- Hopefully recruits the family atmosphere that has gripped the Mizzou Football locker room, and hopefully they like what they see. "I love you, Tony..." Weird.
- The Trib has the official story on Gilbert Moye's fight. The matter's being handled internally apparently...no idea what kind of punishment there will be.
- Mike Dearmond says 'hola'. Because Mizzou's on siesta. Get it? Funny stuff here from a relatively crazy guy...
- Graham Watson pulls a Gabe Dearmond and breaks out the mailbag. And just for fun, so does SI's Stewart Mandel. Somehow Texas Tech isn't the most one-dimensional team in the country this year. Louisville has 'em beat in a major way.
- In case you haven't read enough about it at Mizzou Sanity (and trust me, you've got a couple more days of it coming), PowerMizzou samples from the 'Flea Kicker' chapter of Todd Donaho's MizzouRah! Memorable Moments in Missouri Tiger Football History. It never gets any less aggravating.
- With the 2007-08 basketball recruiting class taking shape, Inside Mizzou takes a look at a 2009 kid, St. Louis' Richard Anderson.
- Fresh off a 42-18 season and a hosted regional, Mizzou Baseball has been rewarded with a Top 20 recruiting class.
- And finally, proving once again that I have a super-low batting average when it comes to knowing what will become a huge story and knowing what should become a big story but won't, the Mike Gundy story still has legs.
Showing posts with label Mizzou Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mizzou Baseball. Show all posts
Friday, September 28, 2007
Mizzou Links, 9-28-07
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Mizzou Links, 9-19-07
Okay, why is ESPN covering the latest OJ charges? OJ's not even remotely a sports figure anymore. That ended about 10 years ago. He's not "O.J. Simpson, former running back" anymore. He's "O.J. Simpson, crazy man and pop culture figure."
And I'm sorry, Roger Cossack, but how much is ESPN paying you to make observations like "Guns make crimes very serious"? I'm in the wrong line of business.
Okay, another question for you Rog...how much money have you made off of OJ in your life? And how does that make you feel? Okay, pretty good, I imagine...anyhoo...
- The big news today is that backup DE John Stull was arrested for third degree assault yesterday after apparently punching dude over money owed or something. Stupid. No word on disciplinary actions, though I guess it's good timing to have happened the week of the Illinois State game...in case a 1-game suspension is in the works. Also, freshman Kendall Irving and redshirt freshman Jesse Hernandez have left the program. Eh, attrition happens. More scholarships for this recruiting class! Oh, and Steve Redmond was also arrested last weekend, for a noise violation. Can't imagine a suspension comes from that one, but...jeez, busy weekend. And I guess we can count our lucky starts that we don't have Texas' situation at the moment. Funny stuff. (Here's the real post about Texas' issues.)
- Here's the weekly release for ISU. Mizzou is looking for its 14th ever 4-0 start...it's third under Pinkel. Pretty sure they'll get it.
- Illinois State has now lost two 5th-year senior starters to season-ending injury, which stinks for them.
- Jeff Wolfert is still looking for his groove...and not in an Angela Bassett sort of way.
- PowerMizzou has its Tuesday Top Tigers.
- Dave Matter unleashes his weekly power poll.
- The CNNSI.com headline for this story was "Police: No Charges in MU Sex-Assault Probe." I thought I had failed catastrophically as a blogger for missing this one...I had no idea there was a sexual assault probe going on at MU! Oh...Millersville University...naturally...because that's the first MU that comes to people's minds...thanks, CNNSI...
- There will be another open practice for Mizzou Basketball at 10am before the Saturday football game.
- Mizzou Volleyball plays Kansas tonight to kick off the the Border War, er, Showdown. The Kreklows look to move to 13-2 versus the Beakers. It'll be the first volleyball match of the year for the wife and I...hooray...
- Looking ahead to the spring, Rivals.com says Mizzou Baseball has sick pitching and something to prove...that's a pretty good combination. Seriously, we might have the best pitching staff in the nation in '08...this might be the earliest I've ever looked ahead to baseball.
- RSFr x-country runner Ben Brammeier was named Big 12 Runner of the Week after his strong performance in Nashville.
- Okay, you twisted my arm...one more football link. It's never too early for bowl projections!! I mean really, it's not like anything's going to change over the next 12 weeks or so. Gator or Holiday...no no no, I want Cotton.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Mighty Missouri
That's headline on the front page of BaseballAmerica.com today, with an article about the Top 30 prospects in the Cape Cod League, lead by Tigers Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson in the Top 3.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Mizzou Baseball alumni
Brock Bond of the Salem-Keizer volcanoes is featured in a write-up by a local sportswriter obsessed with his last name.
I received an e-mail from John Shinn, an agent who used to hang around Taylor Stadium a lot. He wants us to know that
- Travis Wendte was a South Atlantic League All-Star this year and he was promoted to Hi A Brevard County and is doing extremely well.
- Cody Ehlers has turned it around and is has been doing well for AA Trenton Thunder.
- Brad Flanders is now the catching and pitching coach at Texarkana JC in Texas.
And finally, at Jacksonville.com, Mark Alexander reflects on numerous road trips to play the Carolina Mudcats: "It beats Huntsville, where you're in the middle of nowhere," he said. "Plus, last year, we held our fantasy football draft at a bar in Raleigh and had a lot of fun with it. And with three big colleges around there, you can always find stuff to do, but hopefully nothing that gets you in too much trouble."
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
MU Baseball recruit signs pro contract on last day before deadline
T.J. McFarland, a hotshot pitcher from Stagg High School in the Chicago area, finally signed with the Cleveland Indians, the team that drafted him in the 4th round (according to Baseball America). Under the new draft rules, August 15th is the deadline for draftees to sign (no more year-long Scott Boras holdouts, e.g., Max Scherzer), and the Indians waited until the last day to get this done (or maybe they just waited until the last day to announce it).
McFarland had signed a letter of intent to play for Mizzou, but that will not be happening.
The only other Tiger recruit who jumped to the pros was Houston, TX-area player Justin Bass. All other recruits are assumed to be enrolling this week at MU.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
MU Baseball notes
· Check out the article at Cape Cod Online about MU pitcher Aaron Crow. 98 MPH??
· August 15th is the deadline for drafted players to sign a pro contract. There's a backlog of unsigned players this year due to that new signing deadline. Everyone's taking it down to the wire and some lower level draftees may find themselves running out of time. Mizzou recruit T.J. McFarland is still unsigned, although he said back in July that all that was left to do was iron out details and sign on the dotted line. There's an article in the KC Star about the logjam that is interesting, albeit about the Royals.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Random Sunday Thoughts (mostly practice reports though)
As this is the news of the day/weekend....here are the links to all the reports from yesterday:
- As always, Gabe D from Powermizzou had great information here
- Dave Matter from the Columbia Tribune has good stuff in his blog here (including an updated roster), and then writes about Chase Daniel spending time with Joe Montana here
- Some nice info from the AD on mutigers.com here, including some interesting news on how the Mike Vick incident actually affects Mizzou Football.
- A few interesting tid-bits from the Missourian here
- No practice report from the KC Star, but Mike D with a piece on frosh Derrick Washington here:
- STL P-D and Graham Watson working hard with a story here, and a blog entry here
- And last but not least, our friend Jeff E from insidemizzou filed this report here
- Some MU Baseball related here info from a poster at Powermizzou...the pitching is looking SICK for next season
I started paying attention to the TV last night after the wife and I had finished hosting a birthday party for her father. The Cardinal game had been on for the duration (and let me tell you how HILARIOUS I find their pitching situation to be where Aaron Miles and Scott Spezio are their two best pitchers and they keep throwing rejects up there (Maroth, Piniero) to no avail.) but then FoxSports broke their postgame coverage to show that Barry Bonds had hit #755 against San Diego. We flipped over to ESPN at that point to see no fewer than 12 replays of it, and left the game on while we finished cleaning up.
ESPN showed Bud Selig's (non) reaction to the home run...fine. Bud had already nearly screwed up an already screwed up situation by never committing to be there when Bonds was going to break the record. Later, the ESPN announcers mentioned they had extended an invitation for Selig...who was still in the house...to come into the broadcast booth to talk about Bonds....and he declined.
So here are my thoughts.
Bud...you continue to prove you are dumber than I could possibly think.
Bud was asleep at the wheel while MLB'ers loaded up on steroids. His inactivity basically created the situation we are in today where one of the most hallowed records will, for now (and let's be honest, A-Rod is going to be picking up a LOT more fans in the coming years unless Jose Canseco's next book is......sorry....I could not type all of that out without laughing) be tainted. You then bring more bad press to yourself by playing your little cat and mouse game of will you or won't you be on hand. And then you pull that last night with ESPN....
Bud...you are the commissioner. You led the game into this position. You now need to go before everyone else, put your "Baseball is fine" smile on and talk it up. You don't have to go overboard on how GREAT the occasion is (or is not), but you do need to speak to the historical nature and moment that has occurred. You get one more shot at this when Bonds breaks the record, more than likely at home, this week. My guess...you will screw that up as well. Prove me wrong.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Mizzou Sanity Roundtable
It’s the first official Mizzou Roundtable! Just like The Mizzou Exchange rips off Bill Simmons’ “Curious Guy” bit, this idea very clearly rips off the “Like Father, Unlike Son” bit over at PowerMizzou (along with about 1,350 other similar bits), but...well...I say it’s an original idea because nobody has done a roundtable with this specific group of people.
So without further adieu...joining me for this are Doug, ZouDave, The Beef, Michael Atchison, and Trripleplay. I never ended up with Bill C’s answers, and I will add them if I get them.
As we prepare for another school year's worth of college sports, what was your favorite (college sports) moment of 2006-07?
Doug: The most enjoyable moment of the 06-07 college sports season? For me, it was the entire college basketball season.
David Stern's implementation of draft eligibility requirements for the 2006 draft, paid big dividends for this season of basketball. Without those limitations in place, one can be fairly certain both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant would have jumped straight from high school to the NBA and spent most of the season sitting on the bench (certainly collecting a big paycheck, but that's besides the point).
Instead both wound up creating one of the most exciting college seasons in recent memory, Durant by being an offensive force of nature and Oden by dominating with one hand, his off-hand even. Together, the two provided some of the most memorable performances and games, combining to create one great season. Granted, we still had to deal with Joakim Noah, but Durant and Oden provided high-energy, athletic play without the dramatics or the ponytail.
On a more regional scale, Durant offered up plenty of Big 12 Conference dramatics. Consider the triple overtime game against Oklahoma State, the double overtime win over Texas A&M, the regular season championship on the line against Kansas and the Big 12 Tournament title overtime, also against the Jayhawks. I think it is without a stretch that if you were to pick the top 5 in most memorable Big 12 conference games this season, Texas would be included in at least four of those games.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Durant and the Longhorns did not see the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Some would blame Rick Barnes for his inability to call a set offense instead of relying so much of his freshman uber-star, and while I don't think that's too far off, Durant never seemed to hit the "wall", still turning in 40 minutes and 30 points against USC in the second round loss, showing why Barnes never lost faith in him. And, Oden lead Ohio State to the title game, before turning in his best-all-around performance of the season, proving he will be a force in the NBA, especially with two good hands.
It all added up to the most memorable moment of the 2006-07 college season, and almost made me forget about Joakim Noah. Almost.Michael Atchison: I’m a basketball guy first, but from a purely objective point of view, the most exciting thing I’ve seen in the past twelve months – maybe ever – was Boise State pulling off the Statue of Liberty play to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. That wasn’t a football game, it was a Rocky movie, with the teams throwing and landing haymaker after haymaker, just unbelievable to watch. And that game only reinforced my view that if we ever get to an eight-team playoff, at least one spot (probably two) should be reserved for non-BCS teams. There’s no point in having non-BCS Division I football unless we’re going to give those schools the chance to play for a title. In a system that’s already stacked against the little guy, Boise State (like Utah a few years back) proved that all those Davids should get their shots against college football’s Goliaths.
The Beef: I will follow Atch’s lead here in a couple of ways. I will include overall college and then a Mizzou sports moment in my answer.
From a Mizzou perspective, watching as Ben Askren – the most dominant Tiger athlete ever – made a scorched earth march to another NCAA wrestling title is something I’ll not soon forget, though I only saw that on television. Of all the events I witnessed personally (and there were many), I’ll take the basketball Tigers’ win over Arkansas during the great blizzard of ought-six. I ended up being stranded at the Stoney Creek Inn (along with Senator Kit Bond) for a couple of days, but it was worth it. For me, that was the day Missouri basketball was reborn. Coach Mike Anderson’s team made believers out of a small but exuberant crowd that ringed the court tightly after Randy Wright invited everyone down into the prime seats. We saw a sort of pride, effort and enthusiasm on the floor that had been absent in recent years, and the defense was so hellacious that with about fifteen minutes left in the game, the Razorbacks’ body language unmistakably said “we’ve had enough of this $#!*.” The rest of the season went in fits and starts, but the seeds of future success were certainly planted that night.
I should have offered to go first since people have already taken my answer, especially on Boise St. I have the highlights of that game DVR’ed and cued up so I can just sit down and watch the last two minutes of regulation and the overtime. And screw Chris Myers for RUINING Ian Johnson’s plan to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Don’t know what I am talking about? Go back and watch his interview with Johnson again post-game. With the cheerleader clearly within ear-shot, he says to Johnson something about planning to ask his girlfriend. The give-away is her reaction to over-hearing Myers saying this….all that planning…out the window.
Anyway, yeah, Rocky movie, haymakers, david and goliath….
For me in Mizzou Sports, it would have to be the Homecoming game against K-state. Mizzou, like the offense was relentless (like the rain) and it completed the tour of the Big XII for me, as Mizzou finally beat the Wildcats as a Big XII team. I had seen every other team lose to us at some point in my Mizzou career, this was the last one to fall. I think they showed a mean streak in that game which they are going to need to have all season this year. I know Coach Pinkel does not like to run it up on teams, and I am with him on that, but the offense needs to be balls to the wall until he calls off the dogs each game. Mizzou needs to carry that intensity all year to make our attainable goals of the North and major step on the national scene.ZouDave: I'll start out by saying my favorite college moment this year is NOT the past 2 days at work (and it works since I work at a University). Losing the HD of the DHCP server, that is also acting as DNS for about 1/4 of the computers in the system and all of those computers happen to be a minimum of 200 miles away (and up to about 2000 miles away) from where I am is not fun. And it explains the lateness of my reply.
Trripleplay: So far no one has identified a favorite college sports moment from 2006-07, so I will.
But, once I get done whining like a girl...
My favorite moment of the college season is going to be completely anti-climactic to everyone else's answer, and is based solely on my blind homerism to Mizzou and caring about that above and beyond whatever else might happen in college athletics. My favorite moment of the year was the 1st quarter of the Ole Miss game. The win over Murray State in our first game of '06 meant absolutely nothing, and while it was nice to see Chase tear them in half it was really the only thing that could have happened. There was still PLENTY of doubt about what we had in him and in this team. No more Brad Smith, an offense that we hadn't even seen run properly yet, a QB starting as a true Soph that everyone was calling "sawed off" and we're getting ready to face a SEC team that had just beaten Memphis the week before and had this highly touted QB and this coaching staff coming in from Miami and other places and Ole Miss was supposed to be a team we shouldn't overlook.
Well we didn't overlook them. We overpowered them. We kicked the living crap out of them. And it all started in the 1st quarter, with Mizzou taking the ball first, and this little sawed off QB (last time I will EVER call him that) led his team on an efficient and eye-opening drive that resulted in a Chase Daniel TD run and took less than 4 minutes off of the clock. Mizzou didn't look back until well into October, and it all started with that opening drive against Ole Miss. In an instant, Mizzou fans breathed a sigh of relief that the post-Brad Smith era was in good hands and that there wouldn't be another Corby Jones hangover that leads us into the toilet once again. And in that same instant, other schools had to sit up and pay a little more attention because even though Mizzou graduated something like 71% of its yardage from the year before (named Brad Smith) somehow their offense actually improved. Tony Temple was ripping off 5 yards per carry, the ball was all over the field (7 different receivers on the day), and these 2 newbies named Jared Perry and Danario Alexander showed up immediately to play alongside an already veteran receiving corps of Ekwerekwu, Franklin, and the TE combo from Heaven: T-Ruck and Coffman. And this is weird, but some diver named Wolfert put every single PAT right down the middle and also hit 2 field goals? Oh my.
Even the defense was amazing that day, and in that first quarter. The first play from scrimmage for Ole Miss resulted in a sack. They would be backpedaling against our defensive pressure all day. It was about as big a statement as we could have made in that game. We won 34-7 and it was never that close. Ole Miss' only TD was a gift and we took our foot off the gas in the 4th quarter, even giving Brandon Coleman some time. And congrats to him, he got a rushing TD on the day. That day was the best moment of the year, because my fears were erased and I started to believe this program of ours could actually be going somewhere, and that it was okay to believe that and not always be waiting for and expecting the shoe to drop and Mizzou to mess it all up. Some would argue we did, but I said before the season that if we went 8-4 on the year, winning all of our non-cons and getting out of Texas with 1 win, plus sweeping the kansas schools that I would be a believer. Well, I'm a believer. And it all started on the opening drive against Ole Miss.
Without a doubt, the greatest moment this past season for me was on Friday evening on June 1st at Taylor Stadium, just before the first Missouri-Louisville game started, and I found myself standing in Section E, next to Row 4, Seat 1, looking around me and above me at an incredible mass of people - more than I had ever seen at Simmons Field. The sight of over 3,000 people squeezed in there to watch the Mizzou Baseball team in their first Columbmia Regional - i was like a little boy from a poor family waking up on Christmas morning to find the living room crammed full of presents, all with my name on them.
The rest of the weekend was fantastic (except for the final outcome). But that moment is what I will never forget.The Boy: Duly admonished by trrip, I shall stick to specific moments. From a Mizzou perspective, that moment was when William Moore picked off a Graham Harrell pass and returned it for a TD, making it a) 24-0 Missouri in Lubbock, b) the second straight Harrell pass INT’d for a TD, and c) the exact moment where I thought “This could be a really special season!” Granted, it was only a somewhat special season, one in which Mizzou raced to a 7-1 start and limped to a 1-4 finish—no one can exceed expectations in a more disappointing fashion than Mizzou, huh? But, watching that game at home (and eating Smokin’ Chicks BBQ, I might add), Moore’s INT had me standing on my sofa for a few seconds. No other moment of 2006-07 earned that honor.
What are you most looking forward to for 2007-08?
On a non-Mizzou level, the best moment had to be the Boise State hook-and-ladder against OU, or as Billy Bob from Varsity Blues called it, “Is this the play where I run down field and act like I’m lost? That play never works!” Granted, it wouldn’t have worked if Billy Bob were catching the pitch, but...seriously, the last five minutes (and OT) of that game were just unparalleled. OU makes a dramatic comeback, capped by a 2-point conversion that took about 16 attempts (and 10 minutes in real time) after penalties. Marcus Walker picks off the next Zabransky pass for the TD, giving OU a sudden, shocking lead. The hook-and-ladder ties it. Peterson rips off a 25-yard TD to start the OT. BSU uses a halfback pass for a TD on their possession, then the Statue of Liberty Play (which I’d never seen work at any level) for the win. Bob Stoops damn near runs off the field, looking like he was escaping a hornet’s nest. Then Ian Johnson proposes. This would have been deemed too unrealistic in a movie script.
The Beef: For me, as much as I hate to say it, I am most looking forward to football season. I hate saying that because football impacts me physically, emotionally, psychologically more than any other Mizzou sport. It just gets in me. I will forever remember the ’97 NU game more for what did not happen than the ’03 game for what did happen. So for me, to have a year where the expectations are higher than they have ever been since my arrival to Mizzou (1995) is scary and great. But let’s be honest…it is why I drink before games…I cannot take them sober just because I get so nervous. However, if we make it KC in November with the chance to wrap up the Big XII north (or hopefully wrapped up already)…needless to say, that is going to be SOME afternoon for me.
A close second will be the continued improvement of the Olympic Sports. How will volleyball react to losing the seniors they did, but bringing in the talent on the other side? Wrestling losing Ben Askren from the lineup? What will baseball do (especially given how well Crow and Gibson are DOMINATING the prestigious Cape Cod League this summer)? Softball? Gymnastics? Honestly, the amount of pride those sports generate for me is really high.Doug: What am I looking forward to the most in 2007-08?
Trripleplay: I'm most looking forward to the maturing of the Tiger Baseball pitching staff. Aaron (The) Crow and Kyle (Bob Jr) Gibson are dominating the renowned Cape Cod League this summer. I expect Crow to be in contention for the big XII Pitcher of the Year. Gibson could very well move into the weekend rotation. And then you still have Rick (expect a no-hitter)Zagone, Ian (Throw the Cheese...)Berger, Greg (2-position) Folgia, Scooter(aka Never-Say-Quit) Hicks, et al. I expect a better season than last year.
Well, I don't know that I'm looking forward to it, but I'm certainly anticipating what should be a showdown between Mark Mangino and Lew Perkins. Perkins has already gone on record that he expects more out of the KU Football team than a 6 and 6 season. When you consider the amount of capital that's been sunk into the program since Perkins arrived, and he vastly expanded the trend started by Al Bohl, it is quite apparent Perkins is going to be demanding bigger and better results this season and next.
Also, few can not notice KU has an extremely easy non-conference schedule and is still set with the slightly "easier" rotation with the Big 12 South. Plus, K-State is still in a re-building process. If KU Football is going to make a comeback in the state of Kansas, these next two years are cruicial. If a bowl victory is not achieved this season, and the bottom falls out next year (quite likely), Kansas could be back on the market for a head football coach in as little as two year.ZouDave: October 6. I'm looking forward to October 6.
Michael Atchison: Most of the rest of the distinguished panel have focused on football, and, of course, I’m looking forward to September 1 in St. Louis, October 6 in Columbia, November 24 in Kansas City and December 1 in San Antonio, with plenty of Chase to Chase, Chase to Tee, Chase to the ‘Copter, Chase (handing) to Tony, Chase to Tommy, Chase to Maclin, Chase to Danario, Chase to Perry, Chase to Bracey and Chase to JRay (that’s not an offense, it’s an arsenal) mixed in. I’m also looking forward to enough defensive stops so that not every game reminds me of the BYU/San Diego State score-o-ramas of my youth.
I am pretty confident that Mizzou is going to be 4-0 going into this game against Nebraska (in fact I'll be quite upset if we're not). We have 2 pretty good non-con games to start the year off, but unfortunately both are away from Columbia and I'm going to be unable to attend either of them. Then we get 2 patsies at home (and I'm sure someone will remind me that Western Michigan is not to be taken lightly, blah blah blah, I can take lightly whomever I want. I'm a fan, not a player or coach. They'll do their jobs, I'm going to sit here and expect a walk.) So we really don't get to see any fireworks in Columbia until October 6, and it's the biggest game of the year. There's not another game in the Big XII this year that I'd rather see in person, and that includes Texas vs Oklahoma. I already admitted I'm a homer.
But this game is going to mean SO much to both teams involved, because the loser of this game has such an incredibly steep uphill battle to fight to try and regain the division that it's likely they drop another game they shouldn't because they're so dejected. This matchup has turned into a pretty nasty, feisty little rivalry over the past 4 years. Make no mistake about it, Nebraska and its fans realize that Mizzou is their competition right now. We absolutely MUST win the North immediately if we aim to stay with them, and possibly move ahead of them. It's so crucial it's hard to even think about what it will be like if we don't win. If we don't win that game, I fear the door will be almost shut. If we don't win that game, Missouri is likely going to simply be another Texas Tech. They'll be exciting, they'll be capable of winning 7-9 games in a year, but they'll never really be a threat to win the ones that matter all the time. And while it wouldn't be the worst thing ever to be a perennial Top 30 team that goes to bowls every year, I know that Mizzou fans want more. People from other Big XII schools laugh because Mizzou considers itself a football school, despite not finishing first in the conference since the 60s. Our success and/or lack of it on the football field has absolutely nothing to do with Mizzou being a football school. Mizzou is a football school because of how rabid our fanbase is. There's 50-60,000 people out there every Saturday just DYING for a win. Like Beef said, it's the reason he has to drink before the game because he gets so nervous and can't handle it sober. That's our fanbase. We want it SO badly but it keeps getting yanked away from us when we think it's so close.
Well it will never be closer than October 6, 2007. The atmosphere should top the 2003 game. The intensity should top the 2003 game. The meaning of the outcome certainly tops the 2003 game, and that was the single greatest sporting event I've ever attended. Running into Okie and Beef at midfield after the game and making "snow angels" on the Tiger logo, like we said we would, was just the culmination of the perfect day. We can top it this year. And when we win, there will be no storming the field. That will be a slap in the face to Nebraska; a way to kick them when they're down. A message that beating them has become so common, it's not worth making a big deal out of. Make no mistake, we'll make a big deal out of it, but it will be the 3rd time 5 seasons. Frankly, it will start to get old ;-)
But I wouldn’t be me if I weren’t looking ahead to hoops, and I’m excited to see Norm Stewart’s induction into the Hall of Fame, the Tigers cracking the seal on the sensational new Sprint Center, DeMarre’s debut, Keon’s maturation, and just how many minutes of Hell we can expect (30? 35?) each night. Despite the loss of Kalen Grimes, I think this team can exceed some expectations. The Tigers should be fluent in Mike Anderson’s game by now, and there’s a lot of experience and a fair amount of talent and depth on this club. A top four finish and an NCAA bid are realistic goals for this team, and once you get that far, all things are possible. I’m a believer.
I’m also looking forward to one or two pre- or post-game Oil Change Stouts at Flat Branch Saloon.ZouDave: Distinguished?
The Beef: Yeah…I don’t know who the hell he is talking about….but I think in return, he owes us all Oil Change Stouts post game at some point this year.The Boy: I’ll take Brown Ale. And meanwhile, I have to give the same predictable answer as most others. The volleyball team could be very impressive this year, as could wrestling, baseball, softball, and about eight other sports. But all my life, football has been #1, and now Mizzou’s football team can be #1 as well...in the Big 12 North, anyway. We’ve reached the point in Gary Pinkel’s tenure where 8-4 will be considered disappointing. It’s full-speed ahead, no turning back, et cetera, et cetera. This year shapes up in the most tense way possible—2-3 gimmes, 1 likely loss, and 8-9 ‘should win’ games. The past has not been kind to Mizzou in the ‘should win’ category, but this is a brand new day, a fresh start, clean slate...et cetera. To the extent that I can, being that I post football links on a daily basis, I’ve tried to avoid discussing actually predictions or projections. My brain just can’t handle it right now. I just want to close my eyes and wake up on September 1. Granted, I’ll be at a wedding in Minnesota on September 1, and not at the Edward Jones/TWA/Ted Drewes Dome, but still...just take me to that day.
I also can’t wait to play Hawaii in the Fiesta Bowl. Yeah, I said it.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Mizzou Links, 7-31-07
- Dave Matter decides that Baylor deserves some coverage too. Plus, he covers #11-13 in his Top 25 countdown.
- Meanwhile, Matter's basketball counterpart at the Trib questions Dickie V's talent evaluation...blasphemer...
- Congrats to Tim Jamieson, ABCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year! Needless to say, I strongly agree with this selection. Mizzou wasn't supposed to do anything this year.
- Good luck to the 6 Mizzou swimmers (Bennett Clark, Bryan Difford, Jill Granger, Colleen Gordon, Lori Halvorson, and Jill Bastien) competing at the US National Championships. The competition starts today at IUPUI (Go Ooo-wee-poo-wee!).
- Tyler Wilson, Mizzou's new #1 QB target, will decide on a school before his season starts. Meanwhile, a "top JUCO forward" names Mizzou his favorite.
- And finally, this is a bit insane. As The Beef put it to me last night, Minnesota is now on the other end of a Herschel Walker deal. The Celtics are now a contender in the East, but their window of opportunity is about two years, max. Meanwhile, they traded away every single building block of the future. Knowing how much he liked Al Jefferson, I figured Bill Simmons would be pretty upset by all this...he's not. I realize that the NBA's different--trading away your future in a sports like MLB, with no salary cap, wouldn't make much sense--but in the NBA it's really really hard to build a young nucleus and keep all the cogs for years at a time thanks to the luxury tax and relatively short rookie contracts. Still, though, this deal would make me QUITE queasy if I were a Celtics fan. Ray Allen's got 1-2 years left in him and Pierce has about 165,000 miles on his tires (though he's somehow only 29).
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Things that make you go Hmmmmm
A couple of interesting reads about MU Pitcher Greg Folgia. Lots of questions left unanswered:
Folgia will not play for Blazers
and
All about fun for Folgia
MU Baseball Fund-Raiser: Bullpen Scramble
MU Baseball will be hosting a fund-raiser Golf Scramble on September 12th. Details can be found HERE
Friday, July 13, 2007
Mizzou Links, 7-13-07
I just realized it's...FRIDAY THE 13TH...DUNH DUNH DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNH...
Luckily I got back from DC last night...would hate to have to travel on such an arbitrarily unlucky day...
- Mutigers.com makes a mention of Rush and Gardner...both are doing decent work in Orlando. Rush is averaging 18 PPG over two games, while Gardner is averaging 8.7 PPG and 1.7 RPG over three.
- Two months in the minors, and Max Scherzer is already the #12 prospect in the minors...not too shabby there. I could mention what he could have been doing by this point if he had an agent other than Scotty "Holdout" Boras...but I won't...
- It's happening a year after I thought it might, but it appears that Mizzou Football ticket sales are on the rise.
- Finally, it's not too surprising that Bryan Burwell has a take on Kalen Grimes and the state of today's young athlete...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Additional Mizzou Links (Thanks Atch) 7-10-07
- Mizzou Golf signs what appears to be one heckuva recruit. Props to Nick for breaking this one
- Some bad news for Mizzou baseball as one of their draft picks signs. From the looks of this post and responses, he was not the highest of recruits taken, and we have about a month to wait breathelessly to see who else signs.
- And perhaps the biggest Tiger news of the day :-)
Monday, July 9, 2007
Mizzou Links, 7-9-07
I depart for a conference in DC in about an hour, but I'm here to serve the public, so by god you're getting your Mizzou Links...
- Congrats to Mizzou freshman and decathlete extraordinaire, Nick Adcock, for finishing 2nd at the Pan America Junior Championships!
- A 6'7 (and 3-star) forward from Memphis has Mizzou in his final 2. Not exactly one who's been high on our radar screen to date, but sounds like a pretty impressive kid.
- An interesting Q&A with Max Scherzer in the Sunday Trib. Scherzer torched A+ ball, and he's been a bit up and down in AA...but considering he's been playing pro ball for like a month now, I think he'll take it. Oh, and it always bothers me when Scott Boras isn't portrayed as Satan in a suit, but I'll get over it.
- Also at the Trib: Dave Matter's 12 storylines for the Big 12 conference's 12th season. He's been a list-making machine this summer.
- And finally, I hope that anybody who's even slightly interested in tennis watched yesterday's Wimbledon final. While I'm deeply concerned about the state of American tennis, my main concern is hoping that Federer and Nadal stay healthy for another few years. It sometimes gets boring when the same two guys win all the majors, but with the insane shotmaking that takes place between these two, all you can think when you see them play is, "I really want to see them play again." I loved the Sampras/Agassi/Courier/Chang era in the '90s, but Federer and Nadal just crush them in the 'creativity' and 'angles' departments. I just wish they were American!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Mizzou Links, 6-19-07
I'm running late today, so here are a couple quickies...
- First up, yet another 2008 football commitment...good-sized kid, that's for sure.
- Next, after destroying the California League, Max Scherzer has already been moved to AA...just 3 starts into his Arizona Diamondbacks career.
- And finally...don't automatically assume Greg Oden is going to Portland. Kevin Pritchard is a number-cruncher (which I absolutely love), and at this point it sounds like he trusts the numbers more than his own gut. And after last year's draft, I trust the guy more than I've ever trusted a GM. I need to remind myself that he's also a former Jayhawk, so he's probably just setting me up for massive disappointment...
Monday, June 11, 2007
Mizzou Links, 6-11-07
- Mizzou gets a Texas commitment in football...visit PowerMizzou for the rest...
- The Trib's Steve Walentik reports on the Missouri Elite Basketball camp. If you're a PowerMizzou member, head on over and read The Chamber see what Gabe thinks about Mizzou's chances for various recruits.
- If it's football you're interested in, check out Dave Matter's ranking of Big XII WR/TE's.
- The Bomber from Barbados is an All-American! Congrats! Meanwhile, sophomore Krishna Lee finished 12th in the hammer throw.
- Evan Frey (10th round) and Brock Bond (24th) were the only two Tigers selected in the MLB draft last week. Jacob Priday was not selected...bad news for him, great news for the 2008 Tigers. And speaking of college baseball, what's with the increased media exposure?
- And I guess I can't mention college baseball without noting that Louisville absolutely destroyed OSU to advance to the CWS yesterday. The Pokes showed up on Saturday, winning 3-2, but on Friday and Sunday, they were outscored 29-2. Ggh. Other teams to advance: #2 seed Rice (swept ATM), #3 North Carolina (defeated #14 South Carolina), #5 Arizona State (swept #12 Ole Miss), Mississippi State (swept Clemson), UC-Irvine (swept #13 Wichita State), and CS-Fullerton (defeated UCLA). The final spot is up for grabs between Oregon State and Michigan. In an extreme pitcher's duel yesterday, Oregon State won Game One, 1-0.
Friday, June 8, 2007
2007 "Tip of the Cap" Awards, part 2
The annual "Tip of the Cap" awards are awarded every year at the end of the Mizzou Baseball season, named in honor of John "Hi" Simmons' signature gesture. Read more at SimmonsField.com
Our annual award for the best performance against the Kansas Jayhawks was really no contest this season.
"How do you like your Jayhawks cooked? Evan Frey’d," quipped Matt Nestor in the Columbia Daily Tribune.
The Chickenhawks came to Simmons field on a rainy weekend at the end of March this year, and left having given up the series to the Tigers, 2-1.
The hero of the weekend was centerfielder Evan Frey. Frey had been hot for most of March and carried this streak into the MU-KU series.
Frey hit at a .438 clip for the weekend, with 4 runs, 9 RBI, 1 double and two home runs.
Both homeruns were big ones. The first, in the Saturday victory, was Frey's first homerun as a Tiger.
Frey's second career homer came a day later in the bottom of the ninth inning, with 2 outs and Brock Bond on base, Frey connected. The ball over the wall, the Tiger players and fans went crazy, and the poor Jayhawks went home with a series loss.
A quote from KU Coatch Ritch Price: “That’s about as tough of a loss as I’ve ever had,” coach Ritch Price said. “Especially when you’re down 8-0 and you play that hard to get back in the thing. We had some huge clutch hits along the way. Obviously it isn’t over until the final guy’s out.”
Comments from Tigerboard.com about the April 1st, 2007 game:
bolivartiger: Just wow. Probably the most exciting college baseball game that I have ever seen.
kegger: The look on Smith's face as the Tigers celebrated at home plate after his pitch wound up on the other side of the fence was one I will remember for quite some time. The way their whole team stayed at their positions as if the homer was going to be waved off or something was quite as enjoyable as well.
Our Tigers beat Kansas in the most cruel way possible. Not only taking the Friday night game and reversing it, but to do so with a deserving celebration at home plate after the one in the top of the inning... That had to be the baseball equivalent of ripping someone's heart out and showing it to them while it was still beating.
MySpace.com meets HeckleDepot.com
The award for the Easiest Player to Heckle goes to A.J. Ramos, Texas Tech's "Ace" pitcher. He made himself an easy target for heckling by failing to protect his MySpace page from the non-"friends".
That page revealed lots of information about A.J., including "Occupation: student/part time stripper". It also revealed his nickname for himself, "Papi Chulo Baby" (Puerto Rican for "pimp daddy").
Armed with this info, the Simmons Field fans greeted the pitcher on Friday night with near constant cries of "Papi Chulo!" as well as a few other choice heckles based on his MySpace bio.
Poor Papi Chulo didn't do very well in that game, lasting just 2-1/3 innings, surrendering seven earned runs on 5 hits, 5 walks, 2 wild pitches and a hit batsman.
I suppose his coach thought he would be fresh on Sunday, having spent so little time on the mound Friday night, so with the game on the line in the 9th inning, Ramos was brought in to close the game.
The moment I saw him exit the bullpen, I knew the Tigers had the game won. As he approached the mound, the hecklers in the crowd went wild, chanting "Papi Culo! Papi Chulo!".
Ramos intentionally walked Priday, unintentionally walked Coleman, struck out Senne, then threw a trio of wild pitches that moved the runners around the bases, finally allowing Lollis to score from third.
And so, a tip of the cap goes to Papi Chulo for entertaining the animals in the Zou.
Hot Streaks & Hot Tempers
Boo-ing is a practice not heard often at all at Simmons Field. Heckling - sure. But a Boo is reserved for the worst offenders.
An all-or-nothing third baseman from Los Angeles by way of Louisville, Dominguez had compiled a lowly .250 average with only 9 home runs during the course of his season.
Through the first two days of the Regional, he was noticed most when he stood next to (or, during one play, ran into) Louisville shortstop Chris Cates. Cates, generously listed on the roster at 5'3" was over a foot shorter than the 6'4" Dominguez.
Dominguez made himself known in the Sunday Missouri-Louisville game, though, when he hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning that went on to be the game-winner. (He would hit two more home runs on Monday to help the Cardinals win the championship game).
But it was what happened AFTER the homer that really grabbed attention. After standing and admiring his homer, he mouthed some unidentified trash-talk in the direction of MU Catcher Trevor Coleman, then proceed to run the bases, tossing more trash, grins and finger-pointing at the Tiger infielders as he passed.
This created quite an uproar on the field, with MU players and coaches demanding the umpires discipline Dominguez, the U of L coach doing a lot of shoulder shrugging, and a large percentage of the 3,400 fans shouting and screaming and Boo-ing.
I'd like to give a tip of the cap to the umpires for following through on the guidelines laid down by the NCAA before the tournament began, to the effect that no sort of trash talk or disrespectful actions would be tolerated.
I'd like to give a tip of the cap to Dan McDonnell, the Louisville head coach, for removing Dominguez from the game and voluntarily sitting him out of the next game.
Instead, I'll keep my cap on this time.
Bad Call of the Year
While Bill Speck did everything he possibly could to earn this award by refusing to exercise his authority in reagrd to Chris Dominguez of Louisville, even that see-no-evil approach leaves him a distant second.
The worst call of the year took place in Austin, TX, when Jim Garman called Evan Frey out at first base. In the 6th inning, Garman ended a Tiger rally prematurely by disagreeing with nearly everyone in the ballpark, all of whom saw clearly that Frey beat the throw by a Texas mile.
2007 "Tip of the Cap" Awards: Part 1
3,630 !!
The highlight and climax of the 2007 MU Baseball season was the first-ever NCAA Regional hosted at Taylor Stadium / Simmons Field.
In the weeks and days leading up to the regional, fans and followers debated whether the MU Athletic Department would show their support of the baseball program by submitting a serious bid to the NCAA (and by finding a way to move the MSHSAA Baseball championships away from Taylor Stadium); then there was some doubt that fans would actually show up in large numbers, given the average attendance during the regular season of just 574, last in the Big XII.
As Tim Jamieson said, "From everything we’re feeling around town, it’s going to happen. It’s almost overwhelming. We’ve played in front of some big, big crowds. But never here.”
And it did happen. A new record was set on Friday night. Then Saturday night's crowd broke that record (see attendance totals at right).
For someone who learned to cheer and heckle in order to make up for the fact that the 100 fans who would show up at the old Simmons Field to cheer for the visiting team would invariably outnumber the 30 or so parents and girlfriends, plus Larry, myself, my son and at best 10 or 12 other fans . . . tonight was like opening up a Christmas present from the aunt who always sends hand-crocheted underwear, and instead finding in the box the keys to a new sports car.
And so our first tips of the cap are for those involved in that weekend:
A tip of the cap to Tim Jamieson, who, as the Tigers continued to roll toward their best win total in TJ's tenure, gained confidence to speak his mind about the questionable level of support given to baseball from the Athletic Department:
“There’s a lot of support,” he said. “But in terms of getting the word out and marketing our sport, we need to do a better job. . . We wanted everybody, including the people within the university, to see things through our eyes. To see things the way they could be." (Kansas City Star)
A tip of the cap to Mike Alden, Tim Hickman and the rest of the athletic department, for defying the cynicism of long-time fans and moving heaven earth and the MSHSAA in order to bring the Regional to Columbia. And for their great job in organizing the weekend to be a great experience for everyone. Mike Alden himself was in attendance for the full 9 innings of nearly every game, sitting in the stands, absorbed in the game when he wasn't shaking hands with MU supporters.
A tip of the cap to the people of Columbia, and to MU fans from all over the state, who shelled out more money than a season tickets cost to buy tickets for the weekend series in record numbers. Many of them expressed their enjoyment to me, and their surprise at how nice the stadium is, how exciting the games were, and how much they would like to come back again next season.
And most of all, a tip of the cap to the Tiger nine, a bunch of guys who were picked to finish 8th in the Big XII, a team that had to see article after article in the news well into the season, one after another mentioning the names of Scherzer and Culp before ever mentioning the players of 2007.
This was the scrappiest, gutsiest, most determined Mizzou baseball team I've watched in my time as a serious fan. They found ways to win games when it seemed impossible.
Like the Friday night game at Texas on May 4th, when the Longhorn catcher overthrew when tossing the ball back to the pitcher, sent it flying over his head, and Kurt Calvert stole home for the winning run.
The season was full of moments like that, with the Tigers taking advantage of every opportunity - no matter how unlikely - to score runs and win games.
Thanks for a great ride, guys!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Mizzou Links, 6-7-07
Two main pieces of news today:
- First, Quin Snyder has a new job. Atchison and I exchanged a couple of e-mails about this yesterday...I was going to post about it last night but just really didn't have the energy to go down this road. Good for him for getting back on the horse. I think he's the rare type of coach that might actually be better coaching a pro team than a college team. He always seemed to think his players at Mizzou were on a higher skill level than they actually were, and when he flooded them with ways to improve (ahh, the famous 'Player Development' book), it resulted in their spending way to much time thinking on the court and not enough time playing instinctively. You knew if Rickey Paulding dribbled more than twice, he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do with the ball. On a pro level, his free-flowing-but-strangely-heavy-handed style might have a better chances of success. And I think it helps him tremendously that he's coaching in a city that's a) bigger, and b) not hardcore midwest. Austin should be a great place for him. We'll see what he's learned in his 16 months away from coaching.
- And second, the MLB draft is today. As Tim Jamieson said in Gabe Dearmond's write-up the other day, he expects to lose Brock Bond (.316 BA, .423 OBP, 44 RBI) and Evan Frey (.348 BA, .445 OBP, 35 RBI) to the draft, and I suspect he's right. Neither hit for much power, but they're both strong defensively and show great patience at the plate. I guess they're not gimmes for a high draft slot, but we'll just assume he's right here. Jacob Priday, on the other hand, might still be up in the air. His numbers (.297 BA, .384 OBP, 13 HR, 59 RBI after a slow start) were quite solid, but he's a college DH...he's played lots of positions, but none of them all that well. I'm simultaneously rooting for him to get drafted and kinda hoping he doesn't so he can anchor the offense next season. Guess we'll just see where the cards land.
- And one other small tidbit: congrats to Mizzou catcher Trevor Coleman for making the Freshman All-American team. He and Aaron Senne were both key cogs for the Tigers this year, and they both played well in the postseason. The future is bright. We'll see just how bright the immediate future is after today's draft, I guess.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mizzou Links, 6-6-07
- Great series of posts by trrip over at Tigerboard. Pretty much everything you need to know about Mizzou Baseball (present and future) and its fanbase...it's almost preventing me from writing my own baseball post-mortem post, but we'll see...
- And here's Joe Walljasper with a little bit more about baseball...
- Melvin Watkins: one of the Top 25 Assistant Basketball coaches in America.
- And in case you needed a football fix..."Tigers Don't Lack Confidence"..."Nebraska-Missouri could be for Big 12 North supremacy"...
- Just because I'm a Blazers fan, here's an incredible story about Dr. Jack Ramsay. I hope he lives to 100.
- And finally...that was a helluva softball game last night...just sayin'...
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