Back to the Diamond

Let's put the NCAA mumbo-jumbo aside and get back to the diamond.

With 6 games left in the season, FIU has its back to the wall when it comes to the team's baseball postseason hopes.

The Golden Panthers, currently 9th in the Sun Belt, trail Middle Tennessee by 1 for 8th place and Louisiana-Lafayette and Western Kentucky by 3 for 6th. The top 8 teams make the conference tournament.

Oddly enough, FIU's best chance to reach the postseason is by catching the Ragin' Cajuns, who sit in 6th, because ULL could slip against two tough teams in the final 6 games and FIU owns the season series (tiebreaker) with ULL. MT and WK both won their season series with FIU. ULL finishes with 3 against WK and 3 against New Orleans, who with a .340 team batting average leads the Sun Belt in hitting.

Not that the final 6 games will be cake for FIU, hardly anything has this season. The Golden Panthers last two opponents: South Alabama and Florida Atlantic -- 2 of the best power hitting teams in the conference -- come to town starting with the Jaguars tonight for a 3-game series.

The thought here is FIU must win at least 5 of its final 6 games to book a plane ticket to Lafayette for the Sun Belt tourney. So a sweep is needed against either SA or FAU.

We could summon Joaquin Andujar here, but don't know if it will help because FIU is in a tough spot.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

Noticed the blog comments have turned a little bit into a Springer show. Let's try to keep the racial comments, slurs, etc. out or the Golden Paw will come out. You want to insult each other's school and who has the better cafeteria food or hotter girls go right ahead, but let's clean up the act.

FIUrulez: The penalties are the loss of scholarships. The probation is just the NCAA's way  of saying we're watching you closely for the next 4 years to make sure you don't do all of this again. There was the possibility the NCAA was going to ban FIU from all postseason eligibility, but that did NOT happen. As far as PG, he knew before he took the FIU AD job what he was getting into with the NCAA mess.

UltimateFIUFan: The ineligible players occurred on all 12 FIU teams that were cited by the NCAA. In the document the NCAA sent me, the names of the players are blacked out. The NCAA told me that is because of student-athlete privacy rights.

FI-UM Fan: No, the GPP has not hit all 50 states yet with readers. At last count, these are the 12 states the GPP is read in: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Colorado, California, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Tennessee, Vermont, Pennsylvannia and North Carolina. Plus, outside the U.S. we hit Puerto Rico and Spain.

TNGoldenPanther: Spoke with MC the other day and asked him about doing another Q & A with the fans like last year. MC said he would take the fans' questions on the GPP later this summer. I'll work on getting some Q & A with players on here. I'll post on the GPP when you guys can start sending in questions for MC.

LoveFIU-butiwonder: Welcome to the GPP. One reason the soccer programs were hit the hardest was that they overawarded scholarships from 2004-06 and to answer your question....PG was not working at FIU during this period.

U24/7: The sanctions for the football and baseball teams were the loss of scholarships for both (3 for football and 1.5 for baseball) and the four-hour reduction in practice time for baseball starting in 2009. The probation lasts until 2012, but the scholarship losses were already taken by FIU football and baseball in this past signing period.

Comments

[outofthecage88]

I split my time between Miami and Boston, so add Mass. to the list.

And after reading all of today's posts after work, I must say, can we please just ignore all of the UM people.

I know we have tried this before, but can we please stick to it.

[Fomenter]

Of course I realize the makeup of the UM BOT. Not only was I more educated outside of junior high than you were when you left FIU, but my ambition and thirst for education left you all in the dust. Ask my fellow parters, they understand why they make half my salary even though I'm only 30. It's hard to pretend or postulate why I make more money, bring more clients in, etc. when they went to FIU (that's why they can't travel, write off their expenses, or date anything but Miami girls. Smarter people don't buy into that and for what it's worth I'm a minority on both parts, not just hispanic, we just weren't content on going to school in sweetwater and tried to be better that that).

See the real question is looking at the donation levels of each person on a percentage level. And I'd hate to bring down your flawful(I know it's not a word, but then again neither is ese or meng) public school logic, but anybody who is born here is guess what.... American. If you disagree we have a great non functioning system called INS that may deport you and your family. Why not, we've allowed too many people in here. If you disagree just take a look around Sweetwater/Tamiami.

And no, my family can afford to get abortions, unlike the majority of FIU's population. Would you really like to argue/debate with me? I flush smarter things than you down my toilet every morning and they still are smarter than the FIU grads I employ.

The real question, the creme of your crop, your shining star Petey P. can't argue against that. Does that speak volumes?

Just remember, if you don't like and can't stand people ripping you on your blog then that's just an ever constant reminder of why you aren't and never will be a school worth more than Florida Coastal. If you can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.

[DCpanther]

are you serious? i hope you can't expect to get any respect bragging about your career on a college sports blog. Even if everything you said is true, you are a complete tool for even posting it. I would honestly feel embarrassed if a fellow FIU grad said something along similar lines. Thankfully most FIU kids aren't a bunch of !@#@heads. I know some people are going to be pissed about responding to UM comments, but I think its just too funny. Pete, please add MD/VA/DC to the list of readership too.

[Fomenter]

"most FIU kids aren't a bunch of !@#@heads"

Well then you didn't go to FIU if you truly believe this. The sad thing is I'm not even discussing the pros to my job, I don't need to because I know how much better I am. I just like to remind you. I'm sorry if I'm abrasive, I'm just tired of putting on the kids glove for the sake of the feelings of my janitors and slop servers. Just be happy I like to go blog slumming and appreciate it. FIU is the epitome of "You bang trash, you don't marry them."

[gpantera]

Who’s seen the Andy character on NBC's The Office? For those who have missed it, Andy plays the role of the quintessential Ivy League jerky who loves to play up the merits of his education in the face of his coworkers. The irony is that despite his Ivy League education, he's still a simple paper salesman (not that there's anything wrong with earning an honest living selling paper). Like Andy, Fomenter gets off looking down his crooked nose at the GPC (Golden Panther Community) yet can't seem to get enough of the GPC blog (evidence – he/she is always here on FIU’s blog). It's clear that he/she is a sad soul who is rejected among his/her Ivy League brethren and must find solace in frequently this blog.

If I weren't a reasonable person, I’d wish fomenter harm for all his mean spirited venom spewing but he isn't worth the effort.

[DCpanther]

you're right...def not bragging about your imaginary job. That is pretty inspiring though that you paid a ton of money for an average education. Keep showin them man.

[gpantera]

here's an excerpt from fomenter's last post:

"Ask my fellow parters"

Question - what's a "parter?"

"... I more educated outside of junior high..."

Question - did you get wet when it rained outside - sounds like difficult learning conditions

"tried to be better that that"

fomenter, doesn't your ivy league ed provide you with a better vocabulary than that?

[gpantera]

fomenter,

please back up your ivy league tough guy/gal act by posting your name, address, phone number or any of the above, depending on how lucky you're feeling.

[MaXx]

This guy is ridiculous. Anyways, congrats to the baseball team on winning game 1 against South Alabama. Corey Polizzano pitched a gem tonight, good luck the rest of the season guys.

[Baltimorepanther]

I think a lot of current Div I players are trying hard to transfer to ucg, a third stringer from UF just got kicked off the team and is transfering to ucg after completing his admition test to the gables institution.
He was arrested for using the credit card of student that has been dead for 7 months, and he was involved in fights last year too. With that rap sheet and his experience playing at a high level football in a SEC practice squad, he will be an automatic starter for ucg