Fan News NEWS
Gorilla Ball? No. Effective? Yes!
Published by BRITTAN DUHON on June 17, 2009
Tradition is great. It is much of what sports is all about.
The problem with tradition is sometimes people can never let it go.
Take college baseball for instance. LSU won five national championships from 1991-2000, and in really only one of those years (1997) did the Tigers do it with "Gorilla Ball," which was a really cool phrase that became associated with LSU's monstrous home run power.
The Tigers set an NCAA record that season that will truly never be broken—188 home runs. Shortstop Brandon Larson hit 40.
Gorilla Ball was a lot of fun. LSU won big and bold and beautifully.
It got more people interested in baseball. It hit the football button.
It was entertaining. But it was not real baseball.
Gorilla Ball also became associated with the 1998 national championship game in which USC beat Arizona State 21-14 in a game that took as long as a BCS national championship game, which also began that year.
LSU was not the only bash team in baseball. In the opening weekend of that World Series, LSU beat USC 12-10, Arizona State beat Florida State 11-10, and Mississippi State went for two...
Read Complete Article at Bleacher Report - College Baseball
Article is property of BleacherReport.com
Install the ratings plugin
Install the postviews plugin
None
