If you have seen my twitter feed, it has kind of been a crazy day; I've not had time to even write a game story (which I'm working on now) but wanted to just respond to a few things as I've been away from the board and social media.
I had reported earlier today that Jordan Beck's bat that was confiscated on Friday tested at 400 pounds per square inch lower than the NCAA requirements. A lot of doubt has been cast on the accuracy of that statement; I got that info from multiple Vanderbilt people who had direct knowledge of the situation at the time of the test. I have been acquainted with these people for years, have found them to be good and honest people and went with the info based on that. I still stand by that statement and in fact had it verified a third place outside Vanderbilt since I wrote what I wrote earlier and wanted to pass that along.
I did try to run down the umpiring crew afterwards. They were in the room for the testing of Beck's bat and know the results and I wanted something from the league to put this to bed as a third-party witness. The umpire refused any and all comment and referred me to the SEC office.
Anyway... setting the weekend aside for a moment, there is a bigger story here with this story that transcends Vanderbilt and Tennessee and it's been brewing for a lot longer than Friday night, and I would just about bet my house it was playing out silently at many venues across the country. It's about the integrity of college baseball as a whole and while I am not ready to write what I have learned, I'll just say that I am beyond floored at the complete lack of guardrails around the entire situation. I have reached out the the SEC office with several questions and requests for comment; I did that about three hours ago and have not heard back but I will have a deeper story with background on everything that, I think, will make everything very clear on how something like this can happen, why it wasn't caught before, and probably any other questions you may have. But I want to get everything fairly buttoned up before I go further.
And just to be clear, again, this is not a "Tennessee cheating" story or a "Tennessee-beat-Vandy-because-it-cheated" story, but more of a "here's the story of how this can happen" that I think will provide a ton of clarity and (hopefully) transparency going forward.
I also hope it will put some guardrails around the game's reputation. I think college baseball is a tremendous sport and one thing that has attracted me to it is that, compared to other major college sports, it has always struck me as the most on-the-up-and-up game compared to the others. You have also seen the damage that PED scandals have left to the game at the MLB level and I would absolutely hate to see this game tarnished in that sort of manner.
A couple of things on the way out. I want to make it clear that Tennessee has an incredible baseball team and I honestly do not believe that the events of the weekend changed the outcome. What is a shame is that the bat incident has taken away from one of the most phenomenal pitching and defensive weekends I've ever seen. None of this is to try to take away from Tennessee's series win so congrats to them and while baseball can be a cruel and funny game, if that's not an Omaha team then I don't think I've seen one.
I had reported earlier today that Jordan Beck's bat that was confiscated on Friday tested at 400 pounds per square inch lower than the NCAA requirements. A lot of doubt has been cast on the accuracy of that statement; I got that info from multiple Vanderbilt people who had direct knowledge of the situation at the time of the test. I have been acquainted with these people for years, have found them to be good and honest people and went with the info based on that. I still stand by that statement and in fact had it verified a third place outside Vanderbilt since I wrote what I wrote earlier and wanted to pass that along.
I did try to run down the umpiring crew afterwards. They were in the room for the testing of Beck's bat and know the results and I wanted something from the league to put this to bed as a third-party witness. The umpire refused any and all comment and referred me to the SEC office.
Anyway... setting the weekend aside for a moment, there is a bigger story here with this story that transcends Vanderbilt and Tennessee and it's been brewing for a lot longer than Friday night, and I would just about bet my house it was playing out silently at many venues across the country. It's about the integrity of college baseball as a whole and while I am not ready to write what I have learned, I'll just say that I am beyond floored at the complete lack of guardrails around the entire situation. I have reached out the the SEC office with several questions and requests for comment; I did that about three hours ago and have not heard back but I will have a deeper story with background on everything that, I think, will make everything very clear on how something like this can happen, why it wasn't caught before, and probably any other questions you may have. But I want to get everything fairly buttoned up before I go further.
And just to be clear, again, this is not a "Tennessee cheating" story or a "Tennessee-beat-Vandy-because-it-cheated" story, but more of a "here's the story of how this can happen" that I think will provide a ton of clarity and (hopefully) transparency going forward.
I also hope it will put some guardrails around the game's reputation. I think college baseball is a tremendous sport and one thing that has attracted me to it is that, compared to other major college sports, it has always struck me as the most on-the-up-and-up game compared to the others. You have also seen the damage that PED scandals have left to the game at the MLB level and I would absolutely hate to see this game tarnished in that sort of manner.
A couple of things on the way out. I want to make it clear that Tennessee has an incredible baseball team and I honestly do not believe that the events of the weekend changed the outcome. What is a shame is that the bat incident has taken away from one of the most phenomenal pitching and defensive weekends I've ever seen. None of this is to try to take away from Tennessee's series win so congrats to them and while baseball can be a cruel and funny game, if that's not an Omaha team then I don't think I've seen one.
Last edited:
