When The Stars Are Not Enough: Florida Baseball And The Pain Of Almost

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When The Stars Are Not Enough: Florida Baseball And The Pain Of Almost - Alligator Army

Florida fans are familiar with baseball being close and yet not close enough. Andy Lopez piloted his 1996 Gators to the penultimate game of the College World Series. Pat McMahon's Gators lost two games in the CWS Championship Series to Texas in 2005. O'Sullivan's team lost twice to Southern Miss at home in the Gainesville Super Regional in 2009, made a "two-and-'cue" appearance in Omaha in 2010, and stormed through the 2011 College World Series before being limited to three runs and never leading in two games against South Carolina in the final.

And Florida fans are familiar with Gators teams of all stripes doing the same. Football's the easiest to point at: Steve Spurrier's Gators looked like world-beaters in 1993 and 1994, but were tripped up by Auburn and Florida State; they conquered the 'Noles in 1995 before being bum-rushed by Nebraska; Florida was in line for another national championship try in 2001 before an upset by Tennessee; we all remember 2009.

But Lon Kruger coached a Florida basketball team to the Final Four before it fell by five points to Duke, and Billy Donovan's precocious 2000 Gators couldn't crack Michigan State, and the Gators have an active streak two straight collapses in the second half of Elite Eight games. Florida softball went to the Women's College World Series for four straight years from 2008 to 2011 and scored zero wins in two appearances in the Championship Series. Florida gymnastics has never won a national title, and came within less than a point of winning one in 2012. Florida lacrosse faltered while looking like the nation's best team against Syracuse just last month.

The almosts and coulda, woulda, shouldas are not rare in Florida's athletic history, especially its recent athletic history. But they have come with the triumphs that erase the regrets and negate the hypotheticals, and those victories and titles both spawn the expectations of ultimate success and deepen the despair when it doesn't happen.

To borrow a phrase: 'Tis better to have won and lost than never won at all, but having won makes losing forever unacceptable on some level.