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Maybe I should start trashing Mark Kingston now...

I think we have all become accustomed to Gamecock Baseball being perennially a power.

After last year, seeing the results, and seeing what we lost to graduation/the draft, our heads HAD to have told us that this year would be a potential step back- even from the 2017 season. Our hearts, however, still believe that they will always be great and win every game (okay, not really, but)........ and are greatly disapppiointed when the truth sets in.
It's easy to forget about that from June to the following March.....

We're just going to have to be patient and see what Kingston can do over the next couple of seasons.
 
The guy had a 40 win team once. What made anyone think he would have a 40 win season here?
The hire didn’t make sense to begin with unless you are PC. Wait they probably wouldn’t trade coaches
I was always concerned this guy might be in over his head before he got here. Baseball is religion around here, it's not just to pass the time between basketball and football.
 
It was fun when we had the "killer B's" and those late 90's teams that had some long ball hitters.
Yes, but people didn't follow it like they all of a sudden did on June 29, 2010. And those same people are the ones who have jumped ship now. For the last 8 years, the baseball fanbase has been full of bandwagonners.
 
I consider myself on the fence. I'm finding it hard to keep my balance and I don't like the way I am leaning. I do hope he pulls me the other way.
 
Disagree.

Carolina baseball, by college baseball standards, has always had a large following.
No it hasn't. I've been attending for 39 years. The majority of those years, we'd be lucky if we had 500-1000 people in the stands. And that's being very generous.
 
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Yes, but people didn't follow it like they all of a sudden did on June 29, 2010. And those same people are the ones who have jumped ship now. For the last 8 years, the baseball fanbase has been full of bandwagonners.
The culture of Carolina baseball changed after the '00 season. Ray was building a national powerhouse which hit the pinnacle in 2010-2011. Sad to see Chad (who so many people on this board protected for years) crap the program away. I will admit (probably others too) that it is still very hard for me to accept sucking this bad in baseball. Now Kingston has his work cut out for him. Hope he's got an emergency plan.
 
People expected a bad team.

We didn't expect to lose to every damn team in the state. It's pathetic.
Last time I checked, Winthrop was located in Rock Hill.

Personally, I don't expect to win every in-state game, but by this point in in the season, we ideally should have more such victories than we do.
 
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No it hasn't. I've been attending for 35 years. The majority of those years, we'd be lucky if we had 500-1000 people in the stands. And that's being very generous.

Just because you were there doesn’t make it true.

1999 #23 in attendance
2000 #6 in attendance
2001 #5
2003 #14
2004 #7

South Carolina has had a baseball following long before the last 8 years. Pushing for top 10 in ncaa attendance going back almost 20 years.
 
Just because you were there doesn’t make it true.

1999 #23 in attendance
2000 #6 in attendance
2001 #5
2003 #14
2004 #7

South Carolina has had a baseball following long before the last 8 years. Pushing for top 10 in ncaa attendance going back almost 20 years.

Average attendance from 1977 to 2005 (29 years) was 2,036 per game. That is less than half capacity. I know what I saw with my own eyes, both when in the stands, and on the field for 4 years. It may have been a religion for those few of us who truly enjoy baseball, and prefer it to football. But not to Gamecock Nation as a whole. Most of Gamecock Nation is, at best, bandwagon baseball fans. They love football most of all and if given a choice, they will be at Williams-Brice, not the diamond.

To be brutally honest, the numbers of late are inflated because schools have gone to announcing paid attendance, instead of the actual gate attendance. Example - reported attendance for this past Tuesday was 6,104. There was NOT 6,104 there. Not even remotely close.
 
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Frank Martin beat Presbyterian with Darrin Horn’s leftovers. It’s not unreasonable for baseball fans to expect Kingston to do the same with Holbrooks
When a Coastal, Rice, Fresno State, Pepperdine, Cal State Fullerton, Wichita State, etc... wins the NCAA Basketball Tournament just let me know. Baseball is a completely different sport than basketball and a lot of smaller teams compete very well in it, unlike basketball. When Kingston has made only one NCAA tourney run in six years, then you can compare him to Martin.
 
Average attendance from 1977 to 2005 (29 years) was 2,036 per game. That is less than half capacity. I know what I saw with my own eyes, both when in the stands, and on the field for 4 years. It may have been a religion for those few of us who truly enjoy baseball, and prefer it to football. But not to Gamecock Nation as a whole. Most of Gamecock Nation is, at best, bandwagon baseball fans. They love football most of all and if given a choice, they will be at Williams-Brice, not the diamond.

To be brutally honest, the numbers of late are inflated because schools are gone to announcing paid attendance, instead of the actual gate attendance. Example - reported attendance for this past Tuesday was 6,104. There was NOT 6,104 there. Not even remotely close.
You are right.
 
You are right.
Even this year's home Clemson game had more empty seats than usual. Yet attendance was listed as 8,242. There were way too many empty seats in our section alone, not to mention in other areas, even the bleachers that are usually darn near full for that game, to believe we were at capacity that night.

I look at the attendance numbers for games, and I just laugh.
 
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I need to go with the herd....

I can't believe how many fans are now jumping out of the window because we have a bad baseball team....

I think we knew this was going to be a bad season and people can't come to grips with the facts...

Is this similar to how you gave up on the MBB season before the Final Four run? Can we hope for a similar result?
 
Even this year's home Clemson game had more empty seats than usual. Yet attendance was listed as 8,242. There were way too many empty seats in our section alone, not to mention in other areas, even the bleachers that are usually darn near full for that game, to believe we were at capacity that night.

I look at the attendance numbers for games, and I just laugh.
Of course it's that way now. We are in a Holbrook hangover, and we are losing to bad instate teams.
 
I went to games at the Sarge when Mookie Wilson was playing, and people were sitting in the bushes. There were no seats remaining. The fervor for gamecock baseball didn't just begin eight years ago.
 
Average attendance from 1977 to 2005 (29 years) was 2,036 per game. That is less than half capacity. I know what I saw with my own eyes, both when in the stands, and on the field for 4 years. It may have been a religion for those few of us who truly enjoy baseball, and prefer it to football. But not to Gamecock Nation as a whole. Most of Gamecock Nation is, at best, bandwagon baseball fans. They love football most of all and if given a choice, they will be at Williams-Brice, not the diamond.

To be brutally honest, the numbers of late are inflated because schools have gone to announcing paid attendance, instead of the actual gate attendance. Example - reported attendance for this past Tuesday was 6,104. There was NOT 6,104 there. Not even remotely close.

Going back to Jimmy Carters presidency is a little extreme to prove your point. You mentioned 8 years. The truth is S.C. fan support has been as good as anyone in the nation the last 20-25 years. You’d be hard pressed to come up with 10 schools that have better fan support in the country in the last 25 years. Had we been playing at a park larger than the Sarge sooner we may have been even higher.

Is attendance inflated? Sure. Do we love and support a winning team more? Absolutely. You can criticize a lot of things about USC. Fan support in baseball is not one of them....unless you want to go back to when June Raines was coach, the Berlin Wall was up, and gas was 75 cents a gallon. The support was there LONG before the walkoff against UCLA.

Your support of the baseball program is to be commended. However, I do not get why you refuse to see the support at South Carolina is as good as any college baseball program. It’s never going to come close to football. That’s just reality.
 
When a Coastal, Rice, Fresno State, Pepperdine, Cal State Fullerton, Wichita State, etc... wins the NCAA Basketball Tournament just let me know. Baseball is a completely different sport than basketball and a lot of smaller teams compete very well in it, unlike basketball. When Kingston has made only one NCAA tourney run in six years, then you can compare him to Martin.

You mean like VCU, Wichita State, Butler, Loyola, South Carolina and George Mason making final 4 runs?

Kingston is 1/6 of the way to your goal. If he has made an Omaha run in 5 years, I’d be as satisfied with Kingston as I am with Martin.

I don’t understand how you defended Kurt Roper until death on this board but will criticize Frank Martin. If only Martin coached it a little more like Roper....
 
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Going back to Jimmy Carters presidency is a little extreme to prove your point. You mentioned 8 years. The truth is S.C. fan support has been as good as anyone in the nation the last 20-25 years. You’d be hard pressed to come up with 10 schools that have better fan support in the country in the last 25 years. Had we been playing at a park larger than the Sarge sooner we may have been even higher.

Is attendance inflated? Sure. Do we love and support a winning team more? Absolutely. You can criticize a lot of things about USC. Fan support in baseball is not one of them....unless you want to go back to when June Raines was coach, the Berlin Wall was up, and gas was 75 cents a gallon. The support was there LONG before the walkoff against UCLA.

Your support of the baseball program is to be commended. However, I do not get why you refuse to see the support at South Carolina is as good as any college baseball program. It’s never going to come close to football. That’s just reality.

No. I mentioned 39 years of attendance. And I clearly stated what we were lucky to have in the stands. Pulling out 5 years doesn't help you either. And I clearly stated that most of those numbers consisted of not much more than your basic bandwagon fan. Even during the 2000s we only averaged just over half capacity per game.

But to say that baseball has been a religion for Gamecock Nation for nearly 40 years is just not the case. Again, there are those of us that it is. But for most in Garnet and Black it simply is something to pass the time til Football.
 
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I attended a ton of games from 2000-2005,,,, and unless it was a cold mid week game,,, there was usually pretty fair crowds..
 
Of course it's that way now. We are in a Holbrook hangover, and we are losing to bad instate teams.
And it's bandwagon fans. Most people only like baseball when it's winning. You don't have die hard baseball fans like in the past. Too many people find it boring and that it takes too long, as evidenced by MLB trying to find ways to make the game faster, shorten the season, etc. The same is slowly making it's way to college ball too.
 
Just because you were there doesn’t make it true.

1999 #23 in attendance
2000 #6 in attendance
2001 #5
2003 #14
2004 #7

South Carolina has had a baseball following long before the last 8 years. Pushing for top 10 in ncaa attendance going back almost 20 years.


What was the attendance when June was towards the end of his coaching career between 1994-1996???
 
What was the attendance when June was towards the end of his coaching career between 1994-1996???

Probably about the same as Mark Bersons soccer program now. What’s your point?

You’re going to say our fan support sucks because we as fans didn’t go out for 5 hours (aluminum bat games were) to go support a sub par team by a coach that had held on for too long and the university was fine letting it ride out.

I don’t blame any fan for finding other things to do with their time. If the University is not committed fully to winning, how can you expect the fans to be.

The truth about the Kingston hire is we won’t know for a few years. He may get over the hump and turn it back into what Ray built. He may end up being a Steve Newton, Darrin Horn, Sparky Woods hire where you are hoping for the best, but failure wouldn’t be a total shock either.

What aggravates most fans is we went cheap and didn’t get a proven winner. When Alabama hired Mike Price and Mike Shula they got what they paid for. When they were tired of losing they went and got Nick Saban. Magically the “fans” came back.
 
Probably about the same as Mark Bersons soccer program now. What’s your point?

You’re going to say our fan support sucks because we as fans didn’t go out for 5 hours (aluminum bat games were) to go support a sub par team by a coach that had held on for too long and the university was fine letting it ride out.

I don’t blame any fan for finding other things to do with their time. If the University is not committed fully to winning, how can you expect the fans to be.

The truth about the Kingston hire is we won’t know for a few years. He may get over the hump and turn it back into what Ray built. He may end up being a Steve Newton, Darrin Horn, Sparky Woods hire where you are hoping for the best, but failure wouldn’t be a total shock either.

What aggravates most fans is we went cheap and didn’t get a proven winner. When Alabama hired Mike Price and Mike Shula they got what they paid for. When they were tired of losing they went and got Nick Saban. Magically the “fans” came back.

You made my point...

We didn’t have great attendance and to say we were the top attendance since Richardson isn’t true all and @USCBatgirl21 was correct in her statement..
 
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