The scene seemed suited more for Saturday Night Live than for a Kansas baseball game.
“Welcome, Kansas fans, to Hoglund Ballpark and Big 12 Conference baseball,” the public address announcer boomed yesterday afternoon.
It was 11:50 a.m., 10 minutes before the scheduled first pitch of the home opener with Western Illinois. Upon hearing the announcer’s greeting, the eight fans sitting in Hoglund Ballpark all shot an equally puzzled glance towards the press box and chuckled.
What fans, they must have thought, the eight of us?
Welcome to the life of Kansas baseball, Ritch Price, where the successful go unrecognized and the unsuccessful go … well, unrecognized.
Price, in his first season as a Kansas coach, is building a foundation for the future. But don’t remind him of that. He doesn’t want to hear it.
“I refuse to say that this is a rebuilding year — we have some talent,” Price said earlier this year at baseball’s preseason media day. “We want to compete now. We have some strong left-handers who can really throw for us, and we can hit from top to bottom in our lineup.”
No argument there. Sophomore pitcher Tom Gorzelanny slated to be Kansas’ ace, left school last month, but Price still has loads of left-handed players. The Jayhawks can hit for power, hustle as if there’s no tomorrow and, as Price proved yesterday, can play smart baseball.
In the second inning of Kansas’ 10-6 victory, the Jayhawks executed three consecutive bunts. Two bunts resulted in base hits and runs, and the other was a successful sacrifice.
The bunts won’t show up in the box score, but Kansas needs nonbox score contributions. Mental errors, base-running mistakes, botched steals, launched throws — you name it, it happened under former coach, Bobby Randall.
Price has brought optimism and a renewed, gritty sense of “why shouldn’t Kansas be able to win at baseball?”
Early on, that outlook turned heads. Price has vowed to challenge his team through scheduling. Five top-25 teams await Kansas in the Big 12 Conference.
So the rude awakening begins Friday, when Kansas goes to Louisiana State for a three-game series. Just seeing those two teams in the same sentence in regards to baseball demands a double-take.
Talk about a culture shock. By midgame yesterday, no more than 150 people graced the Hoglund Ballpark stands. Friday night at 6:30 at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium there were more than 8,000 screaming purple and gold baseball fanatics.
But that’s what elevating a program is all about. You’ve got to see how the best do it before you can become the best yourself.
“I’m looking forward to going down and seeing quality arms,” Price said. “It’s going to be a good measuring tool for our club, as far as where we’re at now and where we need to be. I thought we needed that environment in order to take another step forward.”
So even if Kansas gets annihilated in three straight this weekend, the Jayhawks will learn a valuable lesson about how a national power conducts its business.
And right now, that’s on the top of Kansas’ to-do list, far ahead of caring about how many fans fill its own ballpark.
