SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball

Taylor Stadium
Photo by Ensign Beedril on flickr.com

MIZZOU BASEBALL HISTORY

♦ Mizzou Baseball Roots

♦ John "Hi" Simmons and the glory days of MU Baseball

♦ 1954 National Champions

♦ Record-Setting 1964 Season

♦ Coach Gene McArtor


MIZZOU BASEBALL TRADITIONS

♦ Why "MIZZOU"?

♦ kU Sucks

♦ Other Rivals

TIM JAMIESON'S MISSOURI TIGERS

♦ Tim Jamieson

♦ The Typical Tim Jamieson Team

♦ Johnny Wholestaff & Priday's Friday

♦ Pitcher U

♦ Mizzou Baseball in the Majors

MIZZOU BASEBALL GAME DAY

♦ Game Day : Getting to Taylor Stadium, Tickets, Parking, Concessions, etc.

♦ Taylor Stadium @ Simmons Field

♦ Simmons Field Weather

♦ CoMo Culture

♦ A Weekend in CoMo


MIZZOU BASEBALL MEDIA

♦ Missouri Baseball On the Air

♦ Mizzou Online

♦ MizzouTube


MIZZOU BASEBALL FUN

♦ You Might Be a Long Time MU Baseball Fan If...

♦ Fashion Police

♦ Hater's Guide to Mizzou Baseball

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Mizzou Tube

Taylor Stadium sits atop a hill, known to the players as "The Summit"

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Hater's Guide to Mizzou Baseball

In a blatant but personally embarrassing imitation of the folks at Deadspin.com, this week's post is a Hater's Guide to Mizzou Baseball.

My vocabulary doesn't even include some of the potty-mouth words the Deadspin writers use, but my aim here is to give you permission to hate Mizzou Baseball, but in a semi-informed way. I say "semi-informed" because the following will adhere somewhat to the mantra of the Deadspin haters:

"As always, no research of any kind has been done for these entries. In many cases, I don't even know the name of the school's head coach. And that's because ignorance is the lifeblood of good hate. Without ignorance, we'd all be able to understand and sympathize with one another, and sympathy is for women..."  [Quote edited for sensitive and non-juvenile sensibilities]

There are plenty of people who hate Mizzou Baseball.

Kansas certainly does. They hate anything and everything about Missouri, except when they want to drive across the river and make idiots of themselves at the Power & Light District in Kansas City.

SEC fans, though, will have to find their own reasons to hate Mizzou Baseball.  Here's a few to try on and see if they fit your Dixie sensibilities:

Mizzou fans don't dress up for baseball games.  We wear whatever we feel like.   

Mizzou baseball attendance sucks.  I don't know why. 

Our ballpark, Taylor Stadium, is one of the smallest ballparks in the SEC, yet it averages an attendance at 25% capacity. Yes, attendance sucks. 

In spite of the fact that attendance sucks, getting decent parking is ridiculous unless you get there early enough to grab a spot at the top of the Summit.

The concessions are merely adequate.  Maybe that's why attendance sucks.  I don't know. 

There are entirely too many gingers on this team.  Recruiting Coordinator Kerrick Jackson must intentionally devote his time to searching out all the red-headed stepchildren he can find to fill out the roster.  If that's not bad enough, one of those carrot-tops is inordinately proud of his ginger-haired calves.

If you really want to develop a negative impression of Mizzou fans, spend some time lurking at Tigerboard.com, especially on The Shack board (aka "the cesspool").  Make sure you have plenty of antibiotics on hand before you go in, though.

Head Coach Tim Jamieson does not tweet on Twitter.  But his left knee does. 

Mizzou Baseball's first and last National Championship was in 1954, which was before even I was born.   This of course makes Missouri one of only four SEC teams to win the CWS,  tied with Georgia in third place for the most CWS championships (LSU 6, USC 2, UGA 1, MU 1) and 2nd in CWS runner-up finishes..

Paper Tiger

But here, read some entertaining Mizzou hate and Mizzou Baseball hate from highly informed people on the internet:

♦ Missouri did more to destroy the Big 12 than Texas did (Cowboys Ride For Free)

Who started conference realignment? Who has whored themselves out to the most conferences since this started? (Word on the street is they have an invite from the NFL) Who overvalues their program the most? (Besides A&M) Who, out of all teams in the former Big 12, have the most to lose by moving? M-I-Z, Z-O-U. After news broke they were trying to seduce the Big 10 all hell broke loose. Seriously, if their officials could keep a God damn secret maybe we'd all still be one big dysfunctional conference. Listen up Tigers, I have news for your journalism school: In the Big 12 you would have had a shot at winning the conference, but you will never win the SEC. If you're in that conference 200 years, you will never win it.

♦ Missouri has 63% more meth labs than the next closest state (Cowboys Ride for Free)

That's just a fact, you can't argue with that Tiger fans (well, **** like you probably could, but you just look stupid doing so). Misery is doing more to contribute to the decline of America than the Taliban. Maybe if y'all did less meth you'd realize that two of your claims to fame are lies, you don't have America's first football homecoming (Baylor, 1909), and you don't have the worlds first journalism school (Ecole Superieure de Journalism de Paris, 1899).

♦ They banned strip clubs (Cowboys Ride for Free)

Until this bull***t get's repealed I will never travel to, through, or near Missouri. Seriously, I thought Oklahoma was full of bible thumping jerks, but ****, Missouri went too far. They banned fully nude (what the hell is the point of a titty bar if you can't have a errant pube fall in your beer?), banned alcohol, and require dancers to be 6 feet from the customers at all times. Really? I'm disappointed in America. If there's something wrong with getting a pair of tits in your face for cash, I don't want to be right.

♦ Conference realignment: Is Missouri about to play the SEC’s fool? (Big Red Today)

The University of Missouri could be on the verge of making a stupendous mistake of impatience, borne out of a handful of university and state leaders wanting to wipe egg off their face from last year’s Big Ten debacle with a move to the SEC, a league that has neither the academic pedigree nor the competitive atmosphere suited for such a starchy Midwestern institution.

Mizzou in a ditch fight with SEC programs who embrace cheating and slippery ethics like a favorite uncle? The Tigers’ so-so fan base traveling to South Carolina, Georgia and Auburn? In trade for what? A little more TV money? Long-term security?

See, this is how powerful people get. They beg for one thing — the Big Ten — get shut down there, and figure there’s a better move to make outside of waiting. There isn’t. And I’m not going to go into some painful 3,000-word exegesis about this, either. Save exegeses for Occupy Wall Street or child welfare or something. This is a great school making a dumb move and all the Kansas City media and Mizzou alums will stomp and cheer and all the rest of it (the St. Louis media will pay attention when the World Series is over, thank you) while the SEC-centric college football sites that bloat and pillage my Twitter feed will write 4,000-word blog posts comparing this change to the conquest of whole plate of chicken and waffles in Memphis. Or whatever. It’s dumb. It’s the wrong play.

♦ Sound Familiar? Georgia Baseball (And The Rest Of The SEC East) Will Enjoy An Easier Schedule With Expansion (SBNation Atlanta)

Oh, that puckish Mizzou. First they incense a few of their new SEC neighbors simply by existing - theirs and Texas A&M"s addition to the 2012 football slate bumped several "heavyweight" games like Georgia / Alabama off the schedule- and now they're benefitting Bulldog baseball and the rest of the SEC East in much the same manner. The gall!
. . .
Despite the two new schools, the SEC isn't expected to expand its 30 game conference schedule, which breaks down to ten, three-game series. That means every team will play one series against their division foes (six), and one against a rotation of four teams from the opposite division. Power schools like the Gators, Vanderbilt, defending CWS Champion South Carolina and yes, those lucky Bulldogs, will be guaranteed one series a year against Missouri, and less of a chance each season of drawing perennially ranked schools like Arkansas (No. 4 this year), LSU (No. 8) or Ole Miss (No. 22).

Say what you want, that it's a totally logical inclusion of new schools with accidental side affects on particular schools, but we side with South Carolina - this is all a dirty UGA conspiracy, and we're not fooled!

♦ Mizzou is going to get donkey stomped in baseball (SEC Rant Board at TigerDroppings.com)

schlow mo: I don't think this should be overlooked.

They will be able to compete in basketball, they will be a level with us or a little below in football. Baseball is just going to be awful, they might not get out of the cellar for a decade.

When you can't be a better team in the big 12 in baseball, where I think about half the teams don't even play baseball, you are going to be awful in SEC baseball

Just trust me when I tell you when Mizzou starts a 30 game slate against the SEC they are going to cry Friday through Sunday for 10 straight weekends

Your stadium holds 3k which is just sad

Haven't been to the CWS since 64

Haven't won your shitty conference since 80

Yall are going to get curb stomped weekly

Bamainozarks: They will be the worst baseball team ever to dawn an sec uniform

Wildcatmike: Mizzou fans, your team will here me from the deck (not going to point out who I am) ..but from Leon Landry to Webb of USC had great times during games

♦ Mizzou's SEC Application (click here to see the graphic at muckfizzou.com)

From muckfizzou.com

SEC Fan's guide to Mizzou Baseball: Mizzou Online

♦ mutigers.com is the official website of the Missouri Tigers. It's pretty standard fare for a D-1 program. In the past couple of years the Mizzou Network video feature has ramped up their game, providing live and archived video coverage and plenty of features and interviews.

♦ Beyond the nuts and bolts and in-house videos of mutigers.com, you're looking at the best online source for Mizzou Baseball info online:  SimmonsField.com.  That's not so much a brag on my own blog as it is an acknowledgement of the fact that nobody else covers MU Baseball all that much.

♦ Tigerboard.com is the most active message board for Mizzou fans.  Fans of the Tigerboard will tell you it's the best place to learn what's really happening in Mizzou athletics before it ever reaches the traditional media.  Critics of Tigerboard have been known to call it a "cesspool".  The Tigerboard All Sports Board is the most active forum for discussion of Mizzou Baseball, as well as all other MU sports besides football and basketball.  The other boards are also interesting and entertaining.  The Shack which is "off topic" board, can be entertaining, but is not for the faint of heart.

♦ RockMNation is the SBNation site for Mizzou.  It's one of the best online sources for info and discussion of all things Mizzou.  They focus on football first, then basketball.  Of the other sports, they've come to focus on MU Softball more than anything else.  They do cover other MU sports, including Baseball.

♦ PowerMizzou is the Yahoo/Rivals site for Mizzou.  If I were a big MU Football fan, I'd pony up the subscription price, because Gabe DeArmond and his writers have earned a reputation as being the most knowledgeable source for MU Football recruiting information.  But they don't pay much attention to Mizzou Baseball, so I don't pay them.

♦ Local media outlets online:

• The Columbia Tribune is the independent evening newspaper in town.  The Trib has a beat writer, Matt Nestor, for MU Baseball and offers up game day reports and occasional features.  They now have a pay wall, so you're limited to how many articles you can read per month without paying.
  
  
• The Columbia Missourian is operated by the MU School of Journalism, and is the morning paper for Columbia.  Being a vehicle for teaching student journalists, there is a new beat writer for MU Baseball every year.  It says something about the internationally recognized quality of the MU J-School that the beat writer of the year is almost always really good at it.  They often get the scoops and great features because they're eager and hungry for the by-line.  The Missourian also now has a pay wall, which limits all archived content to subscribers.
  
  
• The Maneater is a student-run campus newspaper that is not directly under supervision of the J-School.  Because of that, it has been somewhat of a wild cannon at times of the years it's been in operation.  But over the past few years, their coverage of Mizzou Baseball has been remarkable.  In fact, over the past two years, I'd rank them as the best local media source for great MU Baseball news and features.
  
  
• KBIA Sports Extra is the online blog platform for the J-School's radio station, 91.3 KBIA, an NPR station.  Depending on the season and the beat-writer of the year, their features are also pretty good.  They are known for some great photographs and unique analysis and graphics.
  
  
• The major market newspapers in Missouri, The Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, would have difficulty proving they are aware that Mizzou has a D-1 Baseball program, and demonstrate regularly that they are clueless about the growing popularity of college baseball.
  
  
• The local ESPN radio affiliate, KTGR, carries the live stream (free) of MU Baseball play-by-play, and they also have a sports talk show every afternoon Monday through Friday and on Saturday mornings, which is available in live streaming.
  
  
• KFRU, a local News/Talk station, has a sports talk show every afternoon Monday through Friday from 4-6 PM called The Closers, which is available in live streaming.  It's a good source for MU Athletics info and occasional interviews and discussion of MU Baseball.  

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Missouri Baseball On the Air

Tex Little, Voice of Tiger Baseball
Columbia Missourian photo 

The Zimmer Radio Group signed a contract to be the official broadcaster of all MU Athletics starting with the 2010-2011 season. The contract is for five years, through the 2014-2015 season.

ZRG had already been the official home of MU Baseball for several years before that agreement.

Mizzou Baseball games are broadcast live over the air on KTGR 1580 AM, an ESPN radio affiliate, and on FM 100.5.

The KTGR radio broadcasts can also be accessed through the internet. To tune in the Tigers online, go to the Streaming Audio link at KTGR.com, or go to the mutigers.com Baseball Schedule page and click on the Audio Broadcast link for each day's game.

Tex in 1988

A pre-game show begins 30 minutes prior to each game, including interviews with MU Head Coach Tim Jamieson, the visiting coach and an interview with a Mizzou player or other member of the MU Baseball family. Following the game are quick post-game interviews, wrap-up and conference scoreboard.

Tex Little began as the play-by-play voice of Mizzou Baseball in 1987.

Tex's style is down home and folksy.  His style will fit in quite well in SEC country.  He's an unabashed fan of the Tigers, but he doesn't hesitate to call it like he sees it.

His knowledge of MU Baseball history is a great asset - and a great source of amusement occasionally.  He's kind of like the dad who can't always summon up the correct name of the kid he's talking to.  Former outfielder Evan Frey, currently in the Diamondbacks' organization, was a great player in his own right.  But during his career at Mizzou, I'm certain Tex referred to him as "Ryan Fry" more often  than not.  Ryan Fry was a star Tiger from the 90's, now in the Mizzou Athletics Hall of Fame.

Tex discovered Twitter last season (@TexLittleSS) but is still not a prolific tweeter.

Hunter Mense

Hunter Mense, former Tiger outfielder and minor league journeyman, has been in the booth with Tex for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.  It's uncertain whether he will continue in that role.  Hopefully he will continue to do so until he graduates, which should be sometime in the next decade or two. He provides color commentary and keeps Tex from breaking the electronic gadgetry in the booth.

Hunter spent this past summer playing for the Kansas City T-Bones of the independent American Association.

Hunter Mense is prolific with his comments on Twitter, both baseball related and otherwise (@Hunter_Mense).

SEC Baseball Fan's Guide
to Mizzou Baseball

♦ Tex Little gives Missouri baseball voice (Columbia Missourian, May 2009)

“I don’t know another place I want to be other than the ballpark,” Little said.

Later, Little joins Tigers coach Tim Jamieson behind the batting cage and talks baseball. Little says he made the decision to be here when he was 21.

“I had some aspirations to do something different,” Little said. “I was either going to go into coaching or do radio, and I decided to go with radio.”

In 1982, Little got his first job in radio. He spun records, did the news and called games. He even mowed the lawn for KSIW radio in Woodward, Okla. It was the only radio station in town.

Little then moved onto Texas where he covered the Midland Angels in the Texas League in 1986. But when an oil crises ravaged the town's economy, Little lost his job.

“I had been in Texas and Oklahoma for about six years, and I wanted to be closer to home, and I found a job here,” Little said. “Missouri baseball was part of that package and that’s when they did eight or nine games a year.”

In 1988, Little met with then coach Gene McArtor and both agreed that they wanted to put all the games on the air. Since then, Little has seen the highs and the lows for the Missouri baseball team.
. . .

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Game Day

Sports Park at Mizzou

Getting to Taylor Stadium

1. Take the Stadium Blvd. Exit off I-70, head south on Stadium Blvd. for about 4 miles to Providence Road. Turn right (south) on Providence. Less than 1 block later, turn right on Carrie Francke Drive (directly across from the football stadium and basketball arena). At the first 4-way intersection, turn right to go to the parking lots nearest Taylor Stadium.  Turn left for Reactor Field parking.  Go straight if you changed your mind and want to go play a round of golf.
2. Take the Providence Road Exit off I-70, head south on Providence Road about 3 miles. Less than 1 block past the Stadium Blvd intersection, turn right on Carrie Francke Drive (directly across from the football stadium).  At the first 4-way intersection, turn right to go tot he parking lots nearest Taylor Stadium.  Turn left for Reactor Field parking.  If there's an event staff person waving you away from turning right, pretend you don't notice him and drive on up the hill and tell his boss at the top of the hill that he guy at the bottom said it was OK.
   
   
3. Take the Stadium Blvd Exit off Highway 63; head west on Stadium Blvd about 2.5 miles. Turn left (south) at Providence Road. Less than 1 block later,  turn right on Carrie Francke Drive (directly across from the football stadium).  At the first 4-way intersection, turn right to go to the parking lots nearest Taylor Stadium.  Turn left for Reactor Field parking.  Go straight if you'd rather watch softball.

Parking at Taylor Stadium

The parking lot closest to the ballpark, at the top of the hill, is NOT OPEN to athletic event parking between 8 AM and 5 PM. Your car will very likely be towed if you do not follow this restriction. After 5:00, baseball fans may use that lot.

The paved lot just to the south of that lot (still at the top of the hill) IS OPEN to athletic event parking at ALL HOURS.  However, for many baseball games, that lot is reserved for staff, umpires and others with special passes.

A gravel lot at the top of the hill, running along the south of the Walton Soccer/Track Stadium, is also open to baseball parking.  Unless it's full.

Parking will not be allowed on the side of the road leading down the hill.

There are parking lots at the bottom of the hill, south of the ballpark, that are also available for athletic event parking.  A golf cart, driven by a crazed Event Staff employee, will be available to give weary fans a lift up the Summit.

Also, there is a walkway over Providence Road, connecting the Faurot Field football parking area with Simmons Field. When other events do not conflict, parking may be available there.

Where SHOULD I park?

As any college baseball fan knows, foul balls are drawn by a mysterious scientific force to the windows of cars parked in stadium parking lots. Therefore, if you park in one of the lots at the top of the hill, the safest spot is farthest away from the ballpark, or behind some Jayhawk's van.  My favorite spot to park is in the gravel lot just south of the soccer/track stadium.

Tailgating at Taylor Stadium

Tailgating at baseball games usually takes place in the parking lots.  There are no electrical hookups.  While it's technically a dry campus, no one is going to deny you the right to have alcohol at your tailgate party in the parking lot.  Unless you cross that undefined line toward being too rowdy; then they'll enforce the rule.

Tickets

Except for the one Regional we hosted in 2007, there has never been a regular season game when fans couldn't walk up to the ticket booth at game time and purchase however many tickets for decent seats they could possibly want.  Seating capacity is about 3,500 and there are 243 season tickets, held by 80 accounts (2012 numbers).

I will pause now while our friends from other SEC schools take time to laugh.


The price in 2013 for single game walk-up tickets was $5 per ticket, with a discount price of $3 for children under 12 and for senior citizens.

Renewal notices for season tickets have already gone out, due by December 21st.

Season tickets for Mizzou baseball can be purchased through the Mizzou Athletics Ticket Office by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS or logging onto MUTigers.com. At just $60 for adults and $30, fans can see every game at Mizzou for just $2 per game (adults) and $1 per game (youth) this season, making it one of the best ticket packages in the SEC. (mutigers.com)

Official MUTigers.com Tickets page

Seating at Taylor Stadium

The lower section at Taylor Stadium contains bucket-style seat-back chairs.  This is where all the season ticket holders' reserved seats are located.  Those seats are not marked as reserved, so be ready to move if a season ticket holder tells you you're in his seat.

The upper section is all bleacher seating, as is the right field line extended section.  In theory, this is where general admission ticket holders are supposed to sit.  In reality, sit where you want.  If you don't ask the Event Staff to show you to your seat, they'll never know.

Concessions at Taylor Stadium

You aren't allowed to bring in your own food or drink to the game, but there are concessions.  The concession stand (for large crowds there are two concession stands) sell pretty standard ballpark fare:  hot dogs, brats, cheeseburgers, nachos, pop corn, etc.  Nothing too exciting or unusual, but what they have is good.

I recommend the Heater Dog, which features blue cheese slaw and hot sauce on a hot dog.

Taylor Stadium Rules

• No alcohol is sold or allowed inside Taylor Stadium.  And unlike some SEC ballparks, there's no Left field Lounge or similar area to legally imbibe within sight of the playing field.  We come to the ballpark for the baseball.
  
  
• Foul balls and home run balls:  The rule on caught or retrieved balls seems to change each season, and even changes during the season.  For the past few years the rule has been that all baseballs should be returned to the Event Staff.  They will come and get it from you.  But every year that rule is applied selectively depending on which Event Staff person is involved and who has the ball int heir hands.
  
  And then there was the ball hawk who began snagging stray baseballs during the 2012 season and got his story in the paper, which prompted this response from the assistant director of game operations:
  

  “We try to get back as many foul balls as we can, but we don’t go and yank them out of people’s hands,” Doolittle said. “If we lose a handful, a dozen a game, it’s not the end of the world for us.”

• Heckling:  There are the usual NCAA warnings before the game about showing disrespect to opposing players.  But no one's going to shut you down unless you become so rude or obscene that someone within earshot complains to the Event Staff.
  
  I highly recommend heckling according to the 10 Commandment of Heckling, by Christ Snead.
  
  
• No umbrellas allowed, no matter how nasty the weather.
  
  
• No smoking inside the gates of Taylor Stadium.  This one is enforced.
  
  
• More detailed list of stadium rules HERE

If you want to know the nitty gritty details about Tickets, Directions, Parking, and Listening to the Game, check out our SimmonsField.com FAQ.

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Simmons Field Weather

Yes, Missouri is now the northernmost and coldest location in SEC Baseball.

Taylor Stadium @ Simmons Field has a unique quality somewhat like entering the Bermuda Triangle of Weather.  Everyone who has been to many games there will tell you the same thing.  Whatever the temperature is in Columbia - in fact, whatever the temperature is in Taylor Stadium parking lot - when you walk up the steps to the grandstand and enter the interior of the ballpark, you can feel the temperature drop 5-10 degrees.

From our perspective, the potential for cold and harsh weather in March and April isn't grounds for excuse making.  It's an opportunity for home field advantage.  If we wanted to use the cold weather as an excuse, we'd have moved to the B1G Ten, like Nebraska.

Those of us who have been coming to Mizzou Baseball games for a long time take a perverse pleasure and pride in the conditions we have endured for the sake of the game.  Some of my most cherished memories at Simmons Field are related to the weather.

• Before the new Taylor Stadium was built up around Simmons Field, the winds roaring up The Summit out of Reactor Field could be quite fierce.  I'm not exaggerating when I say I have had to hold on tight to the bleacher seats in order to keep from getting blown into the next few rows (and if you've seen me, you'll know I come equipped with plenty of natural ballast). I was on hand for the wild game in April of 1996 at Simmons Field that finished with Mizzou defeating the Cowboys 24-23, the lead see-sawing back forth as the gale force winds took many balls over the fences.
  
  
• I once watched the better part of a game from beneath the grand stand bleachers with MU catcher Jon Williams' dad, seeking what protection we could from the light rain that continued through much of the contest.
  
  
• I recall showing up for a freezing Saturday double header against Oklahoma in the late 90's armed with a tarp and bungee cords.  I built myself a little tent in the upper corner of the grandstand and watched the games through a small opening.
  
  
• From 2003 through 2005 the annual March home stand was scheduled to begin with a 3-game set against the Youngstown State Penguins.  Every year, the aptly named Penguins would bring snow and sleet and frigid temperatures to Columbia with them, delaying, postponing and cancelling games.  Finally the Tigers stopped inviting them.  The photos above are from one of those MU-YSU snow-delays.
  
  
• Perhaps my favorite weather-related story is from April 7, 2001 (I remember the exact date of that Friday night game because it was on my wife's birthday; I was at the game while she had a girls' night out, a mutually beneficial arrangement we have followed on many April 7ths since then).  The Pepperdine Waves from sunny Malibu were in Columbia for a weekend series.  This was the team that included future major league pitchers Dan Haren and Noah Lowry.  The weather was cool at game time and got worse from that point on.  During the nine-inning game players and fans alike experienced rain, sleet and snow along with steadily dropping temperatures and steady winds.  The Beach Boys from Malibu had one of those jet-engine style blast heaters in their dugout, but they were still shivering and grumbling.  We fans, of course, had come dressed sensibly in a couple dozen layers of clothing, and we thoroughly enjoyed heckling the frozen Waves.  the Tigers won that game 9-5 and came back on Saturday to win 13-4.

Actually, the most extreme weather the Baseball Tigers have endured has been at places other than their home turf.  I can remember twice when a game has been interrupted by tornadoes touching down in very near proximity to the ballpark . . . in O'Fallon, MO (near St. Louis) and in Norman , Oklahoma this past season.  I'm told the heat in Arizona's new stadium at the 2012 Tucson Regional was more daunting than any adverse conditions at Taylor Stadium.  And for several consecutive years the Tigers began their season playing a tournaments in the minor league complexes in Arizona only to lose games to torrential rainfall in one of the driest states in the nation.

One of the most common comments I've heard about the difficulties Mizzou Baseball will face in the SEC is that they will be the only cold-weather school in a warm-weather conference.

Missouri certainly will be the northernmost school in the SEC.  The stats below demonstrate that the difference is not as large as it might seem, though, between Columbia, MO, and Lexington, Fayetteville, Knoxville and Nashville.

The information below demonstrates that while Columbia, MO is, on average, the coolest SEC location in the SEC during the college baseball season, there are other schools that are not much better off.  Then again, the next two coolest SEC towns are the site of perpetual SEC Baseball cellar dwellers Kentucky and Tennessee.

An alternate way of looking at these numbers, though, is that Mizzou recruits can be guaranteed to play a large number of their conference games at warm-weather sites.  And recruits from Mizzou's most fertile recruiting areas (Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Chicago area) may actually prefer to play in what they will see as moderate Missouri rather than down in teh Sun Belt.

Each school is listed below with their hometown and the Average HIGH, Average LOW and Average precipitation during the months of the college baseball season.  Also I've calculated an average of those Highs and Lows.  Obviously this is not a true average temperature during those four months, but serves us as a simple number for comparison.   Schools are listed from warmest to coolest.  Source: Weather.com

♦ Florida (Gainesville, FL)

February: 70 HI / 40 LO / 3.32"
March: 75 HI / 50 LO / 4.33"
April: 80 HI / 55 LO / 2.67"
May: 87 HI / 62 LO / 2.48"
Season: 78 HI / 52 LO

♦ Texas A&M (College Station, TX)

February: 65 HI / 45 LO / 2.95"
March: 72 HI / 51 LO / 3.17"
April: 79 HI / 58 LO / 2.66"
May: 86 HI / 67 LO / 4.33"
Season: 75 HI / 55 LO

♦ Louisiana State (Baton Rouge, LA)

February: 65 HI / 43 LO / 5.44"
March: 72 HI / 49 LO / 4.33"
April: 78 HI / 56 LO / 4.26"
May: 85 HI / 65 LO / 4.70"
Season: 75 HI / 53 LO

♦ South Carolina (Columbia, SC)

February: 63 HI / 41 LO / .391"
March: 71 HI / 47 LO / 4.21"
April: 80 HI / 54 LO / 2.66"
May: 87 HI / 63 LO / 3.00"
Season: 75 HI / 51 LO

♦ Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)

February: 59 HI / 36 LO / 5.06"
March: 66 HI / 43 LO / 6.49"
April: 74 HI / 49 LO / 4.96"
May: 81 HI / 58 LO /4.54"
Season: 70 HI / 46 LO

♦ Georgia (Athens, GA)

February: 58 HI / 36 LO / 4.54"
March: 66 HI / 43 LO / 4.43"
April: 74 HI / 49 LO / 3.15"
May: 82 HI / 58 LO / 3.00"
Season: 70 HI / 46 LO

♦ Mississippi State (Starkville, MS)

February: 58 HI / 34 LO / 5.91"
March: 66 HI / 41 LO / 4.85"
April: 74 HI / 50 LO / 4.94"
May: 82 HI / 59 LO / 4.58"
Season: 70 HI / 46 LO

♦ Auburn (Auburn, AL)

February: 59 HI / 35 LO / 5.51"
March: 67 HI / 41 LO / 6.23"
April: 74 HI / 47 LO / 4.30"
May: 81 HI / 57 LO / 3.38"
Season: 70 HI / 45 LO

♦ Ole Miss (Oxford, MS)

February: 56 HI / 33 LO / 5.54"
March: 65 HI / 40 LO / 4.99"
April: 74 HI / 48 LO / 5.40"
May: 81 HI / 59 LO / 6.00"
Season: 69 HI / 45 LO

♦ Vanderbilt (Nashville, TN)

February: 52 HI / 32 LO / 4.08"
March: 61 HI / 39 LO / 4.11"
April: 71 HI / 48 LO / 4.00"
May: 78 HI / 57 LO / 5.50"
Season: 65 HI / 44 LO

♦ Tennessee ( Knoxville, TN)

February: 52 HI / 30 LO / 4.80"
March: 61 HI / 36 LO / 4.54"
April: 70 HI / 44 LO / 4.31"
May: 78 HI / 53 LO / 4.80"
Season  : 65 HI / 41 LO

♦ Arkansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

February: 51 HI / 30 LO / 2.49"
March: 59 HI / 38 LO / 4.02"
April: 69 HI / 47 LO / 4.30"
May: 76 HI / 56 LO / 5.20"
Season: 64 HI / 43 LO<

♦ Kentucky (Lexington, KY)

February: 46 HI / 28 LO / 3.51"
March: 55 HI / 36 LO / 4.07"
April: 66 HI / 45 LO / 3.60"
May: 74 HI / 54 LO / 5.26"
Season: 60 HI / 41 LO

♦ Mizzou (Columbia, MO)

February: 44 HI / 25 LO / 2.34"
March: 55 HI / 34 LO / 2.91"
April: 66 HI / 44 LO / 4.49"
May: 75 HI / 54 LO / 4.98"
Season: 60 HI / 39 LO

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Other Rivals

Mizzou Baseball's biggest rivals are the ones they just left behind, in the Big 12.

• Kansas, of course, has been the Tigers' biggest rival going on 100+ years, as we talked about last week.  There's always hope that at some point the Bill Self will get over having his panties in a wad, or maybe the rest of the athletic department will tell him to shut up and let them get back to making piles of money playing Mizzou.  Until then, the Border War is is over.
  
  
• MU's chief rivals in the Big 12 were the former Big 8 rivals, the teams Missouri has been playing for most of a century, first in the original Missouri Valley, then in the Big 6, the Big 7 and finally the Big 8:  Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Nebraska.  And Iowa State and Colorado back when they still had baseball.  I suspect some of those teams may make guest appearances on the MU non-conference schedule in the years to come.
  
  
• The only team that became a serious rival among the former Southwest conference that joined into the Big 12 is Texas.  That's because the Longhorns are so arrogant they're easy to hate.  And Missouri always gave Augie's Dogies every thing they could handle. Texas leads Missouri by just 34-30 all-time.

Beyond the Big 12 conference, MU has developed some other rivalries as well.

Missouri State and Missouri play a home-and-away mid-week series each year, usually separated by a week or two.  After MU swept MSU this year, The Tigers lead the Bears 23-22 all-time.

There's some bad blood in the hearts of many Missouri fans ever since what once was called Southwest Missouri State stole our original name of Missouri State University.

Mizzou used to play a home-and-away series each season against the other two in-state D-1 teams as well, but somehow SLU and SEMO have dropped off the schedule in the past few years.  It could have something to do with MU dominating those series 72-17 and 21-9, respectively.

There has been a bit of bad blood spilt with some other "rivals" in the past decade or so.

Coach Tim Jamieson and
Catcher Trevor Coleman
2007 Regional

Louisville is not a favorite among Missouri fans, ever since the 2007 Regional Mizzou hosted.  There was some show-boating and taunting done by former Louisville OF Chris Dominguez, which has lingered in the minds of fans who were around then.

Missouri and Louisville met up again in the Tucson Regional this past June, and there was some talk about avenging that game, but the only people on either team who were still around from 2007 were coaches and their assistants.  Getting beat 11-3 in the final game of the season isn't very impressive in the annals of vengeance, either.

Vengeance was sweeter against Charlotte this past year.  In 2011 the Tigers traveled to Charlotte and got beat 3 out of 4 games.  But the Mizzou coaches and players were not pleased about the arrogant way Charlotte ran up the score in the final 22-7 game of that series. They exacted their revenge a year later, taking three straight from Charlotte.  A fourth game was rained out.

Missouri has some mid-week opponents that show up on the schedule almost every year, but none of them could be called heated rivalries at all.

Illinois and Missouri have met a Busch Stadium in St. Louis over the past 2-3 years, but that inter-state rivalry has never generated much heat outside of basketball.

Beyond the Big 12 and the in-state teams, the only teams on the all-time head-to-head list that MU has played any significant number of times are all smaller schools that Missouri hasn't played for decades (like Washington U in St. Louis -- MU has a 52-28 record against them, all ancient history).

There is one other major school Missouri has played a significant number of times, posting a 28-20-1 all-time record against them.  Most of that is pretty old history, but there is some hope of renewing that rivalry.  That team is our closest neighbor in the SEC:  Ar-Kansas.

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: kU Sucks

Brock Bond vs. Ryne Price

The Missouri - Kansas rivalry is among the oldest and most fierce in all college sports.

A good retelling of the history of the rivalry (albeit from a football point of view) can be found at A Look Back on the MU-KU Football Rivalry at RockMNation.com.

Missouri's US Senator Claire McCaskill was quoted as saying that even if Mizzou switches to a new conference, the Tigers need to make sure they schedule games against at least one traditional rival — Kansas. She said she's not sure "how the world could go on without the MU-KU fight." (AP, October 18, 2011)

Pretty much everyone at Mizzou - fans, coaches, administration - are in favor of continuing the MU-KU rivalry as a non-conference rivalry, in the tradition of Georgia-Georgia Tech, LSU-Tulane, etc.

But the Kansas administration and coaches have taken a hard line against it.  Another way to describe this would be that they've thrown a hissy fit and swept the dust off their ruby slippers.

The rivalry has been no less intense on the baseball field over the years.

More than once, KU Head Coach Ritch Price refused to let his team go out and do after-game handshakes because he was so ticked off at Mizzou.

In recent years, the focus of the Mizzou hecklers has been on Ritch Price and his almost-endless supply of sons who have played for dear old dad.

The last boy is finally gone, though, which prompted this classy response to a question during the 2011 Preseason Big 12 Baseball Coaches Teleconference:

Q: Ritch, I gotta ask you. What's it gonna be like, not coaching a Price?

A: It's definitely going to be different. I jokingly tell people, If my wife hadn't cut me off, I'd have a lot better team.

The Price boys conducted themselves on the field as though they were daddy's favorite players and should be treated as such.

No incident demonstrates the Price Wars better than The Fight:

Jayhawks fight way into finale (Lawrence Journal-World, May 29, 2006)

In a road rendition of the Border Showdown, bad blood spilled in the second inning when KU's Ryne Price, rounding the bases during a home-run trot, dipped a shoulder into Missouri third baseman Brock Bond.

The two players locked up and soon were on the ground scuffling. Players from both schools immediately scurried to the scene from positions, the dugouts and the outfield bullpens. Fists were flying in some confrontations.

Several players had to be restrained by teammates as the two sides faced off near the Kansas dugout . . .

Mizzou has always recruited in Kansas, not just in the Kansas City area, but on toward Topeka as well.  Aaron Crow came from the Topeka area to Mizzou.  With MU going to the SEC, it won't surprise me at all to see Tim Jamieson and company recruit even more zealously in Kansas, enticing players that may have grown up rooting for Kansas, Kansas State and Wichita State, but now might be interested in playing in the SEC.

The Video

No discussion of KU Baseball suckage would be complete without yet another posting of this infamous video, which the perpetrators removed from the internet . . . except for my copy.  Enjoy.

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Fashion Police

To really understand the importance of game day attire in the SEC, it's essential that you spend the next half hour scrolling through this 20+ page message board thread at SECRant.com, titled Now that they're in the SEC, are Mizzou fans going to make an attempt to not dress like douchebags?  Or you can just read some snippets here, along with my answers:

OBReb6: I went to the Mizzou-Colorado game in 2010 and I've never seen so many jerseys in my life. Even the fraternity guys were wearing them. It was disgusting.

Worse than that is that the women didn't even look like they made an attempt to look somewhat attractive. Hoodies, t-shirts, jeans, flatbills, etc. Have some respect for yourselves women of missouri.

Is there going to be some sort of movement to conform to the style of other SEC schools? Or are y'all going to continue to look like white trash?

Trrip: Yes, Reb, we're going to continue to look like white trash. That is certainly better than taking fashion advice from someone at Ground Zero for White Trash.

OBReb6 (again): I'm not talking about wearing a bowtie and blazer, just have a little respect for yourself and wear a collared shirt. There's nothing more sad than a grown man wearing the jersey of a college kid.

Trrip: At Mizzou Baseball games we wear whatever we want to wear. Usually it comes in layers, so we can be prepared for the weather to go from icebox to suntans between the 1st and 9th inning.  And if we wear a jersey, we don't steal it from a college kid.  We buy it ourselves.

Numberwang: Spend 99 cents on a can of starch and spend 3 minutes ironing a shirt

Trrip: I've never touched a can of starch in my life, let alone used one. And my KU SUCKS t-shirt is wash-and-wear.  I'm sure my R-KANSAS SUCKS t-shirt will be as well.

MasterofSinanju: I'm not a fashion model, but there are some rules you have to follow to wear a jersey properly.

1. Always tuck, and of course make sure the jersey is clean.
2. Wear a real jersey, not one of those Walmart specials with big arse logos on the sleeve.
3. SEWN numbers. GTFO with that screen printed shite.
4. If you're traveling with the team, yes wear your road whites.
5. Names on the back are okay, as long as it's not YOUR name.
6. If you wear a throwback, make sure it's era appropriate - no names if the oldtimer didn't have it back then.
7. Watch what you wear underneath - remember that it shows through.
8. Wear the right size - it's supposed to hang a bit loose, not constrict your breathing.

Trrip: You lost me at #1. You tuck in your jersey? Are you 80?

There is no traditional way to dress for a Mizzou Baseball game. The very idea of a traditional dress code seems absurd to most Mizzou fans.

Come to a game at Taylor Stadium and you will see all of the following:

• Well-to-do alumni / team dads dressed in upscale Mizzou polos and khakis
• Their wives will most often not be in dresses.  They will be in appropriately expensive outfits that are both stylish and warm
• Most adult (non-student) fans will show up in whatever they pulled out of the closet that day, which will likely be jeans or khakis, MU t-shirts and hoodies, or whatever they want to wear
• An astonishing number of male college students show up in shorts and t-shirt, hoodie or jersey, even when the temperature is low enough to freeze your knees.
• The college girls will do what nearly all college girls do - show up to a baseball game in full make-up and their best most flattering t-shirt or jersey.  Occasionally you'll see a coed in a dress if they're coming from or going to some other event
• No bow ties.  Unless you're 80.

Actually, that list pretty well describes what people wear to church on Sunday morning in CoMo, too.  The preacher at my church announced once that "next week will be dress-down Sunday".  I looked at my friend next to me, a man in his early 30's with a wife and 4 kids, who was dressed in a t-shirt he picked up off the floor and cargo shorts and flip flops.  I told him, "You're going to have to come naked."

By the way, he's one of the ministers.

In other words, we don't care what fans in the rest of the SEC wear.  In CoMo, we wear whatever we want to.

Oh, and I saw this photo somewhere in that message board thread.  I know those guys.  The one with "I" on his chest and a hand print on his face is now an electrical engineer for a major company in Kansas City. He does not dress like that when he comes to church.  Well, not often.

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: CoMo Culture

♦ The We Always Swing Jazz Series is the brainchild of Jon Poses, an enthusiastic fan of both Jazz and Baseball, a twin love he expresses in the name of his corporation:  National Pastimes Productions.  The Series has brought dozens of internationally known jazz artists to CoMo's performance venues.

Columbia also has a year-round jazz scene, centered on a great restaurant called Murry's.

♦ Columbia also has a a taste for the Blues . . . and barbecue.  Local blues bands like Chump Change, along with national and internationally known blues acts can often be heard at CoMo venues like MoJo's and The Blue Note.

Richard King, the owner of both MoJo's and the Blue Note, is the power behind Thumper Entertainment, which puts on the occasional 9th Street SummerFest concert series and the annual Roots n Blues n BBQ festival every Fall in downtown CoMo.  The festival is two days of acts from blues to rhythm & blues to bluegrass.  The Blind Boys of Alabama, Ana Popovic and Fitz & the Tantrums entertain tens of thousands annually.

At the west end of the festival is Barbecue Alley, where the annual BBQ Contest takes place.

“The Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival continues to be one of the finest events anywhere in the world. If you like music and barbecue put this one on the top of your list to attend”
—Mike McMillen, Kansas City Barbeque Society

RNBNBBQ is not the only time Columbians love their barbecue, though.  Being just down the road from the capital of barbecue, Kansas City, CoMo has developed a barbecue tradition of its own.  Buckingham's BBQ and Smokin' Chick's can compete with any big city BBQ stand for great taste and great atmosphere.

♦ CoMo has several other music venues in town, including The Bridge.

♦ The Ragtag Cinema is a locally owned and operated "art house" theater, with a cafeteria included in the package.

The same people who operate Ragtag host the annual True/False Film Festival. The

For four days, downtown Columbia, Missouri is transformed into a small-town Midwestern utopia. Most films come freshly discovered from Sundance, Toronto and other festivals, others appear mysteriously before their official premieres elsewhere. Sandwiched between the nonstop movies, we throw parties, host debates and field trips, and challenge local filmmakers to reimagine the possibilities of nonfiction filmmaking.

True/False has received accolades from national media, including South by Midwest: Dispatching True/False and SXSW (cinemascope.com, March 2011)

This being my first trip to True/False and Columbia, I was impressed by the enthusiasm for film in a small town two hours from both St. Louis and Kansas City. At the centre of Columbia’s film culture is the Ragtag Cinema, a fully functioning café, bar, and two-screen theatre that projects arthouse fare year-round. What started as a peripatetic film society is now a brick-and-mortar institution, but jammed as it is into an old Coca-Cola bottling factory, and with its small screening room filled with mismatched, well-worn couches and sitting chairs, it still retains an ad hoc spirit. Before every screening at the Ragtag, as well as at other venues like the two-tiered, sticky-floored Blue Note (one-time home for the Ragtag) and the aforementioned, majestic Missouri, local young folk musicians played earnest half-hour sets as cinemagoers found their seats. Contrast that pre-show programming with the eclectic montage of vintage music videos, low-rent institutional propaganda and sketch-comedy skits before screenings at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse, a movie theatre/pub franchise that started the same year as the Ragtag (1997), and you can see the cultural shift from True/False to SXSW—two festivals that are separated by three days, 800 miles, and a vast difference in scale and focus.

♦ Check out The CoMo Collective to get a taste of life in Columbia.

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: A Weekend in CoMo

What's there to do in Columbia, MO (often referred to as CoMo) on a baseball weekend?

♦ Take in some other sports action:  Mizzou Basketball is already in the post-season by the time baseball's conference schedule rolls around, but you may be lucky enough to catch some other sports scheduled in town - often within a short walk from Simmons Field

• MU's track and softball fields are right behind the baseball field.  MU Softball is a perennial top-ranked team, and MU Track often has individual leaders in the national standings.
  
  
• On certain weekends (especially during the annual Missouri Relays in late March), there can be baseball, softball and track going on simultaneously, with fans wandering back and forth between the venues, or watching the track meet between innings of the ballgames.
  
  
• The Missouri state high school basketball and wrestling championship tournaments take place at the Mizzou Sports Park, with game after game scheduled throughout their respective weekends, which often coincide with MU Baseball weekends.

♦ Places to go, things to do:  Sure, you can go to the mall, but why do the same things you can do back home?  CoMo has some unique entertainment venues to check out:

• Ragtag Cinema , 10 Hitt Street, in downtown CoMo, is a nice little independent "art house" movie theater, featuring a lot of off-the-beaten track movies.  Alcoholic beverages are sold in their small cafe.
   
• The Blue Note, 17 N. 9th Street, in downtown CoMo, has become a nationally known music venue, featuring a wide range of regional and national acts in every genre imaginable (and a few that aren't imaginable).
  
  
• MoJo's, 1013 Park Avenue, in downtown CoMo, is a great little restaurant that also features a wide range of live music, majoring in blues and roots music.  

♦ Columbia's unique dining opportunities.   Like any college town, CoMo has a plethora of chain restaurants and fast food joints.  But if you want the true CoMo experience, check out these places:

• Booches, 110 N. 9th Street, in downtown CoMo, is a pool hall and restaurant that dates back to 1884.  Their cheeseburgers, which are served on a sheet of wax paper, have been listed in USA Today as among the best in the country.  It comes across as an unassuming place, but there's often a line stretching out on the sidewalk waiting to get in.
  
  
• Shakespeare's Pizza, 225 S. 9th Street, in downtown CoMo (the original location) and 3304 Broadway Business Park Court (on the west end of CoMo), was named by Good Morning America as the Best College Hangout in the nation.  Serving unique pizzas since 1973.  It's a must-visit spot when you're in CoMo. The song "Whiskey Bottle," by Uncle Tupelo, is rumored to be about the city of Columbia as it makes specific reference to a sign which used be displayed on a Columbia tackle shop sign which read, "Liquor, Guns, and Ammo." The sign is now displayed at the downtown location of Shakespeare's
  
  
• The Broadway Diner, 22 S. 4th Street, in downtown CoMo, is the place to stop for breakfast, even if breakfast is at 3 AM (they're open 11 PM to 2 PM daily).  For the truly hungry, there's nothing quite so delicious or filing as The Stretch, "a multi-tiered plate of hash browns topped with scrambled eggs, chili, cheddar cheese, green peppers and onions." 

• Murry's, 3107 Green Meadows Way, is my recommendation if you're looking for a more upscale but affordable unique dining experience in CoMo.   Try the fried green pepper rings while you listen to live jazz.
  
  
• Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream, 21 S. 9th Street, is a unique ice cream shop in downtown Columbia.  Sparky's offers something other than the usual ice cream fare.  You can order alcoholic ice cream drinks (a Guiness float, a White Russian shake, etc) and an ever changing assortment of ice cream flavors.  My favorite is the cinnamon ice cream, but I've also enjoyed the Les Bourgeois & Ghirardelli Chocolate, the Rum Raisin and Butterbeer flavors.  And check out the time Sparky's made the national news with one of their creations:  

• For more of CoMo's unique restaurant choices, check out our SimmonsField.com FAQ

♦ Also check out The SEC Guide to Missouri's Home Turf, which lists many good options for food and fun in CoMo.

When you're in Columbia, Mo., you definitely need to make it to Booches on 9th Street. A pool hall that serves the best burgers I've ever tasted. Cash only. Notable for the sign in the front that says "Closed Sunday, see you in church."

♦ Also check out the Columbia Daily Tribune's annual Our Town issue, with nearly everything you could possibly want to know about Columbia.

SEC Fan's Guide to Mizzou Baseball: Mizzou in the Majors

Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers

♦ Mizzou coach proud of Kinsler, Scherzer (mlb.com, 10/8/11)

Tim Jamieson's feelings won't match the internal tug-of-war Yvonne and Manny Upton were in position for this offseason -- that parental confusion that BJ and Justin Upton's mother and father were in store for if both their children had made the World Series.

But for Jamieson, to see two of his former players compete for a chance to play on baseball's biggest stage, one at the plate and the other on the mound, the emotion can't be too disparate.

Jamieson, the long-time head coach at the University of Missouri, was there when Max Scherzer's fastball first transformed into the upper-90s weapon that allowed him to once-upon-a-time out-pitch a collegiate Joba Chamberlain, the fastball that's helped carry him and the Tigers to the American League Championship Series. He was there, too, when the Rangers' Ian Kinsler launched a mammoth home run over the Left Field Lounge -- a tailgate area that sits beyond the fence at Mississippi State -- proof positive for the critics that Kinsler didn't lack for power, even if his frame lacked in size.

Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers

♦ Ian Kinsler: baseball's best second baseman (Fox Sports Southwest, 5/2/2012)

Kinsler may be the best fusion of power, patience, contact and speed in the game today. Of the top 10 players in baseball according to the FanGraphs.com WAR rankings, he's the only one who has struck out in less than 10 percent of his plate appearances.

Kinsler has one of the calmest batting stances in baseball — knees bent slightly, steady hands ready to pounce, high socks hiked to the knee. He takes almost no stride: right foot rocks up, right foot rocks back, bat whips through the zone.

The swing is as simple and instantaneous as light switch. And it's a blur to everyone — except Kinsler, whose strikeout rate has fallen considerably over the past two years.

"The more experience you get, the game slows down for you," he said. "It's not something you think about. It's something that develops. It's not like I go into spring training, saying I need to get better at strike-zone discipline. It's a matter of playing games. I was always an aggressive hitter coming up. I've been able to pull back the reins a little bit and be more patient."

Aaron Crow, Kansas City Royals

♦ Three former Mizzou pitchers excel as pros (Fox Sports Midwest, 4/3/11)

At Missouri, Scherzer, Crow and Gibson learned to grab a challenge by the neck and choke it. They were taught a first-pitch strike is critical. Never give in to a batter. Be ruthless.

Crow admired Scherzer. Crow entered the program when Scherzer was a junior. He watched the way Scherzer stalked hitters from the mound. He saw how Scherzer threw with sizzling speed.

"I want to do just as well or better than him," Crow recalled thinking at the time.

Crow pulled for Scherzer to throw well. But Crow, deep down, wanted his own stuff to burn. He wanted fans and coaches to watch him and think, "He is the next great Missouri pitcher."

"I wanted to do better than he did," Crow said, "because that's the competitive nature I have."

Gibson was drawn to Crow. Gibson studied tape of Scherzer, but Scherzer had left Columbia before Gibson joined the program. Gibson watched Crow's bulldog-like command on the mound. Gibson wanted his arm to carry the same bite.

Gibson's hunger was born of instinct. Since he was a boy, he had sacrificed for the game he loved. He wanted to realize his potential. Crow's fire fueled his own.

"That's something that keeps me going — just remembering all the stuff that I sacrificed to be where I am today," Gibson said. "If I don't go out and give it my all, I'm doing myself a disservice."

Scherzer, Crow and Gibson each left legacies. Scherzer struck out 226 batters and had a 2.30 ERA in his Missouri career. Crow went 43 consecutive innings without giving up a run in his final collegiate season in 2008; he finished his time in Columbia with 277 strikeouts, ranking third all-time in the program. Gibson had 28 wins and 304 strikeouts in his Missouri career, both ranking second all-time in the program.

All major college baseball programs have talent. Not all talent develops into first-round draft material. Scherzer inspired Crow. Crow and Gibson inspired each other. Inspiration led to action.

♦ Top 5 Mizzou Major League Prospects currently in the Minors

1. Kyle Gibson is without a doubt the most likely former Tiger to make it to the Show.  On his way back after recovery from Tommy John surgery, he was the Minnesota Twins' top prospect before his injury.  He's playing in the Arizona Fall League now and should be in the Twin Cities by sometime in 2013.
2. Brock Bond, after a year-long recovery from a concussion, was back with the AAA Fresno Grizzlies in 2012.  He's an atypical major league prospect because of his size and lack of power, but he could find his way onto a major league roster.
3. Nick Tepesch made it up to the AA Frisco Rough Riders in 2012, where he had a good year.  It's not hard to picture him with competing for a spot on the Rangers' roster in 2013.
4. Matt Stites is barely getting started; he was with the High-A Fort Wayne Tin Caps this season.  But his numbers were impressive and he will certainly have the attention of the Padres' organization as he continues to move up the ladder.  He was named the 2012 Low-A All Star Relief Pitcher by Baseball America.
5. Ryan Lollis was a teammate of Brock Bond on the Fresno Grizzlies through much of 2012.  He has a bit more power than Bond, and is an outstanding defensive outfielder.  He will likely spend the better part of 2013 at Triple-A, but could make his move up if he compiles another year of great numbers at Fresno.

Check out the full list of other Mizzou alums working their way up (or down) the ladder HERE.

♦ Notable Past Mizzou Major Leaguers

1. Phil Bradley was a star outfielder and a star quarterback at Mizzou from 1979-1981.  He had a good career in the majors, mostly with Seattle, and was an All-Star once.  HE now works with the Major League Players Association, and is a volunteer coach for Mizzou Softball.  
2. Hub Pruett played at MU just one year, in 1921.  In the major leagues his favorite pitch was a screwball, which used to gain fame because of his mastery over one Babe Ruth.  Pruett struck out Ruth 10 of the first 13 times he faced him. In all, he faced Ruth 30 times. The "Babe" got only 4 hits in those at-bats (including one home run off a curve ball), struck out 15 times, walked eight times, sacrificed once, and grounded out twice.
3. Dave Silvestri was an All American shortstop for the Tigers from 1986-88, and went on to a journeyman career in the major leagues, mostly with the Yankees.
4. Dave Otto pitched for MU from 1983-85 and went on to a major league career with the Athletics, Indians and Pirates from 1988-92.  He currently works on the broadcast side with the Cubs.
5. Mike Shannon's career with the Missouri Tigers was a mere cup of coffee (1958), but he went on to a long career with the St. Louis Cardinals that still has him as the voice of the Cardinals.
6. Sonny Siebert was a teammate of Shannon's at Mizzou.  He went on to a pretty successful career as a pitcher, mostly with the Indians and Red Sox.
7. Tim Laudner was a Mizzou catcher in the late 70's, and went on to a pro career with the Minnesota Twins, including the 1987 World Series and the 1988 All-Star Game.