Champions!

Just what the doctor ordered.

To the surprise of most fans of college baseball(including this one), most sports observers, and even many in their own community, the Fresno State baseball team defied the prevailing odds, did their jobs as they were taught, and made sports history by winning the 2008 College World Series in most convincing fashion, thrashing a good Georgia team 6-1 tonight to make it official.

But that's not all they did.

The sports experts will remind us forever about the fact that this Fresno State team was the lowest ranked team to ever make the CWS, let alone win it. Along the way, they'll also remind us that their 62 runs scored tied the all time record for most runs scored in a series. They'll also remind us that the team was 5-0 in elimination games, meaning that every time they needed to win a game to remain in the series, they did....and how!

And the local sociologists will tell us that this particular win by this particular team was a shot in the morale department for a community that for far too long has harbored a completely unwarranted inferiority complex, and in these days of high gas prices(Fresno's are the highest in the nation), high food prices, and economic change and uncertainty, these kinds of victories can lift the spirits and confidence of a community, and rally them to persevere against the odds in the same way their college baseball team did. And it did!

You see, even though Fresno is the fifth most populous city in the most populous state in the United States, the fact that for many years it was simply a pleasant medium sized agricultural city has affected the local mindset to the degree that even now locals feel that Fresno is still a small farm town. Having attended every Great Western Southern Gospel Fan Festival that has ever appeared in Fresno, let me tell you that the many singers who visit us to sing here(many of whom DID or DO come from small farm towns)are impressed with the size and amenities that Fresno currently has.

And in the world of collegiate sports, Fresno has always grabbed on to whatever national attention it could generate through its fine college football teams coached by Pat Hill and its' fine basketball programs of bygone years coached by the likes of Boyd Grant and Jerry Tarkanian. And it is still mistily nostalgic about the 1992 Freedom Bowl football win over a mediocre USC team(compared to its championship teams), and its' 1980 NIT basketball title in New York's Madison Square Garden, giving Fresno its' requisite 15 minutes of fame.

This is different. This is a real championship. They are not just famous for a month or two...they will be known as the BEST college baseball team in the nation for the year 2008.

Now the team has been saying in their numerous interviews that they had every expectation of making it to the CWS, that they saw themselves doing exactly what they did.

Well, not to rain on anyone's parade...but no, they didn't.

And no one else in this area thought they would either.

In fact, the local community was strangely indifferent to this team all season. Fresno has a long and proud baseball heritage, spawning such big leaguers as Tom Seaver, Jim Maloney, Dick Ellsworth, and Ted Lilly.. And the school has turned out talent such as Dick Ruthven, Terry Pendleton, Jeff Weaver, Steve Hosey, Tom Goodwin, and Bobby Jones. It has long been a celebrated baseball program on the West Coast, and appeared in three previous CWSs...not going nearly as far as this team did. And the two coaching predecessors to current coach Mike Batesole, Pete Beiden and Bob Bennett, were among the most successful college baseball coaches of all time. But after Bennett's retirement and in Batesole's first five years, enthusiasm had cooled significantly because of mostly mediocre teams(despite a pair of WAC titles), and attendance was at an all-time low this year.

And after an 8-12 start against a relatively weak schedule, the preseason high ranking this team had seemed a cruel joke to baseball fans expecting much more. And frankly, the team was not playing very well, sometimes appearing sloppy and undisciplined.

Even at season's end, it seemed all the Bulldogs could do to hold off schools like Nevada and Hawaii to simply win the regular season league title. And they dropped two of three games to Sacramento State in their season ending series, backing into the league title.

At some point here, the fire seemed to have lit into this Bulldog team...for at the conference tournament in Ruston, LA(home of last-place Louisiana Tech), the Bulldogs swept through the tournament with ease, much to the chagrin of even us at KMJ, who were hoping the Bulldogs would be beaten so our ratings wouldn't continue to suffer by covering their games.

The team's record was good, not great...and the fact is that the team would not have even made the postseason if not for its winning the WAC tournament title(giving them an automatic berth). We all knew they would be exposed, being placed in the West's toughest regional, with three nationally ranked teams, Long Beach State, Cal, and the University of San Diego.

But a funny thing started happening...this team began to gell. Their sloppy, undisciplined play became inspired and determined. The team was not intimidated in the least by their opponents. They began by smacking the host Dirtbags 7-3, and followed that up with a shutout win over the Toreros.

The following day, though, the Toreros extracted revenge with a 15-1 shellacking of the Bulldogs. We figured OK, the first games were cute, and they've played well, but the run is over...and their season will end with their next game.

In the start of what would be common behavior for this team, they rebounded with a gutty win over the Toreros...giving them the regional title! It was on to Tempe, AZ...and the #3 team in the country, an Arizona State team that had only lost three times on its' home field.

Well, that's it, we figured. Surely they can't beat the powerful Sun Devils...especially on thir field, in front of their fans.

Sure enough, ASU smacked the Bulldogs 12-4 in the opening game of that super-regional, preparing us(we thought)for the inevitable. But again, these weren't the same Bulldogs we thought we knew. The Bulldogs came back to win not one, but TWO slugfests at Packard Stadium! They were now on their way to the College World Series for the first time in 17 years!

Finally, I was beginning to "get it"...this team had something going! I realized at last that I couldn't just dismiss this sudden success as a mere fluke. The Bulldogs had gone through the toughest path to the CWS possible, and made it. Despite the seeming tendency to favor teams from the Southeast(especially Florida), Fresno State was in the CWS...and like many of their predecessors(including defending champion Oregon State)they were a force from the West that needed to be reckoned with!

It's perhaps too incomplete an analysis to say that the Bulldogs were doing so well because there was no pressure on them...due to the fact that almost no one thought they'd be there, and thus, there were no expectations on them. But certainly it would explain their refusal to crack in pressure situations, and their supremely relaxed, confident demeanor on and off the field. They seemed to just enjoy playing baseball against the nation's very best teams...and the more they realized they were more than competitive against them, it boosted their confidence exponentially.

And wasn't it JD Sumner who always said that the secret of hitting low notes is simply relaxing and believing you COULD hit them?

The Fresno State baseball team was the athletic extension of JD's bass singing philosophy. The more they played good teams and beat them, the more aware they became of their ability to do so. And the best was yet to come.

Fresno's first opponent in the CWS was Rice, long one of the nation's elite baseball teams, and a former thorn in the Bulldogs' side when they were in the WAC, beating Fresno State annually.

Then the incredible stuff started happening.

The Bulldogs built an 11-0 fourth inning lead en route to a 17-5 dismantling of the pitching-rich Owls...and the city of Omaha(home of the CWS since 1950)fell in love with the unheralded team from the West. Later that week, they beat the 2nd ranked team in the country, North Carolina, by a 5-3 count. Suddenly, the Bulldogs were just one win away from the CWS finals. No Fresno State team had ever gone this far before.

The nation was beginning to notice this bunch of determined upstarts, and marvelled at their scrappy, overachieving attitude.

Saturday, the Tar Heels won a 4-3 decision over the Bulldogs on a late home run. Were the Bulldogs finally overmatched, and about to have their bubble burst at last?

The Tar Heels had the nation's finest pitching, and some of the finest players in the country. Plus, they had been to the finals the past couple of years, and their depth and experience seemed to be more than even the cinderella Bulldogs could overcome.

Once again, the Bulldogs faced elimination. But once again, the Bulldogs got off the floor and flattened their supposedly superior foe, Sunday's 6-1 win over the excellent Tar Heels put them into the finals against another team of underachieving Bulldogs, the unbeaten(in the CWS)University of Georgia.

Fresno's pitching was stretched to the limit. Plus, several players, including power hitting third baseman Tom Mendonca, were battling severe injuries and playing right through them(in Mendonca's case, a late-season wrist injury that left him unable to even shake hands with you). Mendonca's four CWS home runs(tying a record)and his seeming channeling of Brooks Robinson defensively showed the gritty, never say die determination this Bulldog team had most definitively.

The opening battle of the Bulldogs saw Georgia prevail with an eighth-inning rally in a 7-6 victory keyed by a late home run from their best player, Gordon Beckham(a future major league star..write it down!). Again, Fresno State faced elimination...and the Atlanta area media was full of theories why Fresno was doomed. Such a heartbreaking loss would break Fresno's spirit once and for all, they opined.

I suppose we can forgive the ignorant media in Georgia for not paying attention to the story of this Fresno team....but by this time, all of us at KMJ had learned our lessons about doubting this team....and very soon, they would as well.

In Game 2, Georgia dashed out to a 5-0 lead by the third inning, but they knew that Fresno State would not give up, and sure enough, a six-run fourth inning precipitated a burst of 15 runs over the fourth through sixth innings, powering the Fresno State baseballers to a 19-10 victory...putting it down to one final game.

Who was broken now, Atlanta media?

Tonight, Fresno State quickly and efficiently took the lead and never looked back, crushing Georgia beneath the feet, 6-1, and became the 2008 College World Series champions!

I had learned my lesson, finally...I knew the 'Dogs would take it tonight!

I wrote here why sports fans and the local fair-weather Fresno community got a charge by Fresno State's improbable victory, but why did I get so inspired by it?

Well, those of you who know me well and read this blog know that I have had my share of challenges of late. And I have felt much like the Fresno State baseball team did in April, when they struggled just to keep their heads above water, so to speak.

But like so many things in life, if we just step back, realize what our task is, and then simply commit ourselves to doing it, and not be concerned about how big our obstacles might be, it's surprising how much we can get done! And sometimes, we can even exceed our dreams!

And the Fresno State baseball team hunkered down, visualized what they needed to do, then simply went out, relaxed, and played baseball....and did it better than anyone else in the country for two big weeks, fulfilling their dream!

So no matter what you or I face, if we just do the same sort of thing the Fresno State baseball team did...we can not only win all our "elimination" battles, we might even win our "championships", whatever they might be for us.

The comparisons have been made to a #14 seed winning the NCAA basketball championship, and to other athletic longshots, and Fresno State's baseball team did all that...and even more!

Congratulations to the 2008 Fresno State baseball team, this year's national champions.

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