Other Alabama Success Helping Ease the Lack of Football News
By Larry Burton
Let’s face it, Alabama fans for the most part live and die for football news and gridiron glory. Spring practice and the A Day Game in Tuscaloosa all but get fans whipped up in a frenzy and then POOF! It’s over.
For most Crimson Tide fans, summer just isn’t what it could be, because there’s little for fans to learn from the summer about the goings on for the football team. What is going on are 7 on 7 drills and the only coach with any contact, at least the only coach that’s supposed to have contact with them, is the strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran. And he doesn’t give press briefings and is tighter with news than small size tighty white underwear on a 350 pound lineman.
But this year, there’s a diversion that is keeping the “Roll Tides” going and something to keep the Bama fans attention tuned to the news and televisions. Other sports in Tideland are on a roll.
The men’s golf team won a national championship last month and now the men’s baseball team and ladies softball team are keeping fans close to the television sets with hearts aflutter.
Yes, this is a great time to be a Crimson Tide fan.
If you like excitement, both the girl’s softball team and men’s baseball are delivering it in spades. Against Kentucky, the girl’s were ahead 2-0 with just three outs to go and appeared to coasting to what seemed like an easy victory, but soon it bases loaded, nobody out and the nail biting began in earnest. But just as it seemed like the Tide was going to blow the game, a hard earned strike out was followed by a boom boom double play and the Tide won the game as the fans in Crimson could finally exhale.
As for the baseball team, once again for all appearance the Tide was in control of Florida State with a lofty 6-0 lead in the bottom on the 9th. What could possibly go wrong? With everything coming up Crimson this season, it’s easy to forget that things went so wrong last year. At least until history appeared to be repeating itself.
Last season in almost the same spot in the season, they blew a game against Troy with a very similar lead and when the score suddenly went from 6-0 to 6-1 to 6-3 to 6-5, suddenly many Tide fans had those memories from last season crashing down upon them. Would they, could they, blow another easy chance to advance and have back to back collapses?
With a man on base and the winning run at the plate, a pinch hitter, a fly ball to the outfield ended both the nightmare and nail biting. It was time to celebrate.
While these wins don’t guarantee a story book ending for either the men or women’s diamond duelers, one thing it does do is cure the summertime blues for Tide fans who usually have little to cheer about this time of year.
So the next time you hear this Eddie Cochran ditty, you’ll know there really is a cure for the summertime blues and it involves a little “Roll Tide”.
Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
