Sunday, February 10, 2013

HI NOTES: Intra-squad DH &First Pitch Celebration

Saturday was a full day for Missouri Baseball.  At noon they played a pair of intra-squad games, wearing the new uniforms for the first time.  Then came the annual First Pitch Celebration in the evening.

The team was indeed preparing for the season, less than a week away, playing on a cool afternoon while their basketball brothers across the road exacted revenge on Ole Miss and their softball sisters watched Chelsea Thomas throw a pitch that broke a metal bat.

You can see some photos we grabbed of the baseball Tigers in their new uniforms here:  BLACK & GOLD.

FIRST PITCH

A good crowd gathered at Columbia's Executive Center for the 9th Annual First Pitch Celebration.

There was a display of all the new jerseys on a table in the banquet hall.  See the photos below.

A few notes from the gathering:
  • Andy Benes, the featured speaker, arrived with Al Bond.  Their sons, Shane and Brett, are Junior team mates at Westminster Academy, and have both made early commitments to play for Mizzou.  Bond is also the father of former Tiger Brock Bond.
  • It was also good to see another pair: Senior RHP Eric Anderson sitting with Freshman RHP Alec Rash.  That's the sort of mentoring that speaks well of the direction this team is taking.
  • Tim Jamieson made several comments about the past 10 years of Mizzou Baseball:
    • Only Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas, and Ole Miss have been to more NCAA Regionals in the past 10 years than Missouri has (8-in-10 years)
    • Missouri has played in more Big 12 Championship games in the past 10 years than any other team
    • 53 of 55 seniors from the team have graduated in the past 10 years
  • Coach J repeated what he has said before, that the jump from the Big 8 to the Big 12 was a bigger step, a more daunting task, than the move from the Big 12 to the SEC.
    • He says the huge and hostile crowd in the SEC will not be the team's biggest obstacle, since the team has always done well on big stages
  • Andy Benes told lots of stories about his career in baseball, the ups and the downs, and had a piece of advice regarding the move to the SEC:  "Believing you belong is the biggest factor."
    • Benes began his presentation by passing his Olympic Gold Medal and his World Series ring through the crowd of Tiger players








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