With the basketball team playing .500 ball, and the football team waiting for Spring practice, now is the time to discuss that all-time Carolina favorite... Yardcock baseball!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Coach Tanner's infield for 2008, a team ranked #2 by the most recent Collegiate Baseball News pre-season rankings . They are, in fact, SEC all-stars. Here is how it will probably look:

Catcher -Phil Disher
1B - Justin Smoak
2B - Andrew Crisp
SS - Reese Havens
3B - James Darnell

No brainer.

What does take some "smarts" is to figure out who will be playing the outfield in '08. You can certainly count on Harley Lail playing right field. But who will occupy center and left field? The answer may not be as obvious as some think.

Ahh, the life of a Gamecock is not an easy endeavor. For many have been the nights that were wild and windy survived only by a pool of tears created by the anguished crying for the day, the next year, as we longed to know the way only to be left standing in our confusion. I stated at the beginning of this season that this would be a journey. That it has been. Not the journey any of us have imagined, but perhaps the journey needed. The SEC Championship, the National Championship are destinations, being a champion, or in our case, becoming a champion, is a journey. Days upon which championships are won are merely moments of reflection of the journey to that point. Validations of sorts that the journey is traveling along the correct path. Becoming and being a champion is a journey, and it is the journey that makes the difference.

That, however is not where we find ourselves today. We are not sitting on top of some championship peak celebrating the events that brought us to this lofty height. No, these are the days that test our mettle. Our worthiness. That make us question our progress in this our journey. Sometimes, it causes us to doubt our devotion. We begin to wonder why we chose this path. This is our purification process. This is when scientists would contend that the weaker members of the Gamecock Nation are weeded out. Make no mistake about it, we are a program, team, coaching staff, and fans alike, that are in the furnace and only the purest of Gamecocks are going to survive.

But, survive this we will. Not only will we survive this, but we will survive it well. As we take pause in this natural break from the action on the field, there are a few things that I would like to look at:

Tonight’s game against the University of Tennessee was a tale of two halves with an all too familiar ending. Anyone that was at last year’s Arkansas game knows the plot for this one with the exception of our taking the lead late and then losing in overtime. Just an added twist to distinguish the two games I suppose. Just like last season, we spotted Tennessee unearned points right off the bat. Just like Georgia, we killed our selves with stupid penalties in the opening moments of the game. This game is tough to take. As tough as it is to take though, there were some positives in the game.

People will talk about the difference that Blake Mitchell made tonight and rightfully so, but the game didn’t change course until Heath Batchelor, the 6-7 304 pound redshirt freshman backup offensive tackle came in to play right guard. That was when the offense began to turn things around. That was when the QB began to have a little time to throw the ball. Seaver Brown and Heath Batchelor had more to do with our coming back than anyone else, with the exception of Cory Boyd and our defense. Cory Boyd literally left it all out on the field tonight.

"They sold out their stadium when they were 0-21"

"No other fanbase has given so much and received so little."

"They follow their team any and everywhere they play."

We are all familiar with these quotes. We accept them as compliments though any and all of us wish that it would have been easier to be a Gamecock through the years. We have been called "The Iron Fans Of College Football", the "Gamecock Nation", and briefly this season, the "Garnet Nation". While that third one hasn’t taken hold, we do take pride in being called the first two. But, I am beginning to have a problem with this. I submit to you that while we have some exemplary fans in our ranks, we also have some vulnerabilities amongst us as well. If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, then we are a weak fan base. We should not be bragging about how good, or great even, that we are as fans, but should be taking care to shore up the ranks. Before you argue with me, hear me out. I submit the following to support my claim that we as a fanbase have a long ways to go.