But tonight I have one live blog from a different location: Tropicana Field.
And I know what you are thinking: What the heck are you doing there when the USF baseball team’s last home game is tonight?
Well, honestly, I can’t do much with tonight’s game, from when I last checked, the Bulls were already losing in the fourth inning. I’m at the Rays game who are hosting the World Series Champs White Sox. And whenever the Sox come to town, they bring in a familiar face to those who have been following USF baseball about as long as Eddie Cardieri has been coach.
Ross Gload, Sox utility player, did earn himself a World Series ring and was kind enough to take time away from batting practice to talk to me.
He’s actually a pretty nice guy, who, unfortunately, does not see much playing time behind Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye, since he usually plays first base and right field. I was able to ask Gload a burning question concerning the baseball team: What is Cardieri’s future?
Gload took advantage of his chance to sound off on that issue, of course, defending Cardieri. You wouldn’t expect less from a guy who says Cardieri “really went out of the way to help me play college ball, when no one else wanted me to play for them.” Gload also said he would be “disappointed” and “sad” if they let Cardieri go, not too mention it would severe all Gload’s ties to the team.
“I would be completely disappointed if he were let go,” Gload said. “He’s probably helped me out more than anyone else I’ve ever known in baseball. I still talk to him all the time.”
When I asked Gload if he thought it was fair that Cardieri be let go after just one dismal season in the Big East, being the first season in that conference, he pointed out the 1995 season, the Bulls’ last season in the Metro Conference, in which the team barely made the conference tournament. The Bulls turned around and ended up winning the entire tournament, giving them an automatic bid to the NCAA regionals only to loss to UNC and Miami in Coral Gables.
Gload knows how final series of a season can overshadow the disappointment throughout the season, and how team’s start finding wins once they reach the postseason.
“You know towards the end,” Gload said, “teams find a way to get hot and put some wins on the board. This season is the same situation we were in my freshman year. We needed to win that Metro tournament, we did and everything else was forgotten after that. No firings; not worried about extensions and we’re here over 10 years later talking about it again.”
There will be a larger article on Gload in Thursday’s Oracle, and for those interested the Rays are up 2-1 over the Sox in the top of the third.
Mike Camunas
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