Game Day: "They just found holes"

■ Courageous pitching can't prevent sweep of Missouri baseball (Columbia Missourian)

The duo is certainly making a case for being considered the Tigers’ No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers.

Jamieson does not like to make anything permanent, but the pitchers’ strong performances did make him leak out some information.

“I’d say Nick and Eric are two of our starters,” Jamieson said.

■ Long day for the Tigers (TigerExtra.com)

“They weren’t hitting the ball hard, they just found holes,” Missouri Coach Tim Jamieson said. “All the balls they hit were up in the zone. It’s not hard to hit a belt-high pitch.”

■ Baylor explodes, sweeps pair from Missouri (WacoTrib.com)

Raynor Campbell continued his hot-hitting ways, going 5-for-9 in the doubleheader with a home run, two doubles and five RBIs. He also scored three runs to help the Bears (15-9, 3-3 Big 12) to their first Big 12 doubleheader sweep since May 1, 2004, at Kansas State.

■ Baylor baseball takes twin-ball at Missouri (KWTX.com)

Video highlights, for the strong-hearted

■ Mizzou vs. Baylor live blog (KMOV.com)

With one out and runners on first and second, Jonah Schmidt hit a pop up to shallow center. Baylor's second baseman, shortstop, and centerfielder converged on the ball but failed to make the catch. The play would have loaded the bases, however, an infield fly was called on the play, so Schmidt was out and neither runner could advance.

That call (which was not a bad call—the wind carried the ball out of the infield and the umpire had to make a call quickly) looked like it would kill Mizzou's rally in the inning. But a passed ball allowed Plackis and Brown to advance to into scoring position and Jesse Santo brought them both home with a two-out double down the left field line.

■ What if? Strong MU baseball and softball teams ponder switching leagues (Kansas City Star)

Aaron Senne: If Missouri was moved to the Big Ten, it would decrease our chances of that. Playing against teams in colder weather states, it can be a little bit harder to get more, better recruits down here. They’re not going to be playing against the Texases. … A lot of guys want to come here because it’s high-caliber baseball.

“Not saying the Big Ten isn’t high-caliber. But it isn’t as high-caliber as going to these other places and facing 90 mph fastballs all the time.”

■ Former MU star Phil Bradley helping ease softball pain (Columbia Tribune)

With a current Missouri star stuck on the bench, perhaps for good, who would have figured a former Missouri star sitting nearby might help salvage the season?

“He’ll be fine,” Bradley said of his boss. “These times are going to come. You don’t know when they’re going to come. You don’t know where they’re going to come from. But when they come, you have to deal with it and work your way through it.”

Beautiful Ballpark Music on Easter Weekend

Since the results of today's games do not inspire me for blogging, I'll just wax poetic about the joy of spending a day at the ballpark for a double header.

I arrived early for the 2:00 first game - around 12:30. The Tom Botts Invitational was underway at the Track. Softball was underway over at University Field. And batting practice was underway on Simmons Field.

So I stood at the top of the grandstand, alternately watching the track meet and the batting practice, enjoying the variety of music blaring from the speakers just above my head.

A dad and mom and their young son (7-8 years old, I'd guess) soon came to stand near me and enjoy the experience, as were other families and kids who were arriving at the ballpark.

And the song that welcomed them in true Black & Gold Mizzou Spirit:

Someone full of fun
Do me 'till I'm well done
Little Bo Peep
Cumin' from my stun gun
Beware take care
Most motherfuckers
Have a cold ass stare
Aw baby please be there
Suck my kiss cut me my share

I realize that's not what you came here to read on SimmonsField.com this fine Easter weekend. But I figure if that's the message the Athletic Department wants representing All We Call Mizzou at Simmons Field, then perhaps I should include the same uplifting poetry here at SimmonsField.com.

Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday, everyone.

Baseball game rained out tonight

According to mutigers.com, game one of the Missouri-Baylor series has been postponed until Saturday due to rain in the Columbia area on Friday. The Tigers and Bears will play a doubleheader on Saturday, starting at 2 p.m.

The first game on Saturday will be televised by the Mizzou Sports Network and will air on Fox Sports Midwest and MetroSports.

The series finale is still scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday

Friday game rescheduled for 7:00 PM

According to MUTigers.com, the start time for Friday's game has been pushed back to 7:00 PM

Game Day: Rain, Rain, Go Away

■ Based on the latest Weather Radar and the traffic cams from just west of Columbia, it's starting to look like there's a chance the rain and storms may arrive in Columbia and pass on through in time for baseball to be played this evening.

■ Utility player becoming leader for Missouri baseball team (Columbia Missourian)

Coach Tim Jamieson said his first impression of Nicholas was that he was very mature and knew what he wanted.

“He has a plan,” Jamieson said. “He has a vision. He wasn’t going to be able to accomplish it where he was, so he wasn’t afraid to go backwards a step to go where he wanted to go.”

Nicholas continues to make an impression with his support of his teammates, but Jamieson said the real statement he has made is with his bat. Nicholas has hit so well that Jamieson has made him the club’s cleanup hitter.

■ Baseball America has a scouting report on Brooks Pinckard, rhp/of, Baylor and two other Bears

He's got great stuff, great stuff. He's got kind of a little different arm action, but he came in and was 90-95 with a good, hard slider. It was 78 mph on the slider, and he threw it for strikes. For being a position player, a two-way guy that hasn't pitched a whole lot, I was pretty impressed with the way he pitched. His velocity dropped a little bit when he threw for a second day in a row, to like 88-91, but that was understandable and nothing to worry about for me.

■ And continuing with the theme of "or not", I will not be posting the Player of the Month poll like I have done in years past. The stat crunching takes too much time.

Game Day: Baylor Bears @ Simmons Field

■ The Bears have seen a 5-game losing streak, followed by a 7-game winning streak, then the weather cancelled 2 of 3 against the Sooners. In their last 4 games, they beat UT-San Antonio, then lost 2 of 3 to the Jayhawks. The Bears have been idle this week since the KU series.

■ Parking: MU Track & Field and MU Softball both have contests scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Walton Stadium and University Field, next to Taylor Stadium. Parking may be at a premium.

■ Weather: The latest forecasts show the rainstorms arriving at Columbia sometime Friday evening and being gone from the area entirely by noon Saturday.

■ TV: Are You Watching This? MU vs. BU on TV Saturday

■ 36 unearned runs in 22 games (BaylorFans.com)

Yuck. 36 unearned runs on only 32 errors. So there have been some big errors, and not too many insignificant ones.

Furthermore, in the 9 losses, Baylor has given up 26 unearned runs on only 15 errors, almost 3 unearned runs allowed per game. Very frustrating

.
■ The BU-KU series, according to the Waco Tribune:

Sunday: L, 12-6: Of all things, a severe power outage cost the Baylor baseball team its series with Kansas.

While Baylor’s pitching had been suspect at times over the course of the weekend, runs and hits had rarely been an issue.

But Baylor went a stunning 11 straight innings without a hit Sunday, and Kansas finally did its damage in the top of the 14th to win, 12-6, and take the series from Baylor.

Saturday, W, 9-8: For the second straight game, the Baylor baseball team put up five runs in the third inning to grab hold of an early lead.

And for the second straight time, the Bears couldn’t hold on to it.
. . .
Baylor has now surrendered 24 runs and 32 hits in its first three Big 12 games, but the offensive numbers — 23 runs on 34 hits — have been nearly as good.

Friday, L, 9-8: If its first two Big 12 contests are any indication, the Baylor baseball team is in for some slugfests in conference play this year.

But the Bears ended the second one Friday the same way they ended the first — on the wrong end of a one-run game.

After a torrid start, Baylor had trouble mustering any offense late and fell to Kansas, 9-8, to open the three-game Big 12 home set — the team’s first of the conference season — on a sour note.
. . .
For as many runs as Baylor put on the board over the first three innings, the Bears’ offense went eerily silent over the next five. The Bears collected just one hit over that span after a five-run third inning gave them a 7-3 advantage, which Kansas (14-8, 1-0) erased two innings later.

■ Baylor ranks #1 on the Boyd's World list of Intended Strength of Schedule for 2010. (Mizzou is 25th)

Baylor, with a record of 13-9, is ranked 52nd on the Boyd's World Pseudo-RPI rankings, in large part because of that Strength of Schedule.

■ Johnny Wholebear pitches for Baylor (Waco Tribune, 3/10)

Coming off a busy four-game series with Oral Roberts last weekend, Baylor coach Steve Smith opted for the pitcher-an-inning game plan to keep his guys fresh for the team’s next series against Illinois-Chicago.
“I didn’t have any choice tonight, because of the situation we were in,” Smith said. “But it works out good, if your pitchers will throw strikes. It’s not an easy thing for an opposing group of hitters to ever settle in. (Louisiana Tech) had their opportunities. I don’t know how many they left on, but they had their opportunities. But the guys did a nice job.”

■ Baylor Baseball Season Preview (Waco Tribune, 2/19/10)

More so than in recent years, Baylor has a foundation of key seniors on which it can lean, including Kempf, Campbell and Glime, a group of leaders who can “make all the difference in the world,” Smith said.

“All we have to play for is winning,” Kempf said. “That’s all we’re worried about. I’ve heard Coach Smith comment in the past about how important he thinks senior leadership is, and we take that on ourselves to be that for this team.”

And a few more words about MU vs. PU . . .

■ Tiger offense is left flailing (Columbia Tribune)

“I haven’t seen an offensive performance like this since we played Xavier at home,” said Jamieson, referring to a 5-1 loss to the Musketeers on March 14. “Down at A&M, we faced a really good pitcher on Friday night and competed well, but this is the first time that we were panicking during the at-bats and just not taking good at-bats and in some cases taking it out in the field."

April Fools

They removed this from YouTube. I, however, saved it for future (continuous) use.

"In retrospect, maybe that was a bad idea."

Mizzou & Title IX

A lot of sports fans blame Title IX for all kinds of perceived evils in college sports. Today's Vox has a good article, well worth the read: Examining equality in women's sports at Mizzou:

When female athletes aren’t given equal practice times, it’s difficult to expect women’s teams to gain recognition. “My freshman and sophomore year, I would run into people on campus who didn’t know that Mizzou had a women’s soccer team,” Collins says. “I found it extremely offensive. Why wouldn’t we have a women’s soccer team?”

An uninformed response is unsurprising when the successes of female athletes are largely overlooked on the walls highlighting men’s accomplishments at the training complex.

“You can barely tell that soccer and softball won Big 12s,” Mims says. “You’re walking into a male-dominated place. It’s like walking into a stranger’s house and seeing thousands of pictures of one child and realizing the parents actually have five. And that reflects into your personal life. When you step outside of athletics, you still feel the cloud hanging over your head that says ‘I’m not as important.’ That should not be happening in a place that’s supposed to be our home.” To make the complex more “all-sport friendly,” renovations will be completed in 2011.

■ Other related links:

• Athletics and Title IX (equity.missouri.edu)
  
  
• Title IX - the text of the law
  
  
• TitleIX.info

Mizzou Baseball Quotes & Notes: Tigers Old & New

■ Missouri infielder's bat stays hot despite Missouri loss (Columbia Missourian)

Nicholas hinted that Santo might be better defensively at third, but he refused to admit it.

“I won’t ever say that,” Nicholas said. “When you have a shortstop at third instead of a catcher, it’s a little bit better.”

Santo said he thinks Nicholas has better hands than him because of Nicholas’ ability to play catcher.

■ Everything clicks for MU (Columbia Tribune)

“We’re a fighting team. We’re not going to give up that easy,” freshman Eric Garcia said. “We went down five, but we knew we were going to get them back real quick.”

By the end of the first inning, the Tigers had tied the score. By game’s end, Missouri had slugged its way to a 22-14 victory.

■ Debating Strength of Schedule (Baseball America)

The problem with the focus on "good" wins is that it fails to recognize that there's value in not losing to bad teams as well; that's one of the things that caused folks to underrate TCU last year, for example. Giving extra value for a series win (more value than just for two wins) ignores just how thin that line between winning and losing a series is. If that extra run in one game gets you extra credit for three games, that distorts the picture.

MU in the Majors
■ Kinsler says he's starting season on the DL (mlb.com)

Ian Kinsler (04) has been sidelined since March 12 with a sprained right ankle, he has not started running or doing agility drills and he has played in just five games in the Cactus League. The Rangers open the season on Monday against the Blue Jays, and Kinsler is in no way going to be ready.

"I have to pretty much wait for it to get better," Kinsler said. "It's disappointing. Any time you go on the disabled list, it's disappointing. Opening Day is fun, it's fun to be a part of. I'm going to still be a part of it."

■ Rangers' roster is shaping up (DallasNews.com)

Three openings remain – two on the bench and one in the bullpen. A second relief slot could develop if reliever Darren O'Day's elbow hasn't healed before April 5.

The relief situation will be determined between Doug Mathis (05) and Willie Eyre.

■ Max Scherzer has first strong outing of Spring (Detroit Free Press)

Max Scherzer’s (04-06) new teammates have noticed his competitive streak.

“He’s as tough a competitor as Justin Verlander,” Inge said. “We play golf, he has to make every shot, every putt. When he takes the mound, he isn’t all about mechanics, he just says, ’I’m going to get you.’ He’s a bulldog and that’s a good thing.”

Baseball and the Arts

■ I'm intrigued by The Baseball Codes: Attention Baseball Fans: This Book Will Eat Your Life (npr.org)

Turbow and Duca have done an incredible thing here, interviewing hundreds of baseball players, managers, coaches, trainers, owners, journalists and broadcasters to assemble a comprehensive history of baseball culture.