After a riveting round of regional action, there was more than a bit of controversy. And at least one prominent voice in the sport, Chipper Jones, is speaking up.
Jones called out some aberrant behavior that he believes is bad for the sport, pledging only to view teams that play the right way going forward. He won’t be a party to some of the nonsense he saw from various teams over the weekend.
“Spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “I will only watch a select few teams from here on out. Reason? They have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players.”
Chipper Jones would delve further into his reasoning, but he’s clearly advocating for a cleaner version of the sport. One in which things are done the correct way.
He outlined what he meant a bit more thoroughly. He explained.
“Any team that doesn’t wear the uni correctly, taunts the other team, and has a coach that condones this behavior, is a disgrace to the game,” Chipper Jones said.
He did, however, have one team that certainly fit his criteria for doing things the right way. That was one of the 16 regional host teams.
“Big fan of coach (Kevin) Schnall at Coastal Carolina!” Chipper Jones wrote. “Him and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir! U stand for proper behavior.”
That, in and of itself, is interesting, because Schall was adjacent to arguably the biggest controversy of the week. That came when Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan was caught on camera multiple times berating NCAA Tournament staffers and Coastal Carolina officials over a game time being moved.
Schnall went off on O’Sullivan, though he didn’t call him out by name. He did note that the behavior was “absolutely unacceptable,” likely the exact kind of thing Chipper Jones was referring to.
“I believe in standing up for what’s right, and what transpired this morning on our field, another coach disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program,” Schnall said. “He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth. These guys would do anything for our program. It’s not OK. And this needs to be brought up.
“Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach it’s our job to mentor young kids,” Schnall said. “And the way he treated the two site reps, the way he treated our associate AD, the way he treated our field crew is absolutely unacceptable. And I’m really, that’s what I’m most disappointed about.
“This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed. Disappointed somebody that a lot of coaches look up to, for him to act that way, really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall of Fame coach who’s the site rep here. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
Coastal Carolina will certainly have a viewer in Chipper Jones. And if his message gets through, hopefully the sport will see fewer antics in the Super Regional round.
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