Win over Vanderbilt gives Alabama baseball fans a brief break from scandal
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Andrew Pinckney gave Alabama baseball fans a reason to smile on a day otherwise defined by confusion and disappointment. The right fielder’s second-inning grand slam Thursday night spurred the Crimson Tide to an 11-2 victory over No. 5 Vanderbilt while eliciting life in a Sewell-Thomas crowd still shell-shocked by recent news surrounding the program.
Earlier Thursday, a whirlwind of events began with Alabama firing head coach Brad Bohannon while naming pitching coach Jason Jackson as the team’s interim manager. Shortly after, reports linked Bohannan to a recent betting scandal stemming from last week’s Friday-night loss to LSU.
Monday, ESPN reported that Ohio gambling regulators had halted bets on Alabama baseball games after suspicious activity was detected on two bets placed on the Crimson Tide's 8-6 loss to LSU on April 28. Following Bohannon’s firing Thursday, ESPN followed up their report by revealing that "sportsbook surveillance video indicated that the person who placed the bets was communicating with Bohannon at the time."
Later a report from baseball podcaster Ben Upton stated that sources told him “a lot of money was bet” and last week’s incident with Bohannon was “not the only time it’s happened.”
The accumulation of that news has Crimson Tide fans in a state of disbelief.
“I was disappointed, man,” said Taylor Adams, an Alabama student from Northport, who is set to graduate Friday. “I thought [Bohannon] really cared about the team. We really thought he was fighting for his job this year. We thought he was giving his all. He got ejected in those two games, and he was just really showing passion for the team and all that. We were really just disappointed to hear he was betting against us, possibly the whole time.”
Lori Johnson, an Alabama fan from Charleston S.C. attending her first Crimson Tide baseball game, was equally distraught.
“It’s just surprising, just given the nature of Alabama and the foundation that we have built,” Johnson said “It’s frustrating. I think it’s hard because you have a lot of social media that makes stories well-known. It makes you wonder, were things always like that?”
Full details on Bohannon’s involvement in the scandal as well as other possible incidences involving the head coach will likely surface in the coming days. For now, Alabama fans are left looking back and second-guessing a season that has seen the Crimson Tide post a 31-15 record, including a 10-12 mark in SEC play.
“The only inclination I would have would be with our pitching,” said Adams' father, Tim, who has been following the Crimson Tide since the 90s. “If you go back and look at the stats this year, it could just be the team, but every inning we scored, the other team would always score the next inning. Something was weird.”
This current betting scandal comes after Bohannon, Jackson and athletic trainer Sean Stryker were sued by former Alabama baseball player Blake Bennett for their alleged negligence in the handling of an injury to the pitcher in 2019.
That continues a streak of recent black marks on the university’s athletic program this year. The most notable of which occurred as the basketball program’s record-breaking season was marred by a capital murder case involving the fatal shooting of 23-year-old mother Jamea Harris in January. Former Alabama player Darius Miles was arrested and removed from the team while it was later revealed that star forward Brandon Miller transported the gun used in the shooting.
While not as devastating, Thursday news continued a dark spiral for Alabama fans over the past few months.
“I read the article, and I was like, ‘No way,’” said Thomas Suggs, a Crimson Tide fan from Argo, Alabama. “After the basketball season we had, now all of the sudden the baseball season’s going to be tanked also. At least we’ve still got Nick Saban.”
Thursday night, Alabama baseball fans also had Pinckney's slam, an upset victory and the promise that things might finally start feeling normal again someday soon.
“I know we don’t have a lot of fans here, but I think if we bring in a winner we’ll start to fill the stadium,” Tim said. “We need to go out and hire a really good baseball coach like the ones we had in the past, I think people could really start getting excited about this team again.”