NOTEBOOK | From the College World Series

Balancing the field: Limited scholarships have advantages and disadvantages for major college baseball programs.The big bonus appears to be growing parity in programs around the nation and increasing exposure. The drawback is the burden of financing a college education for the athletes."I don't think you could find a college coach who'd say he wouldn't want more scholarships," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said at the College World Series. "I would like more scholarships, obviously. When you have a team of 25 to 30 and have 11.7 scholarships, that is pretty difficult."Marquess said the flip side is the overall benefit to the college game by spreading the wealth of talent."I believe that scholarship limitation is part of parity," he said. "If you limited football scholarships to 50, you'd have more parity."Fifteen or 20 years ago you could say there might be five teams who could win a national championship, and you'd be right. Nowadays, you could pick 30 teams and you might not be wrong. That's how college baseball has grown in parity."Rice coach Wayne Graham agrees there is more parity in the game, "but I believe parity can be achieved with an expansion of the scholarship program."I think there needs to be a little more rational approach to the scholarship program in baseball. I don't think there is any question about it, particularly as we begin to pay our own way."
Sore arm: Stanford right fielder Carlos Quentin is understandably reluctant to talk about it, but he is playing the CWS with an injured elbow."I've been dealing with this the whole season but there was no question in my mind I would play every single game," he said. "It's a decision I made."He said he probably has two good throws in his arm each game. He has thrown one runner out in five games at the CWS this year.The first-round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks likely will have surgery to repair damaged ligaments when the CWS is over.Fortunately for the Cardinal, the injury has not hurt Quentin at the plate. He is hitting .421 in the CWS with two homers and six RBIs. He is hitting .400 overall for the season with 12 homers and 62 RBIs.
First homer: After Stanford third baseman Jonny Ash hit his first career home run Thursday to help the Cardinal advance to the championship series, the junior had a couple of girls waiting for him after the game. The young ladies weren't looking for an autograph. They were there to present him with his home run baseball."They waited outside for an hour until after the press conference got over," Ash said. "They graciously gave me the ball and I offered them some Stanford gear in return."
No baseball talk: With Rice and Stanford noted for their high academic standards, players on both teams were asked what they talk about when the focus is not on the game."Our team likes to talk a lot about politics," said Quentin, a political science major. "When we go out there and stretch, sometimes they have to yell us to get back in the game. But it's all in fun. We like to have a good time with it."
Stat leaders: Stanford and Rice also happen to be the top two pitching teams, No. 1 and No. 5 in hitting and No. 1 and No. 3 in fielding at the CWS. Rice leads the pitching statistics with a 2.67 ERA in its three games. Stanford is second at 3.60 in five games. Stanford is the top hitting (.316) and fielding team, however. Rice is fifth in hitting with a .253 average, and the Owls are third in fielding.