Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America College Blog | Chisenhall, Fuller Dismissed By South Carolina

First I need to address the Texas fan,

Sir, I hope your Longhorns don’t make the same mistake you made. In 2008 and 2009 this will hurt the Gamecocks. This will not hurt the ***** in 2007. The 2007 squad is one big deep collection of offensive firepower and defensive wizardry, not to mention a pitching staff that gets nastier by the day. Last week Arik Hempy came back. The other night Forrest Beverly came back. Now Robbie Grinestaff is back in the field again. The ***** are so deep that the bench is stocked with guys who could start on almost any team in the country. Seriously. Ask Clemson. They were #1 coming into a two game series and left as #5.

Like I said though, the two upcoming seasons are going to be tough to overcome.

As for Lonnie and Nick, both of these guys were incredible so far. Lonnie, as a true freshman, had the best swing on a team filled with All Americans. Nick hadn’t given up a hit in limited innings (maybe 7).

To the gentleman who asked if the Pirates held his rights: I don’t pretend to be a “know it all,” but I live here and cover them so I’ve been talking to a lot of people. Nick is already set up with a JUCO for next season. He can play one season and then jump right back in the draft (I think the Nats drafted him originally, but they hold no rights). Considering they were both true freshmen who turned down a ton of money the previous year, I’m assuming Lonnie can do the same.

I didn’t see enough of Lonnie to know, but I’m telling you, Chisenhall will be in the show in three or four years. That kid can hit, run, throw – you name it.

The night before he committed these crimes I watched him make his Division I debut on the mound. He was hitting 92 on the gun and shutting guys down with awesome stuff. Tanner took him out in the fifth inning. He comes up in the bottom of the fifth as a PH and new DH and drills a line drive off of the OF wall. He’s very good.

Best,

Roger A. Olivieri
http://www.rotowire.com
http://www.bigdawgbaseball.com
http://www.gamecockcentral.com

Tell me again why the boneheads in the NCAA don’t want schools to consolidate athletes in one dorm where they can tutor, mentor, and SUPERVISE athletes, especially the youthful and foolish freshmen.

Posted by Elizabeth Herring | March 20, 2007 at 8:31 pm | Shortcut

There are things that we’ve all done in our lives that we wouldn’t want advertised to the world; moments we’d like to forget’ moments of stupidity. The actions of these two young men however, these actions are a special kind of stupidity. How many of us would have traded everything we had at that age for a chance to play college baseball? Bonnie and Clyde here have a chance to be elite stars of the game, and traded it away for a PS3. It takes a real special kind of person to steal money out of their own coach’s office and computers from their own school’s academic enrichment fund. The truely sad part is that they’ll probably have to do 100 hours of community service, then they’ll sign Scott Boras as their agent, and sign a pro contract for $4 million. Let that be a lesson to you.

On the other hand, kudos to Coach Tanner and the entire USC program for displaying the spine to deal with this situation in an appropriate manner. We learned a lot about the character of everyone involved in this sad story. If there is any justice in the world, somewhere out there, there are a couple of parents with a kid who can hit a ball 500′ or throw a 102 mph fastball that were never even thinking about sending that kid to USC. Then they hear about this story, and they see the character displayed by Coach Tanner, and they think “this is the type of man who I want to a major influence in my son’s life.”

Posted by Dan Mattheis | March 21, 2007 at 9:13 am | Shortcut

I knew Lonnie when he was 12 years old when my son played little league with him on the same team, and I find it extremely difficult to believe he could have committed anything illegal. I am not saying it didn’t happen, as I have no first hand knowlege of the incident(s), but I can’t help but think there is more to the story. Lonnie was always been a great kid and the epitomy of respect toward everyone. I believe in innocent until proven guilty and that is how I feel about this as well.

Posted by Bill Marin | March 21, 2007 at 11:00 am | Shortcut

Bill,

Though I’m sure you remember Lonnie as a fine young man, unfortunately all of this did happen and he admitted to being one of two guilty parties.

I cover the Gamecocks. I sit in the press box and I’ve interviewed him on more than one occasion. I was shocked when I heard the news because, as you say, he seems like a fine young man. But it’s all true.

The whole story with its details is even worse. This is not “word of mouth” stuff I’m throwing at you either. I’ve held the actual police reports and sat in front of Coach Tanner when he said they admitted to all of it.

One last thing, for the record, though many stories say they stole $3100 in cash, it was actually $3100 in meal vouchers. They also stole three Dell laptops after breaking a window to get into a University building and stole some Nintendo games from a dorm room. All items have been returned.

Roger A. Olivieri
http://www.GamecockCentral.com
http://www.RotoWire.com
http://www.BigDawgBaseball.com

Posted by Roger Olivieri | March 21, 2007 at 11:59 am | Shortcut

I have to assume the Pirates control Chisenhallâ€™s rights until the next draft? Depending on the circumstances to this event, I wonder if the Pirates can resign him?

Posted by Jake | March 21, 2007 at 7:15 pm | Shortcut

Well, there’s one more team (like Fullerton) that this year’s Longhorns won’t have to worry about. I like Texas’ chances of winning their 7th baseball national championship better each day.

Posted by Jim Fletcher | March 21, 2007 at 11:42 pm | Shortcut

Roger, thank you for the info. I did not know any of the particulars surrounding this situation, which is why I didn’t want to rush to judgement just yet, but it sounds as though both these young men made very bad decisions that may end up ruining their lives. It is such a shame because as I said I knew Lonnie when he was younger and you could tell then that he was a talented young player that had the potential to be something great. I feel badly for his parents because I know his father has to be devestated. I can only hope that the both of these young men have learned from this, but just as important that other young players learn from it as well. One thing I did not mention previously is I too would like to commend Coach Tanner for his “tough love,” because that is what I see this as. If he had just tried to brush it under the rug, as we have all seen with other coaches in other sports do, then the only lesson learned by these two young men and others is if your good enough the rules don’t apply to you. I can only hope something good will come out of this for the two young men involved and the Gamecocks baseball program.

Posted by Bill | March 22, 2007 at 6:35 am | Shortcut

Reminds me of Clay Bucholtz situation a couple of years ago. Was at McNeese State, left after criminal incident (involving computers as well) and winds up at juco. Next thing you know, Bosox draft him and he’s a millionaire. Go figure.

Posted by Paul | March 22, 2007 at 12:13 pm | Shortcut

Posted by Roger A. Olivieri | March 22, 2007 at 8:34 pm | Shortcut

In response to Roger’s response to my previous comment:

I don’t think South Carolina will win the national championship this year. Especially if they have to play a team with the talent, tradition, and mystique of Texas. Just reference the 1975 and 2002 championship games if you need further proof. Heck, Texas has been obliterating SEC teams for a long time. The same thing seems to happen when SEC teams face California teams. I believe it’s primarily due to the superior pitching of the Longhorns, Rice, Stanford, Fullerton, etc. Texas is the second best college baseball program ever (behind the real USC – that’s Southern California), and I don’t see a team like South Carolina doing anything to change that.

P.S. – Ray Tanner knows greatness when he sees it. He saw it when he coached Huston Street on the USA team.

P.P.S – I just finished spending six weeks in South Carolina. I wasn’t too impressed.

Posted by Jim Fletcher | March 25, 2007 at 10:19 am | Shortcut

Update on Fuller, http://www.charleston.net/news.....us_thefts/

Posted by Shawn Luddington | January 20, 2008 at 11:00 pm | Shortcut