… one of those very annoying teams. They poured out of the dugout to congratulate the pitcher after an inning. Gee, I thought that was his job? Their coach does weird things, like changing pitchers after two pitches. Plus when he visits the mound he walks incredibly slowly. (Bubba started timing him. It was slow.) Today he was ticked off when his reliever came into the game before being called. Heck, the kid had been warmed up for two innings.
Plus Jobert (some guy close to me was calling him Joe-Bert) and his delaying tactics, along with his absolute disrespect of the plate ump when told to get back in the box, was a jerk. That third strike call for ignoring blue and timing out was well deserved.
I loved the way Paul Mainieri respected the game and insisted that his team do the same. This guy, not so much.
Johnson clearly believes in doing everything he can to disrupt the momentum of the hitting team. There were multiple times this weekend when the umpire went to break up a huddle between the pitcher, catcher and infield, and only then did Johnson come out of the dugout to have his own meeting or make a pitching change. During one such instance he was on the walkie talkie talking to his catcher until he walked out of the dugout.
His tactics are annoying, and he displays no respect for the game in his use of them.
Someone connected with LSU was on LR radio this week and warned the audience. He said not to be surprised if he visits the mound every inning. He also said the coach often calls time out to talk to his batters before they enter the box.
Yesterday when he was sending in a pinch-hitter, he delayed a long time as though something needed to be fixed. PA announced the wrong batter, who would have batted out of turn had he proceeded to the plate. Finally after the HP ump went all the way over to the LSU dugout, the batter came out and went to the plate.
Seems to me Johnson should be much more concerned with his team’s fielding deficiencies rather than employing stall tactics.
And it also seems odd for a school with such rich baseball history as LSU to feel that they need some sort of edge to disrupt momentum of the other team. I don’t think any umpire wants to call a batter out in a situation like today, but after having numerous warnings ignored, at some point you have to make the call and stop the nonsense.
LSU clearly has some talented players in the lineup. And who knows, they may get it together and make a deep run in the postseason. They just don’t all seem to be on the same page right now. Maybe the new coach just needs some time, but it was clearly evident that the Hogs were much more fundamentally sound and better schooled in every facet of the game this weekend.
If I’m not mistaken, Jobert was later called out on a 3rd strike that might have been a tad outside. I wondered if there might be a little residual feeling left over from earlier.
I have a feeling that if Coach Johnson doesn’t win…BIG…sooner than later, they won’t put up with his hijinks very long.
I’m not a fan of corndog fans…but, unlike Tennessee Johnnie-come-latelys, they DO know good baseball and, as a group, respect the game. If they are consistently in CWS, as they are used to, they will probably hold their collective noses and look past this silliness. But if they sputter and don’t get to Omaha at least in the next year or two, I wouldn’t expect them to abide these antics.
I have always liked the corndog baseball fans, for much the same as Wiz stated. They are knowledgeable baseball fans. When we beat the tea sippers in Omaha (in 18) I walked out alongside an LSU fan. As we called the hogs, he joined in.
