FanPost

Open Letter to Alabama Baseball Fans From a Former Player

*ed - This was penned by Alabama alum Brent Carter and sent to RBR through the esteemed Roger_RBR. Excellent job, Brent. You represent Alabama well.

In sports, routine is everything. Routines and being comfortable are important to one’s success, as well as a team’s. You hear over and over that it’s the little things that win or lose games in sports. Well, it’s little things that help build a bond between a team each season. I remember a big part of our teams at Alabama was going straight to the field after class (yes, we went to class) and hanging out and joking around with everyone before the game in the locker room. The only time it was a case of go to the field and get on the bus was road games. This team had some sort of inconvenient travel situation for every single game. Their routine became getting on a bus at least 4 times a week to travel to play, whether it was "home" or away. That’s a much bigger deal than people realize. Virtually living out of your suitcase wears on you physically and mentally. In minor league ball, when we would have 8 or 9 game roadtrips, our teams’ performance got noticeably worse towards the end. It wasn’t that nobody cared, it’s just that everyone was worn out from not sleeping in their own bed, etc. Little things.

I know they had "home games" this year at the Hoover Met. But let’s tell it like it is, those were neutral site games where Bama just had more fans than the opponent. In college sports, students make a huge difference in your home field advantage. When the Right Field Ragers was introduced at Sewell-Thomas, it was a huge success and difference-maker. I expect that to return next year and have a big impact on games. I always fed off of the home crowd when I played. There was nothing like toeing the rubber to a packed out Joe.

Let me preface this paragraph by saying that I did not attend a single practice this year. But I would be willing to guess that trying to put in a bunt defense, going over cuts and relays, pop ups; anything that requires communication, was difficult at times with jackhammers and heavy machinery operating a few feet away. Once again, these are little things that win or lose a game. It’s not ALWAYS about getting the big hit, though that helps. Sometimes, it’s about executing a bunt defense to get the lead runner out or get the runner out at the plate on a double in the gap due to perfect communication during the relay that keeps the lead or the game tied. It would be interesting to see how many times a poorly executed "communication play" hurt us this year and if it possibly lost us a game(s). Little things.

I know there’s a good number of people in the camp that do not want Gaspard to return. And you all probably look at what I wrote above as excuses. There is a huge difference between excuses and valid reasons. These are all valid reasons that contributed to us having a mediocre season. Now, do I think that if we didn’t have to deal with all of this that we would be in a Super Regional right now? I doubt it, but you never know. Baseball is so dependent on momentum and "when are you playing your best ball?". Everyone knows we played our best ball over the last month of the season. If we could have found our stride a couple of weeks earlier and got into a regional, we had a team that other teams would not have wanted to see in their regional on Selection Sunday.

I want Alabama to be championship caliber in all sports just like everyone else does, especially baseball. I gave everything I had for four years to try and help us get to Omaha. I am confident we will have a facility to help us get some difference-makers that can get us there. Until this year, not much had been updated at The Joe since I played and it was waaaaay behind others in the SEC then! Mitch Gaspard is a big reason for what’s being done with Sewell-Thomas Stadium right now. He deserves to see it through and lead our team for the 2016 season.

Brent Carter, LHP 2001-2005

FanPosts are just that; posts created by the fans. They are in no way indicative of the opinions of SBN and the authors of Roll Bama Roll.