Husker Baseball Excited To Meet Expectations Set By Husker Men’s Basketball Team

Story by Erik Mellgren 

| Published Mar 9, 2010

The University of Nebraska baseball team is scheduled to play its first home game tomorrow afternoon at Haymarket Park after starting off the season on the road. Even more exciting for the team than the knowledge that the stands will be filled with friendly fans is the knowledge that those fans will be completely devoid of expectations following a winter of men’s basketball.

“Last year we had a really rough season, and the fans were not very kind to us,” said head coach Mike Anderson. “The men’s basketball had their best season in a while last year, and everyone went into spring expecting us to be great.”

With attendance at basketball games setting all-time lows, the baseball team does not expect many fans, but those who do show will be ready to cheer on anything.

“The baseball team is thinking of taking the basketball team out for dinner sometime to thank them,” commented center fielder DJ Belfonte. “By sucking it up on the court, they took off all the pressure to succeed we were feeling this time last year. If we score a run, people are going to be going nuts. A win will look like a Big 12 title to them.”

“The same psychological principle can be seen everywhere you look,” says UNL psychology professor Dr. Rupert Tanner. “If you eat at one great Italian restaurant, you expect the next Italian restaurant to be just as good, even though they are different establishments. This year the basketball team was so unbelievably bad that a last place finish for the baseball team will seem like an average year to Husker fans. The baseball team doesn’t even have to try, and they should clear the bar set by the basketball team without a problem”

It remains to be seen how much fan support the baseball team will have if they perform like they did last season. However, it will be hard for the baseball team to perform at a level lower than the men’s basketball team played this season, and that is giving baseball fans and players alike a reason to smile this spring.