Did you know USC won 46 games this season? Tanner won game 500 yesterday (500 wins at USC)? USC led the nation in home runs this year? Tanner has lead SC to the CWS 9 times.
If you’re a USC baseball fan, perhaps you did and perhaps you didn’t. And maybe you didn’t care. It seems these days there’s not a lot of love for coach Ray Tanner and his guys. Somehow making the NCAA regionals for the eighth straight year is not enough.
Does the lack of appreciation bother Tanner? Yes and no. But I can tell you this: He hears it and he feels how his team isn’t appreciated as much as he thinks it deserves.
Tanner said: “It’s okay by me. but I feel for the players a little bit…We haven’t been a great team all year, but we’ve managed to win a pretty good number of games. One of the reasons I’m here is because of our fans (and) the great tradition I’ve talked about many times with coach (June) Raines, coach (Bobby) Richardson. But the fan base was a big part of the reason that I wanted to be here and it remains that way. Our fans care. They come. They buy tickets. Did they yell at me a little bit more now than they have in the past? They do. But again I can go with that. I just hate it with the players when they feel a little bit under appreciated. But it goes with the territory. I think we’ve had a little better year than that but….’’ Tanner didn’t finish his thought.
A reporter asked him if he’s created a monster at USC after doing what he’s done, especially going to three straight World Series. Tanner said: “I don’t know if we’ve created a monster. It might have been different had we gone to the World Series every other year instead of the three years in a row. But again I’m proud of this program. We’ve been consistent. Have we been great? Maybe not,but we have been very consistent. Our guys, this team, maybe has been a little bit under appreciated. But the criticism I endure, I’m okay with it. I love fans. They care and they voice their concerns. The alternative is not good. They’re not here and they’re not voicing their concerns. They’re not interested. Our fans are interested and I like that.’’
So let’s all remember how good SC baseball is and how lucky the school is to have Tanner at the helm. Remember he is a highly sought after coach and could leave for bigger programs with more tradition and more money but he has chosen to stay and be “da man.”
So show some love for Tanner and the team…
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