CHILLING TALES FROM TEXAS AND HIGH HOPES FOR HOOPS
At the risk of having to pay royalties to Johnny Carson, I have to answer the sporting question from last weekend’s baseball journey deep in the heart of Texas, “How Cold was it?”
Wayne Graham, the distinguished long time coach of Rice came up into the press box (72 degrees, wind chill of 72) following Long Beach’s 4-1 win over his formerly second-ranked Owls and said, “Well there is good news and bad news--the bad news is that we got beat, the good news is that I got to come up here.” Jim Gilligan, for 29 years the skipper at Lamar, who the Dirtbags whipped 11-5 on Friday, told the umps, “if I say anything out of line just toss me quick, it’s damn cold.”
Despite temps in the 30s and 40s (and wind chill you don’t want to know about), the assembled teams (LBSU, Rice, Lamar and Oklahoma) got in their three games in chilly Houston. For the Niners coming out with two wins put the bounce back in the spikes of Beach baseball as they return to Blair Field for just their third home game of the season this Friday when Illinois Chicago starts a three game series, the front end of a seven game homestand.
The weather will definitely be better aand the acutal crowd count too. The Houston box score said that these games were played before 2,547, 200 fans and 2,347 unused tickets. Not a big turnout but for a Niner bunch coming in on a three game losing streak they got the James Bond martini treatment, chilled by the weather and stirred by the Weatherman, aka, Coach Mike Weathers. He moved all star Evan Longoria to the lead off spot, dropped leadoff Robert Perry to the eight hole and ran a bunch of his seldom used troops in and out all weekend. Great hitting won the Friday affair, a season high in hits and runs, and great pitching sprung the upset of host Rice on Saturday. On Sunday Weather’s used lots of new talent in the 2-1 loss to Oklahoma. Just the tonic that the Dirtbags needed to get the season back on track.
MIXED DUST—The hottest team on campus is
Beach tennis who rolled to a quick 7-0 win over Hawaii, their fifth straight, and put the net ladies in a good mood for a rough road trip this weekend to face # 23 Oregon, # 46 Denver and Portland.
Bck to the bases, there were more than a few towels and blankets stolen, from, er, ah, borrowed from, Houston area hotels over the weekend but the stolen bases, along with great bunts and sacs were keys to this turn-around-weekend.
Major League scouts were huddled in attendance watching Longoria who hit well all weekend but they also were impressed with Scott “Scooter” Bradley, who was 5-for-8 in his two games. He had two runs scored and three RBI on Friday and along with the mound mastery of Andrew Carpenter impressed everybody.
Speaking of making good imporessions on the road, how stunning was the Beach men’s basketball win over Manhattan, a team with twice the RPI playing on their home court.
Larry’s kids had seven players score in double figures, shot .515 from the field and also got the job done at the free throw line, hitting 30-of-34 foul shots.
Mary’s kids, the ladies basketball team, looked great in beating Cal Poly and awful losing to UCSB. If both Santa Barbara and LB win out they will share the Big West title. The Beach has two games left, Northridge tonight (Thursday) and next week at UC Irvine. The Gauchos must win at CSUF and Riverside this weekend then twice at home the following week to set up a share of the hardware.
Last add famous names, Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewife, and Evan Longoria, not so desperate Dirtbag, were the sound bites for the ESPN2’s Cold Pizza show on Monday. Gosh, might be nice to have her come by to throw out the first pitch, with a baseball that is.—DR. DAN
Wayne Graham, the distinguished long time coach of Rice came up into the press box (72 degrees, wind chill of 72) following Long Beach’s 4-1 win over his formerly second-ranked Owls and said, “Well there is good news and bad news--the bad news is that we got beat, the good news is that I got to come up here.” Jim Gilligan, for 29 years the skipper at Lamar, who the Dirtbags whipped 11-5 on Friday, told the umps, “if I say anything out of line just toss me quick, it’s damn cold.”
Despite temps in the 30s and 40s (and wind chill you don’t want to know about), the assembled teams (LBSU, Rice, Lamar and Oklahoma) got in their three games in chilly Houston. For the Niners coming out with two wins put the bounce back in the spikes of Beach baseball as they return to Blair Field for just their third home game of the season this Friday when Illinois Chicago starts a three game series, the front end of a seven game homestand.
The weather will definitely be better aand the acutal crowd count too. The Houston box score said that these games were played before 2,547, 200 fans and 2,347 unused tickets. Not a big turnout but for a Niner bunch coming in on a three game losing streak they got the James Bond martini treatment, chilled by the weather and stirred by the Weatherman, aka, Coach Mike Weathers. He moved all star Evan Longoria to the lead off spot, dropped leadoff Robert Perry to the eight hole and ran a bunch of his seldom used troops in and out all weekend. Great hitting won the Friday affair, a season high in hits and runs, and great pitching sprung the upset of host Rice on Saturday. On Sunday Weather’s used lots of new talent in the 2-1 loss to Oklahoma. Just the tonic that the Dirtbags needed to get the season back on track.
MIXED DUST—The hottest team on campus is
Beach tennis who rolled to a quick 7-0 win over Hawaii, their fifth straight, and put the net ladies in a good mood for a rough road trip this weekend to face # 23 Oregon, # 46 Denver and Portland.
Bck to the bases, there were more than a few towels and blankets stolen, from, er, ah, borrowed from, Houston area hotels over the weekend but the stolen bases, along with great bunts and sacs were keys to this turn-around-weekend.
Major League scouts were huddled in attendance watching Longoria who hit well all weekend but they also were impressed with Scott “Scooter” Bradley, who was 5-for-8 in his two games. He had two runs scored and three RBI on Friday and along with the mound mastery of Andrew Carpenter impressed everybody.
Speaking of making good imporessions on the road, how stunning was the Beach men’s basketball win over Manhattan, a team with twice the RPI playing on their home court.
Larry’s kids had seven players score in double figures, shot .515 from the field and also got the job done at the free throw line, hitting 30-of-34 foul shots.
Mary’s kids, the ladies basketball team, looked great in beating Cal Poly and awful losing to UCSB. If both Santa Barbara and LB win out they will share the Big West title. The Beach has two games left, Northridge tonight (Thursday) and next week at UC Irvine. The Gauchos must win at CSUF and Riverside this weekend then twice at home the following week to set up a share of the hardware.
Last add famous names, Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewife, and Evan Longoria, not so desperate Dirtbag, were the sound bites for the ESPN2’s Cold Pizza show on Monday. Gosh, might be nice to have her come by to throw out the first pitch, with a baseball that is.—DR. DAN
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home