Latest / Commentary - TJ Meadows / WVU Baseball Is Giving West Virginia Something We Need

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WVU Baseball Is Giving West Virginia Something We Need · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: Society feels heavy these days. Turn on the news and
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  Speaker 1: its war overseas. Go to the grocery store and prices
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  Speaker 1: seem to rise faster than paychecks. Scroll social media and
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  Speaker 1: you'll find division over just about every issue imaginable. And
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  Speaker 1: here in West Virginia, we're accustomed to being the underdog,
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  Speaker 1: always fighting for our place, always fighting for our share
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  Speaker 1: and our way of life. Sometimes all of that can
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  Speaker 1: wear on you. That's why what we're seeing right now
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  Speaker 1: with WVU baseball feels so important. It's exactly what we
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  Speaker 1: needed at exactly the right time. Baseball has long been
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  Speaker 1: called America's pastime. In many ways, the game grew up
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  Speaker 1: alongside the country itself. Soldiers carried it home from the
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  Speaker 1: Civil War. Railroad travels spread it from town to town,
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  Speaker 1: Immigrants embraced it, working families embraced it, and for generations,
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  Speaker 1: baseball gave Americans something to rally around together. The writer
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  Speaker 1: so Field of Dreams captured the idea perfectly when they
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  Speaker 1: gave James Earl Jones that unforgettable line quote, the one
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  Speaker 1: constant through all the year's ray has been baseball. Today,
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  Speaker 1: that feeling is alive and well in West Virginia. Everywhere
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  Speaker 1: you go, people are talking about this team. The person
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  Speaker 1: sweeping the floor and the person running the company or
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  Speaker 1: having the same conversation. They're checking scores, following every pitch,
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  Speaker 1: planning their day around the first pitch. They're invested, and
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  Speaker 1: that's rare. It doesn't happen often that an entire state
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  Speaker 1: finds itself pulling in the same direction. But this team
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  Speaker 1: has done that. Maybe it's because the story feels wholesome.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe it's because the players genuinely appreciate the opportunity to
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  Speaker 1: represent this state. Maybe just maybe it's because, in an
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  Speaker 1: era when college athletics often feels driven by money and transactions,
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  Speaker 1: this group appears focused on something bigger than themselves. Whatever
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  Speaker 1: the reason, people have connected with it. The connection has
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  Speaker 1: become so strong that even NBC Nightly News took notice
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  Speaker 1: this week. Think about that for a moment, a baseball
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  Speaker 1: team in Morgantown, West Virginia, making national news. Why because
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  Speaker 1: this story is about more than baseball. Maybe because America
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  Speaker 1: still loves an underdog, or because in a time when
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  Speaker 1: good news can feel hard to find, people are naturally
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  Speaker 1: drawn to something that makes them smile, something that gives
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  Speaker 1: them hope. The run isn't over yet. The next challenge
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  Speaker 1: comes Friday at noon, and if things keep going the
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  Speaker 1: way mountaineer fans hope, there's a good chance we'll be
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  Speaker 1: singing country roads again before it's all over to the team.
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  Speaker 1: West Virginia is behind you. Let's go.