I always begin getting excited about baseball season beginning at this time of year. One of my favorite events on the baseball calendar is the Carribean World Series. It always starts right around the time of our first game.
If you have never watched a winter league game, try and catch at least a game it is always great baseball. The Carribean World Series matches the champion of each of the professional winter leagues in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. This year's event is held in Venezuela. It is great baseball and their are generally a couple of MLB players on each team. The thing that I like the most is the passion of the fans and just how much baseball means to them. Unfortunately, that passion seems to be diminishing here in the United States. If you want to watch some passionate fans and players tune in to the games. They begin on Tuesday, Feb. 2, and every game will be televised on MLBTV, which is nice for me because the announcers speak English. Before last year the games were only broadcast in Spanish, which is not my strong suit. I should've listened more intently during my Spanish classes. Every team plays each other in a round-robin format and the team with the best record at the end is declared the winner. I'm sure there will be some great baseball again this year.
We are beginning our last round of intrasquad scrimmages this weekend and wish the weather was like the Carribean. It is cold and rainy today, but the forecast looks much better for the next couple of days. Hopefully we continue to improve and get through the games with no injuries. I'm looking forward to see how our guys handle the adverse weather conditions and seeing them continue to improve in anticipation of opening day next weekend. The weather for next weekend is suppossed to be beautiful and I hope we have great crowds next weekend. So I'll plan on seeing you at the ballpark next weekend and be sure to bring some friends along with you.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Hall of Honor weekend
This weekend the Angelo State Athletic Department inducted four more members into its Hall of Honor. I unfortunately missed the last induction ceremony because we were playing on the road, but I got to attend this year's festivities.
I love going to this event. For one thing, I love hearing about the history of Angelo State and hearing each individual's story and how big an impact ASU had upon each of their lives. This year was no different as each of the inductees had special stories and gave great speeches. It always helps me personally by reminding me of just how great a place ASU is and just how much the university has given to me and my family. I know that it is something that I am truly thankful for and hope that we are maintaining the high standards of those that came before us. I am really looking forward to the day that some of the baseball players that helped start our program and help establish ASU as one of the top baseball programs in the country are eligible (an athlete is not eligible for five years after they finish playing).
I've got to mention the basketball games on Saturday night as well. The Rams and 'Belles both got victories over the school north of here, which always makes me happy. The crowd was unbelievable and the 'Belles played great. I was so proud of them. This has been a tough year for them this year as they have not performed up to their usual standards, but the one thing I can attest to is that their work ethic has not dropped at all and I believe they can still end up having a great season. Another big one on Wednesday when we face WT.
We had another youth league baketball game on Saturday and the Lil Rams got another "W". The kids are really improving which is great to see. I get to coach my last one next weekend before my season ends to concentrate on my other coaching job. As for baseball we had four intrasquads between Thursday and Sunday and saw some good things, as well as some things we have got to get corrected in the next two weeks. I am confident we will and am looking forward to the week of practice. We will have our final intrasquads before opening day this weekend on Friday at 2:15 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.. Hopefully everyone will be 100% healthy for that and it will be great preparation for our opening series.
I love going to this event. For one thing, I love hearing about the history of Angelo State and hearing each individual's story and how big an impact ASU had upon each of their lives. This year was no different as each of the inductees had special stories and gave great speeches. It always helps me personally by reminding me of just how great a place ASU is and just how much the university has given to me and my family. I know that it is something that I am truly thankful for and hope that we are maintaining the high standards of those that came before us. I am really looking forward to the day that some of the baseball players that helped start our program and help establish ASU as one of the top baseball programs in the country are eligible (an athlete is not eligible for five years after they finish playing).
I've got to mention the basketball games on Saturday night as well. The Rams and 'Belles both got victories over the school north of here, which always makes me happy. The crowd was unbelievable and the 'Belles played great. I was so proud of them. This has been a tough year for them this year as they have not performed up to their usual standards, but the one thing I can attest to is that their work ethic has not dropped at all and I believe they can still end up having a great season. Another big one on Wednesday when we face WT.
We had another youth league baketball game on Saturday and the Lil Rams got another "W". The kids are really improving which is great to see. I get to coach my last one next weekend before my season ends to concentrate on my other coaching job. As for baseball we had four intrasquads between Thursday and Sunday and saw some good things, as well as some things we have got to get corrected in the next two weeks. I am confident we will and am looking forward to the week of practice. We will have our final intrasquads before opening day this weekend on Friday at 2:15 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.. Hopefully everyone will be 100% healthy for that and it will be great preparation for our opening series.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
First intrasquads and Youth Basketball update
Over the weekend we were able to get in our first three intrasquads of the spring. Overall it went OK. We still have a lot of improvement we need to make before opening day. We contimue intrasquads this weekend. I was very pleased with our overall team defense and thought our ability to control the running game was especially good. Our catchers threw great all weekend and the pitchers did a great job being quick to the plate and holding runners close. As I'm sure most of you know we are pretty aggressive on the base paths. I think we have led the conference in stolen bases every year of our existence, so it is something we stress in practice and it gives us a lot of work on controlling the running game as well. Another bright spot was our hittter's ability to execute game situations, moving runners, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing us improve this weekend.
As promised, an update on my YMCA basketball team. We opened up on Saturday and our little guys did much better than I anticipated. They don't keep score in our league but obviously I do as well as my son, Kannon. We were victorious 26-18 and played very well. The entire team did a great job and we even ran our offense to perfection about 6 or 7 times during the game, which is a small miracle. We play again this Saturday, which for me will be the last game I get to see due to our baseball schedule. Hopefully, we willl play well again. If you get a chance to get out to the park we will be intersquading at 2 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. See ya at the park.
As promised, an update on my YMCA basketball team. We opened up on Saturday and our little guys did much better than I anticipated. They don't keep score in our league but obviously I do as well as my son, Kannon. We were victorious 26-18 and played very well. The entire team did a great job and we even ran our offense to perfection about 6 or 7 times during the game, which is a small miracle. We play again this Saturday, which for me will be the last game I get to see due to our baseball schedule. Hopefully, we willl play well again. If you get a chance to get out to the park we will be intersquading at 2 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. See ya at the park.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Rain and the joys of coaching?
Friday we were suppossed to have our first intrasquad of the spring, but Mother Nature intervened and the much needed rain caused us to cancel today and push everything back a day, which is probably a good thing. As I said in my last blog, I have been very pleased with both the physical and mental effort our team has given in every practice. Due to this I do think they were a little fatigued at the end of practice on Thursday and a day off will do all of them a lot of good. Since we did not have baseball practice it gave me some extra time to get prepared for my real coaching job. I am coaching my son, Kannon's, first grade YMCA basketball team. I somehow ended up taking over the position because they did not have a coach. Unfortunately, due to baseball I will only be able to make two games the entire season. Anyway, we had our last practice before opening up the season Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m.
Growing up I always wanted to be a basketball coach and the first team I actually coached was a 5-6 year old basketball team when I was in high school. So with my previous background in coaching that team (by the way that team went undefeated and seven of the eight kids on that team ended up receiving an athletic scholarship in some sport) I thought that this would be easy. Boy was I wrong. I have never been real stressed out with coaching, but I am a lot more worried about my basketball team than my baseball team. If we can just shoot at the correct goal, I guess we will consider it a success. Anyway, I will try and give an update on how it went in my next blog. Hopefully the weather cooperates for baseball practice and we get that in as well. Hope to see ya at the ballpark or the gym. On second thought please don't come by the gym.
Growing up I always wanted to be a basketball coach and the first team I actually coached was a 5-6 year old basketball team when I was in high school. So with my previous background in coaching that team (by the way that team went undefeated and seven of the eight kids on that team ended up receiving an athletic scholarship in some sport) I thought that this would be easy. Boy was I wrong. I have never been real stressed out with coaching, but I am a lot more worried about my basketball team than my baseball team. If we can just shoot at the correct goal, I guess we will consider it a success. Anyway, I will try and give an update on how it went in my next blog. Hopefully the weather cooperates for baseball practice and we get that in as well. Hope to see ya at the ballpark or the gym. On second thought please don't come by the gym.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Preseason rankings
Today the second of the major D-II baseball rankings was released by pingbaseball.com. This is a great website for those interested in college baseball and they do an outstanding job of covering D-II baseball. To be honest I forgot where they ranked us, but we're in there somewhere. These rankings are great to give people something to talk about, but really do not mean a whole lot. We have begun practice and I don't think I have ever been this happy with a group this early in the year. Everyone came back ready to go. The mental and physical effort has been outstanding every day which is a very difficult thing to do. We have our first intersquad games this weekend beginning Friday at 1 p.m. We will play Saturday and Sunday weather permitting around 1 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. If you are in the mood for some baseball feel free to drop by Foster Field and enjoy some baseball. I'm really anxious to see our pitchers in game action because we have a ton of competition for innings going into the spring. I have no doubt we will have several guys step up. Hope to see ya soon at the ballpark.
Friday, January 8, 2010
It's 17 Degrees Outside, Must Be Time for Baseball
As the temperature continues to drop, the arrival of our season gets closer every day. While we are generally very lucky with regards to weather this year looks like it is going to be a lot colder than normal. We are generally very lucky with regards to weather and generally only have to suffer through a couple of cold days a year. Which reminds me of one of my favorite stories.
In 2006 we were hosting Cameron in a conference doubleheader and the weather was pretty miserable. I think the high for the day was 23 degrees. During batting practice it was sleeting and it was very cold. Now a quick point. Yes, I know that it is cold and we all consider baseball a warm weather sport, but you just have to watch MLB in April and during the playoffs to see that unfortunately we have to play in some pretty adverse weather sometimes. Football is played outside in bad weather along with soccer and softball, so as much as I wish it was sunny and 72 degrees everyday, we aren't going to get that weather all the time.
Well the coach of Cameron, Todd Holland, who is one of my favorite people in all of coaching and an outstanding coach, complained the whole day about the temperatures. As I had told him before he came down if the field was dry we would play no matter what the temperatures. He was not happy with this decision and called his Athletic Director, who I guess made some calls and midway through the first game of the doubleheader I was informed that we would only play this one game. Needless to say I was not thrilled with the decision because this set several things into motion. The game we were playing was scheduled for seven innings, since it was suppossed to be a doubleheader. Now according to NCAA rules a game does not count if it is a single game scheduled for less than nine innings. So at the time we had the lead and it was about the 4th inning. This totally changed the strategy of the game as this seven-inning game turned into a nine-inning game halfway through. We luckily held on to win.
As I left the field still upset about only playing one game, I got into my car and headed home. As I was on my way home I drove by Central High School's softball fields and saw a high school softball game going on and both teams were playing in SHORTS!! So anyway for those of you ever wondering if we will cancel a game due to cold the answer is "no" if I have any say in the matter. I am still the same person I was was when I was in Little League and it would just kill me if we got a game rained out. Just a quick fact that is the only home game in the history of Angelo State that has not been eventually played in the history of our program.
Now a couple of helpful hints for watching a game in the cold, beleive me I am an expert in this, I swore a long time ago after I was done playing I would never be cold at a game again.
1. Layer up. I am one that definitely goes overboard in this area, but I am not cold during games. If you have ever seen the movie The Christmas Story where the younger brother in the movie is so layered up he can't move his arms is a pretty good description of how I look on a cold day. On a day in the 50's I generally will have at least 4-5 layers on the upper half of my body and 3-4 on my legs. As the temperature drops the layers increase. My record (I am not exaggerating) is 47 layers when I was coaching at Texas A&M in a game at Missouri which we won in extra innings.
2. Wear plenty of layers on your hand and feet too.
3. Before you put gloves on your hands, put on surgical gloves first this really helps warm your hands and they will be sweating.
4. Get a portable heater if you can. For us we are lucky enough to have one of our local companies in town that lets us borrow their portable gas powered heaters when its cold. We take it on the road with us and it really warms the dugout.
5. Cover your ears and head. This is a little challenging in baseball when you have to wear a hat, but you can put the wool hat over your baseball hat and it does the job.
I hope we don't have to deal with any cold weather issues this spring but if we do hopefully it won't keep you from getting out to the ballpark. We start practice on Sunday and luckily that is the first day it is scheduled to warm back up. We are really excited to get going. Less than a month 'til opening day!!!
In 2006 we were hosting Cameron in a conference doubleheader and the weather was pretty miserable. I think the high for the day was 23 degrees. During batting practice it was sleeting and it was very cold. Now a quick point. Yes, I know that it is cold and we all consider baseball a warm weather sport, but you just have to watch MLB in April and during the playoffs to see that unfortunately we have to play in some pretty adverse weather sometimes. Football is played outside in bad weather along with soccer and softball, so as much as I wish it was sunny and 72 degrees everyday, we aren't going to get that weather all the time.
Well the coach of Cameron, Todd Holland, who is one of my favorite people in all of coaching and an outstanding coach, complained the whole day about the temperatures. As I had told him before he came down if the field was dry we would play no matter what the temperatures. He was not happy with this decision and called his Athletic Director, who I guess made some calls and midway through the first game of the doubleheader I was informed that we would only play this one game. Needless to say I was not thrilled with the decision because this set several things into motion. The game we were playing was scheduled for seven innings, since it was suppossed to be a doubleheader. Now according to NCAA rules a game does not count if it is a single game scheduled for less than nine innings. So at the time we had the lead and it was about the 4th inning. This totally changed the strategy of the game as this seven-inning game turned into a nine-inning game halfway through. We luckily held on to win.
As I left the field still upset about only playing one game, I got into my car and headed home. As I was on my way home I drove by Central High School's softball fields and saw a high school softball game going on and both teams were playing in SHORTS!! So anyway for those of you ever wondering if we will cancel a game due to cold the answer is "no" if I have any say in the matter. I am still the same person I was was when I was in Little League and it would just kill me if we got a game rained out. Just a quick fact that is the only home game in the history of Angelo State that has not been eventually played in the history of our program.
Now a couple of helpful hints for watching a game in the cold, beleive me I am an expert in this, I swore a long time ago after I was done playing I would never be cold at a game again.
1. Layer up. I am one that definitely goes overboard in this area, but I am not cold during games. If you have ever seen the movie The Christmas Story where the younger brother in the movie is so layered up he can't move his arms is a pretty good description of how I look on a cold day. On a day in the 50's I generally will have at least 4-5 layers on the upper half of my body and 3-4 on my legs. As the temperature drops the layers increase. My record (I am not exaggerating) is 47 layers when I was coaching at Texas A&M in a game at Missouri which we won in extra innings.
2. Wear plenty of layers on your hand and feet too.
3. Before you put gloves on your hands, put on surgical gloves first this really helps warm your hands and they will be sweating.
4. Get a portable heater if you can. For us we are lucky enough to have one of our local companies in town that lets us borrow their portable gas powered heaters when its cold. We take it on the road with us and it really warms the dugout.
5. Cover your ears and head. This is a little challenging in baseball when you have to wear a hat, but you can put the wool hat over your baseball hat and it does the job.
I hope we don't have to deal with any cold weather issues this spring but if we do hopefully it won't keep you from getting out to the ballpark. We start practice on Sunday and luckily that is the first day it is scheduled to warm back up. We are really excited to get going. Less than a month 'til opening day!!!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Break time
Well, with Christmas just around the corner, our players have finished their finals and headed home for the break between semesters. I really should not use the word "break" because for our players this is the time of year they begin to up the intensity and volume of their workouts in order to be ready when we begin practice on January 10th. This requires a lot of self discipline and motivation because there are generally no teammates around and the coaches are not their to encourage the players to get their work in. This in my mind is such an important part of being a great team because it shows just how badly a player and team is willing to work in order to achieve their goals. I am very confident that each of our team members will follow their workout schedules and return ready to go for the spring.
Also today the first of the pre-season All American Teams came out. We had six players on it (the most of any program in the country). The link to the article is:http://thecollegebaseballblog.com/2009/12/15/2010-ncbwa-division-2-preseason-all-american-team-announced/
Also today the first of the pre-season All American Teams came out. We had six players on it (the most of any program in the country). The link to the article is:http://thecollegebaseballblog.com/2009/12/15/2010-ncbwa-division-2-preseason-all-american-team-announced/
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