June 14, 2011
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
Does winning matter? We could make one of those GEICO Insurance commercials with our list of positive answers. Dozens of fans joined the National Commodore Club Sunday and Monday just to get in line for a shot at College World Series tickets. Speaking of the NCC, it is running ahead of last year’s pace with a couple weeks left before the end of its fiscal year. Nearly 900 new members have come on board since the new membership drive was initiated six months ago.
We quickly ran through our original College World Series ticket allotment. There are 1,000 tickets sold before every game as general admission and there are active ticket exchanges in Omaha we are told.
Few things are trickier than getting fans to agree on the music played at a sporting event. It’s a common gripe everywhere – too loud, too hip, too square, too bland. That said, the music at Hawkins Field this year was a big hit, to use a bad pun. Fans arose in anticipation of their favorite tunes between innings, even dancing at their seats to Crazy Town, Cotton Eyed Joe, Sweet Caroline, Thank God I’m a Country Boy and other upbeat baseball music. It was impressive enough that the ESPN commentators complimented the atmosphere during the Super Regional telecast. Kudos to our promotions team for helping make The Hawk rock.
Great moments should be preserved. There is an outstanding collection of first-rate Vanderbilt baseball images on sale right now on the Photo Store of this web site. These were taken during the regional and especially Super Regional tournaments and include celebration images, action and Hawkins Field capacity shots. They come professionally framed to your choosing and are ideal for offices, dens or as gifts. The Photo Store is found in the lower right corner of the front page; then “other categories” on the left side to find baseball.
The Vanderbilt bookstore already has Omaha gear for sale on line and more designs and apparel are on the way. The Bookstore has been a great partner over the years and it plans to be selling Vanderbilt items in Omaha, hopefully in the team’s Hilton Garden Inn if arrangements can be made.
Omaha-bound fans…consider wearing gold. We mentioned this last week and there was some progress at the Super Regional. It would be tremendous if Vanderbilt’s fan block could be identified on ESPN’s cameras. That won’t happen if we show up wearing a variety of colors and with temperatures in the 80’s, black will be a very hot color.
Men’s basketball ticket renewals have also been outstanding.
Not a very “quick” Quick Slant but more good news than we can mention!
NAME DROPPING…NCAA President Mark Emmert, a former LSU chancellor, spoke at the Awards Dinner at the recent Southeastern Conference Spring Meetings…James Franklin spoke at Monday’s Nashville Rotary Club…women’s golf coach Greg Allen is taking his team to Scotland next week.
