Well, it is finally over. Some of you are relieved, others disappointed. The Cougars baseball season has come to a close.
Some of you are tickled pink you won't have to pick up the sports page for another year and be faced with another baseball story.
Who cares about college baseball anyway, right? Come to think of it, who cares about Cougars athletics as a whole?
Apparently, no one. This year UH athletics has soared to heights not touched by Cougar paws in years. Cougars football, golf, baseball, and track and field all had outstanding seasons.
Houstonians claim to love a champion. Give the city a winner, and the bandwagon will be full in no time. Kind of like the Rockets.
I hate to burst the bubble of those proud, devoted Houston fans out there, but someone must have highjacked the Cougars bandwagon years ago and has yet to release the hostages.
The crickets don't mind, though. They have front row seats to all the big UH games. Their presence is deceiving, though. They cannot be seen, giving the stadium an empty look. But one need only listen and the crickets can be heard at every UH athletic event.
Where's the spirit?
A peculiar phenomenon occurred during the baseball regionals in Baton Rouge in May.
I was heading back to my hotel after the Cougars had been defeated by South Alabama. I had no interest in staying for the next game that featured the home-town LSU Tigers.
As I walked to my car, I couldn't believe my eyes. Thousands of fans were pouring into Alex Box Stadium, all clad in their Tigers' purple and yellow school colors.
Many stood on street corners, holding up proudly the LSU hand gesture to every car that passed. It was an amazing sight. I was witnessing true college spirit.
I felt as if I were watching a fairy tale come to life. Nothing remotely similar to this had occurred at UH in my memory (with the exception of the famed Phi Slama Jama era). My interest was so piqued that I turned around and headed back into the stadium to watch the game.
It was exhilarating. The LSU crowd was deafening as they hung on every pitch.
As I sat there watching the Tigers dismantle the defenseless UNC-Greensboro Spartans, I couldn't help but think about Cougar Field.
The Cougars, ranked as high as No. 16 in the nation during the regular season, could hardly muster a sparse crowd of 700 spectators on a good night.
And there I sat, gazing out on a mob of nearly 7,000 screaming LSU fans.
This didn't make sense. Both the Cougars and the Tigers entered the regionals with 40 or more wins. A shot at the College World Series was not out of the question for either team. Yet the Cougars have had a hard time attracting bees to pollen during the past several seasons.
In all fairness to the fans, though, the Cougars may have snuck up on a lot of people.
Picked fifth in Conference USA before the season began, UH was not expected to contend for a regional, let alone qualify.
But with 20 players returning for coach Rayner Noble next spring, any success the 1998 Cougar baseball team achieves should not be surprising.
Traditions have to start somewhere. Maybe this season is the beginning of an era for the Cougars baseball program.
Next year, I may be looking out into a large crowd at Cougar Field as UH hosts its own regional. The stadium will be sold out with thousands of screaming Houston fans, all dressed in red and holding up their Cougar hand signs.
However, that's not a fairy tale that has come to life yet.
The Sports Opinion