Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat for March 24, 2021

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and Kevin Reichard are joined by Phil Elson, Voice of Arkansas Razorbacks baseball, to discuss the state of college baseball in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat.Elson began his career in Minor League Baseball and worked a variety of circuits (Eastern League, Pioneer League, Sally League, California League) before ending up as the Voice of the Texas League’s Arkansas Travelers. As Voice of the Razorbacks, Elson has seen how the sport has matured in the cutting-edge SEC, between upgraded facilities and the extensive use of technology to guide performance. In fact, he argues college baseball has become the true hotbed of baseball innovation, finding the sweet spot between pitching and hitting. You don’t see the lightning bats anymore, and the actual baseball has been refined. It’s a balance MLB and MiLB are striving to create, and it already exists in college baseball. In addition, during his seven years with the ‘Backs, facilities have improved every year, both in Arkansas and the rest of the SEC, and college facilities are now augmented with spacious training facilities and state-of-the-art performance centers. Even the newest iterations of synthetic turf seem to work well.A discussion of The Baseball Thesaurus term turns into a broader discussion of the tone of the game and whether too many violent terms are employed during the course of a game.Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is the Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and the author of The Baseball Thesaurus and The Football Thesaurus from August Publications.  Kevin Reichard is publisher at August Publications and Ballpark Digest.