I know we’ve got the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup going on right now. I get it. The Knicks are a pretty big deal at the moment, and rightfully so.
But I’m here to open everyone’s eyes to the biggest story in America that nobody is talking about.
The Troy Trojans, and catcher Jabe Boroff.
Drop everything you’re doing and start paying attention to what’s going on out in Alabama, because it’s more electric than anything you’re going to see on the court or the ice.
IS THIS COLLEGE BASEBALL TANK SHOT REALLY THAT IMPRESSIVE?
Boroff, dubbed “Jabe Ruth” by his teammates, has the Trojans on the brink of their first-ever trip to Omaha. That’s right. In a world dominated by NIL and the transfer portal, the TROY TROJANS are one win away from the College World Series.
A week that began with Nick Saban sounding the alarm on the state of college athletics ended with a team that barely made the NCAA tournament hosting a Super Regional for the first time, shattering attendance records, and going viral for all the right reasons.
Troy pummeled Little Rock, 12-2, Friday in Game 1 of the Super Regional. Boroff hit two home runs, including an eighth-inning grand slam into the patriotic bounce house in left field.
And if it wasn’t a reminder of what college sports should look like, I don’t know what is:
Troy proves college sports can still be saved
I’ve been banging the table for college baseball for years now. I’ve BEGGED the world to show it more respect. ESPN has the TV deal, and barely shows a game until May. I’ve long said it’s a wasted opportunity.
And the first 10 days of this tournament have only added fuel to that fire.
We’ve had major upsets, which you don’t get anymore in football or basketball. We’ve had iconic moments, like all of Morgantown singing “Country Roads” earlier this week when the Mountaineers walked it off in the regional championship.
Most importantly, we’ve had teams like Troy not only win meaningful games, but HOST meaningful games. The Trojans squeaked into the tournament, upset the Florida Gators (twice), and now they’re one win away from Omaha.
Which brings me to Boroff, who has morphed into “Jabe Ruth” over the past few weeks thanks to an absolutely electric tournament.
The junior catcher was hitting .114 with one home run on May 9. Less than a month later, he’s hitting .270 with 11 home runs. That’s a real stat. Read it again.
He’s hit six bombs in this tournament alone, with a whopping 18 RBIs in six games. In the program’s first Super Regional Friday, he hit two homers and plated half the team’s runs.
COLLEGE BASEBALL PLAYER SUFFERS GRUESOME LEG INJURY DURING CELEBRATORY HOME RUN TROT
Do you understand how impressive that is? Again, it’s why college baseball is the best. It’s everything we loved about college sports before things started to spiral a few years ago.
We loved the upsets and the “moments.” We loved the lesser-known players who came from a community college (Boroff spent the first two years at Enterprise State) and simply got a shot. We loved the atmosphere and the feeling that this was “our school” too.
College baseball has proven over the first week of this tournament that it’s all still possible. It still exists. We saw it in West Virginia on Monday, and at a place called Riddle-Pace Field on Friday.
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Nobody had heard of that place until this week. Nobody had heard of “Jabe Ruth” until this week. Did anyone here even know Troy had a baseball team until this week? Probably not.
We do now, and that’s why college baseball is the best.
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