Shouting time for Van Horn’s baseball Hogs

Before boarding the Razorback baseball bandwagon, one should ask, like Laurence Olivier of Dustin Hoffman in “Marathon Man,” Olivier playing an ex-Nazi dentist, “Is it safe?”

At times like these, structural soundness is paramount. There’s still time to get on board, perhaps even with cause, but be advised that the bumps can be tricky and the dismount, if it comes, particularly jarring.

We speak of Dave Van Horn’s Diamond Hogs, who have a chance to bring a fourth-straight NCAA championship to the Southeastern Conference. That title would be earned in Omaha, a city that once embraced horse racing but now pulsates to the tune of college baseball. An Austin, Texas, sports writer who attended a bushel of Longhorn sporting events called the College World Series his favorite assignment.

I get the same rush from horse racing’s Triple Crown, now in full swing with the Kentucky Derby winner, Mystik Dan, owned by two sets of Arkansans, trying Saturday to pair Grade 1 victories in May at the Preakness in Baltimore.

You can watch the race on NBC and wager on track or online (oaklawnanywhere.com). “Big race,” a late co-worker said of the Preakness, “but it’s not the Derby.” To that, I would respond, “Yes, but (in most years) it has the Derby winner.”

Arkansas, meanwhile, plays three games at Texas A&M (Thursday-Saturday, the first two at night) on the final SEC weekend before the conference tournament. Both teams have been ranked No. 1 nationally this season and are shoo-ins for the NCAA tournament if not an automatic qualifier as conference champion.

The Razorbacks enter on a high after rallying past Mississippi State 9-6 Sunday in Fayetteville, losing Saturday night and trailing 6-0 early in the rubber game. Arkansas pulled it off with two mainstays for a championship team — clutch hitting and relief pitching. With the starting rotation shaky beyond ace Hagen Smith and the offense prone to power fades, it’s likely to be a bumper-car ride for Van Horn’s team.

But in a school year of horrors for some Razorback teams, the OmaHogs, as they’re called, can send Arkansas sports fans into ecstasy with the school’s first CWS title. Van Horn, like Nolan Richardson once in basketball, seems above the fray. Nebraska has not gotten over losing him, Van Horn becoming the face of Razorback baseball like Norm DeBriyn for so many years. If he were to tire of Arkansas, perish the thought, rest assured that he would not remain unemployed long.

An NCAA title in hand, Van Horn could wield the clout in baseball that new staff member John Calipari enjoys in men’s basketball. More than ever, it’s about winning championships and keeping the paying customer satisfied.

A former co-worker, living in Fayetteville, remains a Van Horn loyalist although she was “priced out” of keeping a season ticket. Arkansas fills Baum-Walker when other sports on campus are making strides: track and field and softball included. A weekend at Baum-Walker has become the turn-on experience for a generation of Razorback fans that football and basketball once supplied.

With that comes second-guessing from fair-weather fans or merely those with doubts, some of them reasonable. One such person said on social media Sunday, “Never seen a team

regress this much in a long, long time. This pitching staff Tygart and Molina couldn’t start for Arkansas-Monticello the last month. This is unreal and doesn’t make such sense.”

Arkansas fans fear a late-season fade that gripped the team with Kevin Kopps as virtually a one-man show on the mound or the team in 2018 that let a foul ball drop in an Omaha game against future national champion Oregon State.

College baseball, one must remember, is a long season with results worth waiting for. Until the books are tallied, take delight in winning two of three with Mississippi State, which for a team that calls Starkville home apparently was quite chippy in Fayetteville this weekend.

After what the coach called probably the “best team win” of the season Sunday, Van Horn was quoted: “I don’t hear **** coming out of that dugout anymore.” We get the message, Coach.