There was a time when it was nearly always the right choice to televise University of Hawaii men’s volleyball over UH baseball in event of a conflict.
Even now there are occasions when it’s still the right call.
But Friday wasn’t one of them. Heck, it was Opening Night for baseball.
And the Rainbows put on a fine show, beating Oregon 4-1 — unfortunately, a show that wasn’t a TV show. OC Sports was televising the volleyball team losing to UCLA. At least the sweep ended early enough for fans on site to slide over from the Stan Sheriff Center and squeeze into Les Murakami Stadium for the final few innings. Too bad a switchover wasn’t possible on TV.
UH men’s volleyball used to be a big deal, and it may be again some day. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Men of War were rock stars and near the top of the national rankings. There was even a national championship. While that was occurring, UH baseball was suffering a prolonged slump and a deteriorating fan base.
The roles have reversed. The Rainbows have won WAC baseball championships the past two seasons. The volleyball Warriors are 6-8 this year and had only two winning seasons in the previous five. Baseball attendance up, volleyball attendance down.
On Friday, volleyball drew 1,813 fans for its match against the No. 1 team in the country. Baseball enjoyed a sellout turnstile count of 3,553. If baseball were televised, I think you still get a sellout, despite the chilly weather; remember, this was the season opener.
Without cameras on baseball, folks who couldn’t get to the park (UH baseball has a lot of elderly fans who don’t get around well, if at all) didn’t get to see Matt Sisto’s seven innings of stellar pitching, former Little League World Series hero Kaeo Aliviado’s diving catch to close the win, and a whole lot of other solid play by UH.
Volleyball also got the nod Saturday night over baseball.
“If the volleyball team upsets the No. 1 team and we’re not there … ,” OC Sports executive producer Dan Schmidt said. “This is a difficult time of the year. We also have softball (on the road this week), sometimes a real quagmire. On a weekend like this it was a fairly easy decision. When I made the decision a month ago, we also looked at there being four baseball games and two volleyball games. We can do two of each.”
Schmidt added that baseball will have the most games televised of all UH sports this season with 27, starting with today’s. Men’s volleyball is scheduled to have all 15 home matches (not including exhibitions) televised.
Knowing what he knows now, Schmidt would have gone with baseball on Friday; but that would have meant predicting the outcomes.
“I would say in the context of showing a Hawaii win being a more popular choice it would’ve been baseball. But without knowing who was going to win and lose, I’m not unhappy with the choice,” Schmidt said.
Maybe UH can do a better job of scheduling so events aren’t concurrent as often. Schmidt said softball coach Bob Coolen has scheduled more games that don’t have conflicts with other sports and will have more games televised because of it.
“It’s not a science,” said Schmidt, of weighing the factors when there is a conflict.
Of course, this is a case of 20/20 hindsight on my part. And I’m fine with showing volleyball Saturday, with it being UCLA coaching legend Al Scates’ final match at Hawaii and all.
Maybe I just want baseball on TV because it’s my favorite sport.
Also, I’m a sucker for Opening Night — and trends.
