Conditional

    This might just be a semantic exercise. The Downtown U. Nine, or if you prefer, the University of South Carolina baseball team went to Omaha for the third year in a row for the College World Series. They won it each of the last two years. This time, they made it all the way to the finals, but fell short, losing convincingly to the University of Arizona. (And major kudos and congratulations to the victors.)
    It's hard to say how this makes me feel. They had no business winning in either of the last two years. They had no business making it to the finals this year. So I ought to feel purely exultant that they got that far on ninja magic and sleight of hand. But dammit, they made it all the way to the finals. Why not just two more miracles? (The final series is two out of three.) So there is a degree of disappointment there, but rather conditional given that, as I say, they had no damn business being there in the first place. (They had some losses to truly terrible teams this season, some at home.)
    Also, this being the University of South Carolina, where mediocrity is a tradition, the idea of being disappointed by finishing #2 in the country is kind of odd. They're having a little get-together at the stadium shortly for a few thousand of their very close friends (or in other words, Columbia is welcoming the team back from Omaha). I'm planning to be there. Sure another title would have been nice, but I for one am proud of the fellows. Yay!