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!!!

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/

Top sports movies

Since not much going on with our Rams baseball team until January, I have had a little more time to spend with my family and to watch a lot of basketball which I love to do. Recently our family went and saw "The Blind Side," which was very good and got me to thinking about the best baseball movies of all time. It was really hard to pick but here is my opinion.

10. Mickey- A little known film written by John Grisham and starring Harry Connick Jr. The movie was made just before the Danny Almonte age scandal at the Little League World Series and is very close to the real events that actually occurred later. The story revolves around a 13-year old who playing as a 12-year old and leads his team to the Little League World Series.

9. The Sandlot III "Stealing Home"-Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez is all grown up and now manages the Dodgers and his star player Tommy Santerrelli is a guy from the same neighborhood who has unfortunately let and his stardom go to his head and lose his values.

8. The Rookie- The true life story of former Angelo State Ram, Jim Morris, and his improbable journey from high school baseball coach to major league baseball player.

7. 61*- The HBO movie about the epic battle between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and their pursuit of Babe Ruth's home record and the effect that the chase had on each man.

6.The Sandlot-Still one of the best movies ever. Although the story is set in the 1950's it reminds me so much of my childhood growing up where we would all meet up and play baseball from daylight to dark everyday during the summer, where their were no coaches, parents or umpires around to screw things up. We made the teams, rules and calls and learned a lot about life, baseball and how to deal with people that unfortunately kids don't get a chance to do today.

5. For Love of the Game- The first of several Kevin Costner movies in my list. I was lucky enough to witness the World Premiere of this movie at the 1999 College World Series in Omaha while I was coaching at Texas A&M. Costner premiered the movie to all the participating teams at a theatre in Omaha the day before the Series started and stuck around afterward to sign every autograph and take every picture. A great story about a perfect game thrown by aging pitcher Billy Chapel and his final game at Yankee Stadium.

4. Field Of Dreams- The classic about the crazy farmer who plowed up his land and built a baseball field.

3. Bull Durham- This movie came out the summer after I graduated high school and I think we went and saw this at the $1 theater at least four days a week when we didn't have anything to do. I would have it higher but the last 20 minutes with the love story between Crash and Annie takes away from all the great baseball.

2.The Natural- Roy Hobbs and the battle between good and evil and Hobbs choices he has to make. Still one of the funniest moments in movie history when Bump Bailey crashes through the outfield wall and dies and the team scatters his ashes before the next days game.

1. Pride of the Yankees- A very old movie starring Gary Cooper in the story of Lou Gehrig. Even Cooper's lack of baseball skills can not take away from this unbelievable account of Gehrig's life and his battle against his disease that ultimately took his life.

I'm sure everybody has their opinions but this is mine. Have a great Christmas season and only about two months til opening day.

"Down Time"

Since we have finished our fall playing season it would seem to reason that it would allow some time to catch our breath and relax a little bit before embarking upon our spring season. Unfortunately this is not the case. As you may have noticed it's been awhile since my last blog and I apologize for that, but we have been very busy. Most people think that this time of the year is "down time" for baseball coaches, but in fact it is probably the busiest time of the year.

After fall ends we begin our off season weight and conditioning program as well as individual instruction with our players. The NCAA allows voluntary work with coaches on specific baseball skills for up to two hours per week in small groups. We work our guys in very small groups generally no more than three at a time. So actually for us our days get a lot longer, instead of practicing everyone at once we generally have 5-6 different individual sessions per day plus weights. It is very difficult on our coaching staff but we feel this is the time of year we see the most improvement in our players and so it is a great benefit to our team. For the players it is a time to rest a little bit, since they can not work out more than eight hours per week including weights and conditioning.

Along with doing individuals we have been hitting the recruiting trail very hard. During the early signing portion we were able to secure three committments of players we are confident will have a significant impact upon our program for the next several years. We also are busy placing our players for the summer. Thus far we have Adam Miller and Philip Clinard going to play in the Coastal Plains League in Edenton. Zac Leonhardt and Nick Cobler are going to the Jayhawk League to play for the Hays Larks and Chase Barrera is going to play for Kansas City in the Mink League. We still have a couple of more guys to place for the summer and are continuing to work on that.

Unfortunately for us our work ends tomorrow due to new NCAA legislation that began last year that forbids any work with our players the last two weeks of school. This means it will be about two months before we are allowed to have contact with our players in an organized setting. I am confident that our players will continue to work hard on their own and be ready to go when we report back to practice on January 10th. I can't wait!!!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and remembers how blessed we all are.

Fall is over !!!!

Sorry I have not posted in the last week or so but things have been pretty hectic with recruiting winding down for the fall and trying to get our team prepared for the spring.

We completed our fall team practice last Tuesday with a scrimmage vs. Midland College. Now our team begins individual skill instruction and a lifting and conditioning program. This area is key for our players development and ultimately our team's success. For the next few weeks we will be winding up our fall recruiting and hopefully we will be able to announce several signings in the next few weeks.

Bearcats take World Series game #1

The Fall World Series began yesterday as the Bulldogs and Bearcats battled in Game #1 of the 2009 ASU Fall World Series. The Bearcats earned a 5-0 victory behind the strong pitching of Chase Barrera and Jerris Springfield as the two hurlers combined on a five-hit shutout.

The Bearcats got on the board in the bottom of the first inning as Issac Garcia launched an opposite field two-run homer over the rightfield fence after Greg Towne had reached first on an error by the Bulldogs. That proved to be enough for the Bearcats as starting pitcher Chase Barrera cruised through 3 2/3 innings before leaving with a knee injury. Barrera gave up two hits while striking out five and walking none in a dominating performance. Jerris Springfield came on and went the rest of the way for the Bearcats picking up a save. Along with Garcia, Zac Leonhardt had a good day at the plate for the Bearcats going 2-for-3 with a double. The Bearcats take a 1-0 lead in the series with Game 2 set for October 9th at 2 p.m.

Fall World Series

It's that time of the year to begin winding down the fall playing schedule and as is tradition we end our fall season with a five-game World Series. Our student assistant coaches draft the players onto two teams and make all the decisions regarding playing time and game management while our other coaches sit in the stands and observe. It is always a very exciting week and allows us to see our players perform in a setting with more pressure than a normal intersquad. The players always enjoy the Series and it is always interesting to see which players rise to the occasion with a little more on the line. Barring rain the schedule for the Series is:

Thursday, October 8th 3:30 PM (7)

Friday, October 9th 2 PM (9)

Monday, October 12th 2:30 PM (9)

Thursday, October 15th 3:30 PM (7)

Friday October 16th 2 PM (9)

Hope to see ya at the ballpark!