GAINESVILLE – What should have been the greatest night of their lives, turned out to be anything but that for both Jonathan India and Ryan Rolison.
On the night both players have been dreaming about since they first put on a jersey as a kid neither were able to fully enjoy it as their names were called during the Major League Baseball Draft Monday night in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Neither was able to enjoy it because like many of the athletes drafted Monday several were still playing in college in the regional tournament.
Both Florida and Ole Miss, whom India and Rolison play for, were playing at home Monday night in the opening round of the regional tournament. Both Ole Miss and Florida went through their four team double elimination regional unscathed and due to weather delays throughout the weekend both were one win away Monday from advancing to the Super Regional (Sweet 16).
As the No. 1 overall seed and the defending national champions, the Gators faced a lot of pressure getting back to Omaha and trying to become just the third team (South Carolina, Oregon State) in the last ten years to repeat.
As the No. 4 overall seed, Ole Miss was coming off winning the SEC tournament and were heavy favorites to get to Omaha and challenge for the 2018 national title.
Yet because of severe weather this past weekend, Florida and Ole Miss were one of five regionals playing Monday in Gainesville and Oxford.
As the draft began approximately at 7 p.m. on the MLB Network, both India and Rolison were in the middle of regional games.
India, who was picked No. 5 overall by the Cincinnati Reds, wasn’t aware of his draft status until the fourth inning of the first game after seeing his family hugging as well as fans began yelling it during their game with Florida Atlantic.
India told Cincinnati.com, “I’m trying to focus on the game and play,” India said, “and I hear that stuff, which is awesome.”
Florida Atlantic stayed alive with a 7-3 win over Florida to set up a winner take all game between the two 30 minutes later for the right to advance to the Super Regional. The finale ended after 1 a.m.. with the Gators winning 5-2 sending the Gators closer to Omaha.
Having already lost to Tennessee Tech 15-5 in the first game, the stage was set for a winner take all game 30 minutes later between the two teams.
With his team trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning in the second game, Rolison life changed forever as the Colorado Rockies selected him with the 22 pick in the draft.
Instead of talking to his teammates and trying to pump them up to possibly rally from behind and move one step closer to getting to Omaha, Rolison was seen leaving his teammates and grabbing his phone and perhaps receiving a phone call or text during the game.
This is unreal. Ryan Rolison’s team is on the ropes in a regional championship game and he’s over here having to check his cellphone to see if he got drafted. That’s not remotely fair, or memorable.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 5, 2018
As if that wasn’t enough distraction already, minutes later in between innings he was being interviewed by ESPN not about the game but about being drafted. In the biggest game of his college career, Rolison was being totally distracted about the game and the moment became all about the draft.
In no way can you blame Rolison for being caught up in the moment temporarily, every baseball player dreams about being drafted and playing professional baseball.
The blame goes solely on Major League Baseball, which had no business drafting players on Monday at all. Now I realize they had no way of knowing weather was going to delay games until Monday but this wasn’t the first time this has happened and most certainly won’t be the last time this will happen unless something is done.
Years ago the draft was held during the College World Series and coaches who had players playing in it didn’t like the idea of their players being distracted during the biggest stage of their career. So the draft was moved back a few weeks but its still not good enough.
A day later I wasn’t the only one still ticked off but what I saw on Monday night, coaches afterwards and the next day on the Paul Finebaum show voiced their opinion on it.
Auburn coach Butch Thompson appeared on Paul Finebaum yesterday as well as Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin who has had to deal with this issue numerous times with first round picks Dansby Swanson and David Price.
Corbin weighs in on timing of MLB draft https://t.co/DHOl0kvmfQ
— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) June 6, 2018
Corbin is right imagine someone coming up to Kentucky coach John Calipari during an Elite 8 game or Nick Saban during halftime or a timeout of the national championship game and telling him one of his players just got drafted. That’s the equivalent of what is going on during college baseball postseason.
Earlier in the day Corbin talked to local media during the day about his thoughts about the draft and echoed what he said on the Finebaum show.
With the #MLBDraft happening tonight, Vanderbilt's HC Tim Corbin shared his strong opinion on why it's NOT a good time for it to be taking place with the NCAA Tournament also happening. pic.twitter.com/PJaMvh9zu3
— Kayla Anderson (@KaylaAndersonTV) June 4, 2018
No one is against the draft just work with college baseball and have it on a Tuesday or Wednesday between the regional or Super Regional and not when the players are trying to play their most important game of their college career please.
Photo courtesy of FloridaGators.com
