Certainly the west was a better top to bottom league this year, however was certainly impressed with Kenyon. They seem to be going in the right direction. Interesting idea, perhaps with merit, about collapsing the conference. The two Indiana schools make that somewhat difficult in terms of travel.

I appreciate the opportunity to have this dialogue. I was being facetious in suggesting our coaches deserved post season recognition. Having said that I consider them both to be fine individuals who I am sure will become a success at whatever endeavor they indulge in.  And I hope that they will be given the opportunity to continue what they have begun at Denison.

I am sorry that my comments were not apparently transparent enough. What I was saying was in response to an earlier comment which implied that somehow our team had not played well together and I coupled this with the fact that we only had one second team, all conference selection. My attempt was to contrast this with our NCAC west first place finish  and 27 win season. Thus I facetiously concluded that if we had few good players and did not play well together (false assumptions obviously) our coaches must have coached the hell out of players in order to get those results.

And finally Westbound is correct. This years team was a success both on and off the field and from what I gathered from my son (one of four seniors) and observed myself, was an extremely close knit group that I am certain will stay friends forever, which is certainly a most important take away from their college baseball and academic experience.

I must respectively disagree with the premise that no one cares about post season awards. The fact that we are having this conversation sufficiently makes this point. If the premise is accepted that no one cares about honors of this sort, perhaps the Hall of Fame is irrelevent. If you were to be asking the question as to whether we should care about such things (I cannnot discern that you in fact are) I believe that is a valid conversation. However if we begin with this question, it is just a short jump as to whether it really matters who wins the conference and goes on into the tournament either. And from there we can ask whether any sporting event, it's outcome, season statistics etc. has any relevence in the big scheme of things. The fact is, there is an All NCAC team nominated and voted upon by the coaches of the league.  I am, in a long honored tradition of second guessing in baseball, challenging not necessarily the selections made, but the omission of deserving Denison and OWU players. It is a leap of faith to assume that doing so confirms that one would care more about recognition than winning (they are equally unimportant or important depending on your perception) or omit one from the fraternity of those "who know anything about baseball".

Additionally, your argument (perhaps apology) that winning 30 games over multiple seasons should have any particular standing in selecting teams based on this season holds no validity or logic that I can detect. You also imply (maybe not intentionally) that Denison did not "play as a team" and therefore it's players did not deserve recognition. Turning that argument on it's head it would seem that the team that won the NCAC east (and 27 games total) on the one hand did not have good players as judged by the coaches, and did not play as a team, as implied by you. Aside from questioning standardly accepted assumptions about sports, it would call into question what constitutes a successful team. Additionally we would have to conclude that our coaching staff perhaps would be most deserving of some form of post season recognition, meaningless or not.

Thank-you westbound, you really made the case complete with a thorough analysis. I remain shocked (perhaps I shouldn't be) at the manner in which these coaches make these selections. I, of course I'm very partial to the Denison players. Just a great group of smart, hard working players. They deserve better in terms of consideration for post season honors.

You correctly pointed out that OWU got jobbed as well.  This was not an All NCAC east team, although it looks like one. Simply ridiculous! I wrote to the league' executive director about this. Have not received a reply. Not really expecting one, either! They did not even finish the last posting  summary, or player of week selections from the OWU Denison final! To me that says something as well. Somehow I wonder if this would happened if Wooster had made the final.

Yes, I am sure you are right. It is just hard to take when we win our side of the conference and get 1 player on the second team (who happens to be my son) while Wooster gets eight total. I just feel the coaches ought to be more mindful  and fair. It is not about them. Perhaps our conference needs to be more on top of this as well.

And yes I am sure having a first year coach was a large part of the issue, yet should it be?

I would like to comment on the All NCAC team. I will openly identify myself as a Denison parent. It is a shame and patently ridiculous that our team could win the west division (widely acknowledged as the stronger side of the bracket) and get only 1 second team selection. I have never seen anything like this and it is an injustice to our players and coaches. As an example I would offer Park Smith, who hit over .400 and was an absolute stalwart fielding first baseman. How could he possible be only honorable mention. James Clear absolutely is among the top eight pitchers in our league.

I am not sure what happened, if this is a result of having a first year coach or if there was some axe to grind against our program, yet the coaches of our league ought to be ashamed of themselves. They have set a very poor example of doing things the right way and justice was not served! I am appalled that the league does not have more oversight of the process of selection, and believe that some kind of review should have been initiated.