Don’t Expect Any Coaching Shakeups With Alabama Baseball

When collegiate sports seasons beginning to wind down, message boards filled with fans begin to speculate on whether a coach will move on to another job or be asked to be step down. Now, it’s time for Alabama baseball.

After taking off my crimson glasses to see things more clearly, I do believe that Coach Mitch Gaspard will return next season. This isn’t information from a source or someone inside the athletic department but just from my reasoning.

The most recent and higher profile job to come open was Coach Anthony Grant’s position as the men’s head basketball coach. Coach Gaspard and Coach Anthony Grant are both the same type of men. Both seem to me to be reserved, but Gaspard will promote the program a bit more than Grant did. One other thing they have in common is their love for players. One of the current team member’s family pointed that out to me. Chance Vincent was hurt during the seventh inning of the Alabama/Auburn game during that next to last regular season series with what was believed to be a neck or hand injury. Vincent laid on the field motionless – probably at the direction of the medical staff on hand –  until he could be transported to the hospital. This picture was tweeted out with Gaspard praying over his young player.

Another thing that sticks out to me is both coaches is the length of their tenure. Coach Grant put in six years before he was let go and Coach Gaspard is at the same time frame. I won’t sugarcoat Gaspard’s stats at Alabama. In six complete seasons at Alabama, his teams have only reached the NCAA Super Regionals one time during his first year. With the condition of Sewell Thomas Stadium, it’s amazing that he could attract any talent at all. That part is being fixed and in my opinion, it played a big part on this season.

These boys have been living out of suitcases like a minor league baseball team, going from town to town. They even had to live out of a suitcase just to play a home game.  I’ve taken part in the travel thing for many years for work and let me tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. For a while, it’s different and it’s fun. After about a month, well for a lack of a better phrase, it just sucks. After an extended time of not sleeping in your own bed, it leaves you with the feeling that you are constantly tired. When you do make it home, you just want to rest. Granted I am a little older than the team but I am positive it gets to them, too.

During practices at school, I’m sure it is really effective to try to practice with cranes lifting and lowering large beams, jackhammers running constantly, and other machines running daily. I imagine it’s a struggle to just find a grass spot big enough to practice on. The only difference between the two is the fact that Coach Grant didn’t have all of the distractions built in from construction of a new venue to play in and all of the other things mentioned as well.

For the reasons in the last two paragraphs, I think Gaspard for sure will have a season in the new facility to see what he can do with it. Even though the results haven’t been there yet, I believe the staff thinks he deserves his shot to prove that he has what it takes when he has everything that he could need. There could possibly be assistant coach changes, but it’s just that: a possibility. I haven’t read any rumblings about that.

This season’s team was picked to finish near the top of the western division before the season started. In the end, the Tide barely made it into the SEC Tournament but did live to play until Friday and no NCAA Tournament. Would things have changed if this season was played at the newly renovated stadium? I think you would see a difference to the good in the win/loss column. I think the athletic department believes if you pair a pretty good baseball team with better crowds that show up to see the new stadium and cheer on the team, they believe they will see an improvement next season.

I could also see the other side for fans, boosters, and graduates of the school that would like to see a change. Maybe it’s possible that the Tide sees one in the assistant group. It seems that things that folks want to see improvement in are usually in the same area season to season.

They all wear the “Alabama” on their uniform and we should all want them to be successful for that very reason.

Even though I am a fan, I always try to look at it objectively when thinking about a coaching change. You really can’t just look at prior seasons, but you have to look ahead to future ones as well to try to see if you believe that there can be some improvement made. One must also take into consideration any factors that could have made it difficult to keep things going well for the duration of an SEC baseball season. For this one, I tried to put myself in Bill Battle’s shoes to come up with what I think he will do.

Whatever happens, the fans that are local and can get to the game need to do so. A rowdy crowd can make a difference and give the players that extra edge they need to turn some of these losses into wins.

They all wear the “Alabama” on their uniform and we should all want them to be successful for that very reason.

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