Afternoon Baseball

The Loyola men's basketball team won its 3rd straight game today. I finally got a chance to get over and see a game this year. It's like I switched schools compared to the past three schools. There are fans (2,818), they actually have a team worth watching, the players look like they have a bit of confidence, and the coach knows what he's doing. All that has only added up to 6 wins this season, showing both how bad this program was but also how much of an improvement winning 1 of every 4th game is.
Jimmy Patsos, with some help from a number of players, has actually instilled hope. It's seems like nothing, but going to a game thinking, "Loyola can pull off a win, maybe," is infinitely more encouraging and morale-lifting than "How much are they going to lose by?" That's the difference...so far.
Where Patsos can take this program--provided some bigger school doesn't snatch him away--has only the limits that any MAAC team faces. But a better Loyola means a better MAAC, perhaps back to the glory days of the mid-1990s when the MAAC was a legitimate mid-major instead of a conference that has one good team and a bunch of schools that can't even schedule mercy games.
But in the last 3 days, the program has snapped a 39-game road-losing streak, won 2 straight and now 3 straight for the first time in 6 years, and won back-to-back conference games against teams that have owned them in recent years. If that's not a moment to be proud of, I don't know what is.
As an athlete at Loyola myself, I've made no secret of my problem with all the perks that underachieving programs (namely, men's lacrosse and basketball) get when many of the other (successful) programs scrape by. But today was one of the best days I've seen at this school from an athletic standpoint. There were 2,800 people who were buoyed by a win more than any win any of us have experienced here.
A good basketball program is good for the school, and Patsos is the perfect coach for a school like this. He knows we will never truly live and breathe basketball unless we can identify with the team and the program. From all accounts, he really is that outgoing, fun, and really cool guy. Who just happens to be obsessed with basketball.

But it's just the first step. There will be a time, perhaps soon, where winning streaks are the norm and people will go to Reitz expecting a win, not merely praying for one. I won't be here for it, but at least we can graduate knowing we saw the beginning of what will hopefully be something special.