In Arkansas Baseball Just Means More Than Anywhere Else

This past week, including last night's win over Texas A&M, just adds to the long list of reasons why the Razorbacks have the top baseball program in the country

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Apr 28, 2023 12:26 PM EDT
Original:
Apr 28, 2023

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The old adage the SEC pounds relentlessly into everyone's brain is that it just means more. Then there's Arkansas baseball.

Walk onto nearly any campus in America and ask anyone for their thoughts on any game that school has played the entire season, much less a Tuesday road game or a Thursday night game, and the best that can be hoped for is a blank stare that begs to ask why this crazy person is asking about baseball.

However, ask any Razorback fan, much less someone on campus about the last two games and their heavy, baggy eyes from staying up late on a Thursday night to watch Arkansas take down Texas A&M, 7-5, in a drama filled SEC match-up will suddenly light up. Sure, there will be that moment of melancholy while talking about the loss to Missouri State, but once it comes time to talk about the win over the Aggies, the excitement will be so overwhelming that fan will be hard to comprehend.

"Hagan Smith. That arm. And that other arm. I mean, Grimes? How did that even happen? The tag? Bohrofen's big jack. And Slavens. The bases were drunk."

Other fans bases might think that person is drunk, but Arkansas fans understood every word with the clearest of pictures in their minds. Ask other fans about the most memorable moment from their school's baseball team and there probably is no answer. Ask a Razorback fan this morning and the response will be "Do you want the good one or the bad one?"

The good one could take on many forms, including the perfectly executed throw by Hunter Grimes followed by an immaculate catch and tag by catcher Parker Rowland last night to make a much needed win possible. Obviously, the bad is the dark cloud that will hang over this team until Dave Van Horn finally gets his well deserved championship – the College World Series championship drop that ripped everyone's heart out against Oregon State.

That fans were literally distraught and going way overboard over a 30-win team getting swept in mid-April for the first time in five years says a lot about how much Arkansas baseball matters to them. Some definitely could have handled it better, but there are so many programs that could lose seven straight twice in a single season and no one even notice. That a loss for Razorback baseball affects a lot of fans like a loss for Alabama football affects Crimson Tide fans would draw eye rolls in most of the country.

But it's this passion that allows Van Horn to go after the most elite players in the country and request the facilities that he's had built without getting laughed at. Arkansas has 20 commits for next season and 13 are Top 100 players. Eric Musselman has nothing on what Van Horn is doing in recruiting. Yes, they will all be drafted and some will go pro, but each one will think long and hard about playing at Arkansas.

The facilities are better than a lot of minor league clubs and the experience is second to none. Peyton Stovall isn't turning down millions to play somewhere else. Aiden Miller, the No. 6 player in America isn't weighing whether to do the same for any other school. He's not driving hundreds of miles for a flight in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian for a second visit anywhere else.

Those 20 recruits span 10 states that stretch from North Carolina to Hawaii. That kind of range isn't happening if Arkansas isn't the most passionate school in all phases about baseball in the country. There are other schools that are passionate in the postseason. There are schools that are passionate in the regular season. There are even schools that are also passionate with their pocketbooks, but Arkansas has all of those things going, plus a dedication that stretches among fans for hundreds of miles who not only live and die with every pitch, but also travel heavily no matter where the Hogs go. Remember North Carolina fans getting mad because Arkansas fans bought up all the tickets last year?

Arkansas baseball outdraws most college basketball programs, including some in the SEC. Players can come play in front of 12-13,500 crazed Razorback fans in the SEC, or they can ride around on a bus for a few years hoping to one day make it to AA and play for the Texas League attendance leading Frisco Roughriders with an average attendance of 6,800 fans who are there because Principal Belding from "Saved By the Bell" is doing autographs next to the hog dog stand, not because they love Roughriders baseball.

It may mean more in a few places like Mississippi State and LSU, but there's a reason Arkansas nearly doubled Texas, the team ranked No. 5 in average attendance last season. It's because when it comes to Razorback baseball, it doesn't mean more.
It means most.