How the national media is showing its bias when it comes to Tennessee baseball this week
The national media is leaving no doubt that they don’t like Tennessee Vols baseball
The Tennessee Vols are widely viewed as the villains of college baseball.
It's a moniker the team seemingly embraces, but I'm not really sure why it's become the narrative.
Sure, Tennessee plays loud. They have swagger. And they tend to piss off their opponents. They also win a….lot.
But if you've watched much college baseball, you won't view their "antics" as overly unique. Swagger and bravado are common in college baseball. We see epic celebrations, wild benches, and trash-talking on a weekly basis.
For whatever reason, the national media likes to pretend that Tennessee is on another level when it comes to the trash talk and swagger.
Maybe they are. But if they are, it's not by much.
Last season, Tennessee outfielder Jordan Beck, a first-round pick by the Colorado Rockies in the 2022 MLB Draft (competitive balance round), was eviscerated by the media for waving his middle finger as he rounded first base in a game against Georgia Tech.
The middle finger incident overshadowed the Vols' come-from-behind 9-6 win over the Yellow Jackets.
Over the weekend, a Florida Gators baseball player did the exact same thing as Beck.
Florida sophomore Jac Caglianone gave Miami infielder Yohandy Morales the middle finger as he rounded the bases.
When Beck gave the Georgia Tech outfield a one-finger salute, it resulted in a litany of headlines criticizing the Tennessee outfielder.
Nearly a year later, you can search "Jordan Beck finger" and several articles will pop up on the first page.
If you search "Jac Caglianone finger", not one story about the incident pops up (as of Monday afternoon).
So when Beck flips his middle finger, there's a ridiculous amount of coverage.
But when a Florida player does the same thing, it's crickets.
It seems pretty clear that there's a bias from the media when it comes to Tennesese baseball. And the deal with Florida this weekend confirms it.
I'm sure the Vols don't mind — they embrace being the villains — but it's still incredibly unfair to a hard-working group of student-athletes.
