No sense of history

This group of guys in orange and blue clearly isn’t a bunch of history majors. I say that because the UVa. baseball team, to a man, doesn’t seem to know that they’re supposed to blow the big game.

#1 in the country all season heading into the NCAAs – OK, great, done that before, think back to the Ralph Sampson years, when we were just as likely to lose in the second round as we were to make it to the Final Four.

At home and #1 in a big game – and hey, how about a 28-14 lead at the half while you’re at it? (That 1990-1991 Georgia Tech national championship was ours.)

The kids on the field followed the lead of Brian O’Connor, who shared smiles and fist-bumps with his players before the game in the process of creating a relaxed atmosphere on the field.

OK, so in the stands, and in living rooms across the Commonwealth, we all had … ahem, tight sphincters … because those of us who have been around for a while have this built-in sense of dread about what’s going to happen to derail our ‘Hoos this time.

I just assumed it was as much as done when I read the lead to a story in the Daily Progress after Sunday’s 6-5 loss to St. John’s pushed the Charlottesville Regional to an elimination game. Something or the other about what UVa. was going to do to celebrate after the win – a dogpile or something else.

Which reminded me of the letter to the editor in the school paper back in ’90 before the Georgia Tech game – I forget who wrote it, somebody in the administration, but the basic message was, Please don’t tear down the goalposts after we win.

Fans of losing home teams don’t tear down goalposts, and players on losing teams don’t dogpile.

And neither did these guys, actually. They shook hands and acted like they’ve been there before, which of course they have. This makes it back-to-back Super Regionals, and the eyes are still on the next prize, another College World Series appearance, then …

History?