beat twice by Troy in an NCAA regional to make a single comment about it, much less 10 to 20, then no, alabama does not need nor deserve a new stadium. I would call that fan apathy and until that changes a new stadium won’t fix the problem.

    The LSU baseball team is not winning because of it’s new stadium. They got that new stadium because of the fan support it got as a result of its success in the old Alex Box stadium which was one of the oldest and outdated stadiums in the SEC.

    1. I couldn’t agree with you more. The showing was pathetic for too many reasons to list. But none of those include Bama playing in an outdated facility.

      There is no passion for Bama baseball, and I think it’s a shame. It used to be a fun product to watch, like football. Now, not so much.

  2. As has been said many times on this site – Winning Changes Everything. Bama got their current stadium during a particularly good run a couple of decades ago. While they’ve had a time or two in the spotlight, the last few years have been dry and lean. When Bama decides to put a product on the field that draws interest from students, alumni and fans, then facilities will get the upgrades. That’s how it’s been with football, tennis, swimming, softball and gymnastics. It’s never been that facilities will produce a winning team, but it’s almost always the other way around. Baseball should have learned that from the dominant sport at Alabama by now.

  3. I don’t have a problem with what Gee said. Gee has certainly made some hypocritical statements in the past that deserve ridicule, but this is supposedly a PC issue.

    Gee’s comments weren’t PC by today’s standards, but I think today’s standards are nothing but an ubersensitive attitude that has been trumped up by the left to be dragged out into the media anytime some conservative speaks off the cuff.

    The irony is that the pointy head academic world has lead the charge towards a PC society …and now PC issues are what will coat this college prez his job.

    1. GMAFB on the PC issue. Gee is a dumbass who stayed on the job too long. Thanks to his own stupidity the Board of Trustees at Ahia State finally saw the light and forced Gordie Bow Tie into retirement.

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