Another Open Letter

Dear Coach Morris,

My cell phone had a rough weekend.

This weekend saw the end of yet another 'Canes baseball season.

And for the third straight season, the 'Canes fell short of Omaha.

Mostly, my phone should be mad at me. Ever since I moved out here to LA every chance I get to see a Canes baseball game takes on extra importance. So I get a little more riled up than I usually might. It is almost like football. I only get 12 football games a year, and therefore one poor performance stings like a million hornets. Now I get even fewer baseball games, and the same feeling has taken over. And therefore I throw my phone often. It is always close at hand and during these games of late has been the bearer of much bad news. Most of the time it hits the couch. Most of the time.

And I am truly surprised it is still working after this weekend.

There is something to be said for a program which reaches the postseason for a 39th consecutive season and considers the year to be a total waste. Everyone is familiar with the story of Jim Morris' job interview, when he asked to use the men's room only to find it being propped open with a Super Regional championship trophy.

The expectation at Miami is not just to make the postseason, but to do damage once you get there. Regional victories are not supposed to be "ifs". Super Regional victories are expected. It is only a trip to Omaha that validates a season. And sometimes, even making it there isn't enough. Perhaps the two most talented teams in the history of this elite program, 1996 and 2008, don't even qualify for the debate of "best ever" because they didn't win a championship.

It is a lot to live up to.

And perhaps you said it best yourself, coach, about this year's team: they "embarassed themselves".

It is one thing to lose games. It is completely different to lose in the fashion we did.

Walked batters. Errors upon errors. Bad at-bats.

No fire.

The 'Canes baseball teams I grew accustomed to, starting really with that 1996 team and last seen in 2008, were fundamentally sound and played the game hard.

They had a hell of a lot of talent, no doubt.

But it says something that maybe the least talented teams (on paper) we ever had was my favorite of them all: the 2001 National Champions. No first round picks. No Golden Spikes candidates. Just a roster full of ballplayers that got after it EVERY SINGLE GAME.

This is the third year in a row where the team has seemingly come apart at the seams when pressure was applied.

Two years ago it was in the Gainesville Regional. Last year it was in the Gainesville Super Regional (and was one of the great meltdowns we have ever seen, fueled by multiple erros in the final frame to blow the game). This year it was in yet another Gainesville Regional (another late inning collapse, this time the result of an error on a routine ground ball, a balk and a wild pitch...and then a complete and total slaughter).

Three years. Three eliminations at the hands of the Gators.

Before the Regional Final commenced, I was buoyant. These were the 'Canes I knew. They dropped a close one the night before and had to wake up early for a fesity Jacksonville club. The bats came alive late in the game and snuffed the life out of the Dolphins. 45 minutes later was a chance at revenge against the Gators to set up a winner-take-all monday night matchup.

The 'Canes I knew would have come out hot. They would not have given two squirts of piss about all the talent on the Gators squad.

Instead the 'Canes responed with a leadoff single, a walk, and a three run homer.

And just like that the route was on and the season was over.

I hate to say it, but it reminded me of our football team.

And I am sick of it.

Coach Morris, you are a sacred cow, barring something ridiculous. But it is time to clean out your assistant coaches, most specifically Joe Mercandante.

J.D. Arteaga at least put together a good staff this year, a staff with enough returning talent to be one of the nation's best next season...assuming he doesn't chase off/hurt the talent. Which he usually does. Sadly, this Hurricane great's body of work at large has been mediocre at best.

Worse is Mercandante, however. I have never seen more bad swings and a bigger lack of situational hitting. And it falls on him just as much as the players.

Winning means coaches and players on the same page. This season, there was either a disconnect between the two or they were on the same page and that page just happened to be the worst one ever printed. Neither is acceptable.

Much as the football program needed fresh blood, so does the baseball program.

For those saying it is impossible to win at a private school anymore, I say 'bullshit'. I point to the 2008 team, only 3 years ago, which some labeled the most talented team in college baseball history. And then I point to Rice, Stanford, and Vanderbilt. All private. All winners.

It is impossible to win when you can not develop pitchers or play defense. Add that to an anemic offense and a group of upperclassmen who just didn't seem to care and you have the recipe for disaster.

And at Miami, that means more than a year in between trips to Omaha.

So this is my plea to Coach Morris. I know you are loyal. I know you have forgotten more about this sport than I can ever hope to learn. But changes are needed.

Baseball never gets the hype I feel it deserves at a school known for football; however, there are a lot of us who care. 39 straight tournament appearances is a nice feather in the cap. But it has been 10 years since a title. It is time for another. And what we have seen lately just ain't gonna hack it.

You once autographed a baseball for me that says "Always be your best". Simple words. I keep that baseball on my desk and look at it every day when I wake up.

This program has not been its best for a number of years now. Whether it is bad coaching or spoiled kids or limits placed by the NCAA or just bad luck, I do not know. But something has to change. The team owes it to you to be better. They owe you the decency of taking that advice.

They owe my cell phone.

And they owe it to us diehards.