Conference baseball tourney a thrill on Coney Island

By Patrick Irving

New York City loves it some baseball. So people in the Big Apple should be blowing off work a little early this week, hopping on the "D" train and riding it all the way to hardball heaven in ... Coney Island?

Villanova fans took a page out of DMX's book when cheering for pitcher Mike Loree. Maury Phillips/WireImage

Forget Yanks-Sox -- it's been done to death: A-Rod a-noys; Schilling shoots his mouth off; Torre picks his nose -- we get it. For real baseball action, fans should head to Brooklyn's KeySpan Park, home of the 2007 Big East Championship.

New Yorkers may argue that a full Yankee Stadium can be electric, but wallowing nine games back tends to drain the juice of even the most fervent of fans ("pre-gaming" at Stan's two hours before the first pitch probably doesn't help either). One group already realizes this -- as either a visionary tournament official or a group of frazzled educators came up with a brilliant idea: bus in a couple thousand I-can't-believe-it's-almost-summer-crazy elementary school kids to blow off some late May steam and the roof off the joint in the process.

The Big East Championship didn't know what hit it. Every ping of the aluminum bats triggered raucous cheers. Every 15-second song clip between pings of the aluminum bats triggered raucous cheers.

By the middle of the first game, the park was overrun with wide-eyed grammar school kids who elevated college spirit to a new level. You could feel the excitement in the air as Louisville's Zack Pitts and Villanova's Mike Loree had dueling no-no's through seven innings -- or were the cheers for the quarter-minute of DMX that just blasted over the speakers:

"Y'all gonna make me lose my mind / Mike Lo-ree, Mike Lo-ree?"

Regardless of the reasons, the crowd was worked into a frenzy. Rutgers Junior Jon Gossard ducked out of the tunnel to catch a little of the on-field action before his team's afternoon game and was immediately mobbed by autograph requests from giggling 10-year-old girls. They probably didn't even know that he had put together a 24-game hitting streak this season, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he loved it.

By the time Louisville senior Isaiah Howes blasted a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cardinals a 3-1 victory, there was no doubt why anyone and everyone (except the Wildcats) was cheering.

Alas, all school days must end, even those that take place at the ballpark, so Gossard and his Scarlet Knights were without their new fans for their showdown against Notre Dame. It didn't matter, though, because Rutgers pulled away from a two-all deadlock in the fifth to route the Irish 13-2.

The timing could not have been worse for the boys of South Bend either, because the cheering vacuum created by the elementary exodus was filled by the cantankerous cackles of some older gentlemen who did not seem the type to throw around their praise nearly as haphazardly.

Surely, pockets of these fellows can be found at Yankee Stadium -- tough, but lovable old buzzards who remember the good old days and curse the team for going without a World Series Championship since 2000 -- but you must understand: KeySpan Park is home to the Class A Brooklyn Cyclones. The granddaddies of its grandstands are only there begrudgingly because their Dodgers abandoned them for Hollywood. Their borough hasn't held a victory parade since 1955. Now THAT'S bitter.

But for one afternoon, those fans were treated to our national pastime, without the cloud of steroids, overpriced players or any of the other big-league distractions hanging over their heads. It was certainly worth the $10 ticket.

Patrick Irving writes and edits the popular website scriptedsports.com.