A Tip of the Cap 2008

"A Tip of the Cap" is SimmonsField.com's annual end-of-the-year awards tradition, named in honor of legendary MU coach John "Hi" Simmons' trademark gesture.

Mizzou Unleashed

While the Tigers' 2008 season ended sooner than the team and the fans had hoped and expected, the season was certainly a success in terms of moving the MU Baseball program forward and upward.

Take me out with the crowd

Building on the exposure from the Regionals last year, garnering attention from the media - both local and national for the team's - and top pro prospect Aaron Crow's - successes, plus a season-long stay in the national polls, Mizzou pulled in fans like never before. The '08 Tigers set - and reset - the record for single-game attendance several times (season attendance details at right). The Nebraska weekend was reminiscent of the 2007 Taylor Stadium Regional, with overflow crowds rocking the ballpark.

A Tip of the Cap to all the people who discovered Mizzou Baseball this season - and to the long-suffering fans who have been there year in and year out.

The road to The Show goes through Simmons Field

Recruiting Coordinator Tony Vitello's job gets easier and easier with each passing year, and 2008 helped even more. All Tony V has to do is point to Major Leaguers like Ian Kinsler, Max Scherzer and Doug Mathis; to the large group of MU alums currently working their way up the ladder in the minor leagues; to Aaron Crow's rise from undrafted high school pitcher to #9 draft pick; and to the attention being given to 1st-round draft prospects like Kyle Gibson ('09) and Nick Tepesch ('10).

Rumor has it, one first round prospect for '11 actually called Mizzou asking to be recruited (and has signed his letter of intent for the Fall of '08).

Leaving the Zou

Here's a Tip of the Cap to the Tigers that are leaving us.

Aaron Crow & Rick Zagone will always be connected in my mind, going back to the two freshmen who turned in back-to-back amazing pitching performances in that Malibu Regional in 2006, and continued to set the pace of the pitching staff throughout their three years.

Jacob Priday also reminds me of that 2006 post-season, stepping up to be the team's catcher. Jake struggled through injury and the long road back, costing him a decent shot in the 2007 Draft. But what a 2008 season, breaking records, leading the offense, and finally getting the scouts' attention

Ryan Lollis has been a stalwart of the Mizzou outfield in his time with the Tigers. At the time of this writing, it's still uncertain whether he'll sign with the pros or return for another season - but we'll miss him when he leaves.

Kurt Calvert and Lee Fischer toiled for the Tigers faithfully - occasionally in a starting role, often in back-up roles. Both got their reward in being picked in the draft. Both will have their eyes on Chicago and the big leagues.

Dan Pietroburgo will also be saying farewell to Mizzou, after 5 years. Always in the shadow of someone else in the depth chart for catchers, always willing to play whatever role asked of him. For long-time day-after-day fans, it's the guys like Dedicated Dan we miss the most. He came in known for being the offspring of a former Tiger star, but left as a vital cog and experienced leader of the team.

Our cap is off for all of you.

A special tip of the cap for another departing member of the Tigers: Christina Walden.

Christina has been a faithful fan of the team during her three years on campus, and has been a valued volunteer in the Baseball office as well, helping out wherever needed.

In 2008 she helped John Lane and others revive the Tiger Bullpen Club, editing the club newsletter and helping with the organization of the Saturday tailgate parties (even at the cost of missing the beginning of the a few games).

Christina also volunteered to help me out with SimmonsField.com, writing her own blog from the fan-in-the-stands point of view, On the Inside Corner. Hopefully, she'll drop us another blog or two from her new job.

Thanks again for all the help and support, Christina, both at Simmons Field and at SimmonsField.com.

2008 Attendance

(record-breaking crowd in BOLD)
Fri 5/8 ISU 696
Sun 5/10 ISU 512
Fri 3/14 Tol 625
Sat 3/15 Tol 349
Sat 3/15 Tol 339
Sun 3/16 Tol 605
Tue 3/18 SDS 202
Wed 3/19 SDS 395
Fri 3/21 BU 1196
Sat 5/22 BU 1124
Sun 3/23 BU 374
Tue 4/1 WIU 429
Wed 4/2 WIU 546
Fri 4/4 OSU 1433
Sat 4/5 OSU 2205
Sun 4/6 OSU 1321
Fri 4/11 UT 1206
Sat 4/12 UT 1410
Sun 4/13 UT 1016
Wed 4/16 WW 1103
Fri 5/2 KSU 1583
Sat 5/3 KSU 1642
Sun 5/4 KSU 1696
Tue 5/18 CU 589
Fri 5/16 NU 2418
Sat 5/17 NU 3126
Sun 5/18 NU 2547

Total Attendance 30,687
Average Attendance 1,136

Top 10 All-Time Attendance
6/2/07 Louisville (Regional) 3,630
6/1/07 Kent St (Regional) 3,481
6/3/07 Louisville (Regional)3,457
5/17/08 Nebraska 3,126
5/18/08 Nebraska 2,418
4/25/98 Texas 2,347
4/24/98 Texas 2,372
4/5/08 Okla St 2,205
6/4/07 Louisville-MU (Regional)2,199
5/14/05 Kansas 2,143

Past Years' Regular Season Attendance
2007: Total: 14,190 Average: 645
2006:Total: 23,906 Average: 885
2005:Total: 16,965Average: 707

Highlights & Happenings

Definition of switch-hitter Pat Venditte, Jr, the only ambidextrous pitcher in D-1 baseball, is on the mound. Trevor Coleman is on deck, taking practice swings left-handed. The NCAA rule says the pitcher has to declare which hand he will pitch with before the batter chooses which way to bat. Venditte steps up on the mound with his glove on his left hand, and Coleman turns toward the backstop, switches to a different bat, and takes a couple of right-handed practice swings. Hits a 2-run homer on the 2nd pitch.

Kauffman Stadium discovers college baseball The only saving grace about the Tigers' loss to the Jayhawks was that most of the fans missed having to watch the game for 2 or 3 innings while they stood in the unbelievably long lines to get to the incredibly understaffed concession stands waiting to get something to drink. Turns out people will show up for college baseball at the K. Or at least they did this time - wouldn't count on the same crowd next year, unless there are some guarantees of better service.

Jay Bell Award Speaking of Kansas, we pass out an annual award to a Tiger player for outstanding performance against the Jayhawks, in honor of a particularly memorable performance by former Tiger Jay Bell. The 2008 award goes to a pair of performances:

· Kyle Gibson earned the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for his contribution to the Tigers' weekend against KU: Gibson recorded a complete-game win and a save over last weekend in Mizzou's three-game series at Kansas. On Friday, Gibson entered the contest in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and two outs and struck out the first batter he faced to record his first save of the year. Gibson then posted his second complete game victory of the season as Missouri run-ruled Kansas, 12-1 in seven innings, in the series finale on Sunday. He was perfect through the first 3.2 innings of the game and struck out eight, allowing just one run on five hits to improve to 8-1 on the year.

· Jacob Priday also distinguished himself against the Jayhawks, with a pair of fantastic defensive plays in right field. In game 1, Priday made a great throw from RF to nail a KU runner at home plate for the out. Then in game 2 Jake made a catch in foul territory in deep right with his back to the field, then turned and threw a bulls-eye to 2nd base to nail the runner who had tagged at 1st and decided to take advantage of Priday's rumored poor defensive skills. Uh oh.

Back-swing in motion During the Texas series, Aaron Senne's signature back-swing caught Longhorn catcher Cameron Rupp in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Rupp wears a more traditional catcher's mask with the backwards helmet-cap instead of the hockey-style protective helmet favored by many catchers these days.

After taking a couple of test pitches, Cameron stayed in the game. He did not start behind the plate for Sunday's game, however.

Super Senne The Minnesota native had an incredible night at the ballpark - or should I say dome - when the Tigers played the Golden Gophers at the Humphrey Dome in Minnesota. In Game 1 of that 2-game set, Senne, who is from nearby Rochester, tied a Mizzou record with 8 RBIs on the night. Senne went 4-for-5 with two homeruns. He drove in four runs alone in the sixth inning, highlighted by his three-run homer to right field.

"I just want to come in and do as much as I could for these people," Senne said. "For most of them these are the only two games they're going to see me play and I got lucky."

Base Cadet Brock Bond is not around anymore to dominate this award, given annually to the MU player who provides the most entertainment - and groans - on the basepaths. And original base cadet Ian Kinsler actually now leads the Texas Rangers in stolen bases. So someone new has to fill the untied shoes.

Fortunately, there was no player on the 2008 team that was outstanding in being picked off, run down or just plain confused on the basepaths.

Ryan Lollis, however, got our attention during the year on the basepaths. First of all, he led the team in worst base stealing percentage at 61% (8-for-13), which would automatically qualify him for the award.

But "Lollie" also made himself known with his enthusiastic flap-down scampering across home plate on more than one occasion, looking like the cat that just caught the canary (or perhaps the tiger that just caught the jayhawk).

And so, we tip our cap to Ryan Lollis, the 2008 Base Cadet of the Year.


April 11, 2008: By the Numbers

31-12: Final score of the game

4.85: ERA for the Longhorns' pitching staff after the loss, a jump of 0.73.

7 Homers hit by Missouri, including a Big 12-record four by right fielder Jacob Priday.

11 Walks drawn by the Tigers, including seven issued by Longhorn reliever Drew Bishop in 21/3 innings.

26 Hits for Missouri in 49 at-bats.

35 Miles per hour: speed of wind gusts Friday night at Missouri's Taylor Stadium.

228 Pitches thrown by Texas starter Austin Wood and the six relievers who followed him.

1896 The last time Texas allowed more than 31 runs in a game. That year, the Longhorns lost to Dime Box 35-32 and were routed by Sixth Ward 32-3. Because results from the 1895 and 1896 seasons were very incomplete, the results are not included in Texas' all-time record.

50 Runs scored by Nebraska in a 50-3 victory over Chicago State on March 16, 1999. The Cornhuskers set NCAA records for total runs and winning margin in the game, which ended after 61/2 innings.

43 Consecutive scoreless innings thrown by Aaron Crow, a streak which ended in the 1st of this game

60 1/3 Probable NCAA D-1 record for scoreless innings pitched (set by Vermont's George Plender in 1955) . . . IF the NCAA actually kept a record.

And a quote from the post-game show with UT coach Augie Garrido at the end of the 3rd game of the weekend:"We said before this game started, no matter what happens today, we get to go back to beautiful Austin, and they have to stay here"

And for your entertainment, the 31-12 game thread at HornFans.com

Nattering Nabobs of the Press

Our annual tip of the cap for the best job covering MU Baseball in the Media goes to a pair of local sportswriters.

Matt Nestor is the veteran of the pair, which makes him sound older than he is, his receding hairline not-withstanding. Matt has been covering MU Baseball for the Columbia Daily Tribune for a number of years now, and his enthusiasm for the sport comes through in his writings:

The chants of "Over-rated!" that rained down from the stands at Taylor Stadium were directed at the No. 5 Nebraska baseball team.

Of course, that taunt could have been directed at Missouri just a few short weeks ago. The Tigers closed April with a five-game losing streak, including three straight at Texas A&M, that dropped them from fourth to 15th in the Baseball America poll.

Look at the Tigers now.
(Columbia Daily Tribune, 5/19/08)

Even Superman has his Kryptonite. But if there’s something that’s going to stop Missouri ace Aaron Crow, it has yet to be discovered. The junior right-hander took a line drive off his pitching shoulder on his second pitch of the game and still held the best hitting team in the Big 12 off the scoreboard.

With the help of a quartet of jaw-dropping defensive plays and a key home run by senior designated hitter Jacob Priday, Crow’s remarkable run continues. The fourth-ranked Missouri baseball team defeated Oklahoma State 3-0 last night on Simmons Field. Crow’s third complete game in four weeks ran his scoreless streak to 422/3 consecutive innings.
(Columbia Daily Tribune, 4/5/08)

Sam Miles is the fresh-faced rookie, being a student in the MU Journalism school and a writer for the Columbia Missourian. As he wrote in a blog toward the end of the year as he was preparing for graduation, his work-load was a real killer. At one point in the season, Sam first stumbled a bit by inaccurately reporting Aaron Crow's setting of a new consecutive scoreless innings record, but then poured himself into hours and hours of research, with the end result that he unearthed Vermont's George Plender and scooped every other media outlet - except one (SimmonsField.com).

Sam's energy and enthusiasm came through in his baseball stories for the Missourian, making him a joy to read.

Sam got my attention by paying homage to a subject close to my heart, Mizzou Baseball history. On May 3rd he wrote about the Tigers' honoring of Carl E. Bolte Jr.

In mid-April he came out with a well-researched article about the growing influence of the pitch-count, with some great quotes from the Mizzou coaches, including this from Tony Vitello about the pressure to ride the best pitchers past the point where it's healthy .

And here's a quote from his great profile of Tiger senior Dan Pietroburgo:

“There are a lot of guys that want to be the chief. There are a lot of guys that aren’t comfortable being the chief, and would rather be the Indian,” Jamieson said. “He’s a guy that he’s a great leader, but also accepts his role. He’ll do whatever the team needs him to do, but also be a take-charge personality, and that’s a rare ombination.”

Such praise, however, is not uncommon from the coach, who speaks of the fifth-year senior’s character the way that churches talk about saints, and with the same reverence that much of the media reserves for Brett Favre. If he didn’t receive the same type of compliments from his teammates, one might be quick to dismiss them.

“He knows how to do everything the program wants to do,” Priday said. “He’s what they want their players to be like.”

Here's a tip of the hat to Matt and Sam, and our best wishes to the young Mr. Miles as he forward to a great future as a sportswriter.

Best walk-up Song

Dan Pietroburgo brought back memories of Zane Taylor and The Blood of Cuchulainn with his Irish jig. It brought out the foot-stomping and arm-swinging in the Taylor Stadium faithful.

Promoters of the Year

A big tip of the cap goes to the organizers - or should we say re-organizers - of the Tiger Bullpen Club. They took the tiger by the tail and worked to breathe new life into the booster club, sponsoring a tailgate party before every Saturday Big 12 home game, sending out a newsletter, drumming up interest.I don't have a list of the organizers or of the board members, so I will leave somebody out. But we doff our caps to John Lane, Danny Hill, Christina Walden and the others who made it all happen

Thanks again to everyone who sent me tips on news, corrected my errors and just plain surfed their way to making SimmonsField.com possible for another year of Tiger Baseball.

I get to relax a little now, with the Tigers out of the tournament and the draft past us. But keep checking the home page for whatever news and tidbits pass my way during the off-season.

Until next year ...

Gene McArtor named NCAA National Coordinator for Baseball

The NCAA has announced that Gene McArtor, who spent over 40 years at the University of Missouri as a student-athlete, coach and administrator, has been named NCAA National Coordinator for Baseball Umpires. McArtor replaces Dave Yeast who resigned in February.

As national coordinator, Gene will assist the Division I Baseball Committee with the selection and evaluation of officials for the Division I championship. He will also work with officials, as well as conference coordinators and regional advisors of officiating, coaches and NCAA staff, to help provide clear and consistent interpretations of NCAA men’s baseball rules and officiating mechanics. In doing so, he will work in conjunction with NCAA Baseball Secretary-Rules Editor Jim Paronto and other individuals with umpire mechanics expertise.

“The national coordinator plays a critical role in ensuring we have the very best umpires for the Division I baseball championship. We are fortunate to have someone of Gene’s quality serving in this leadership role,” said Larry Templeton, athletics director at Mississippi State University and chair of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee.

McArtor has a long history with the NCAA. He was named chair of the NCAA Baseball Committee in 1987, directing the championships in Division I and coordinating the selection of the 48 Division I schools for the championship and College World Series (CWS). He also was the committee chair during a five-year tenure that saw unprecedented growth of the championship, including national television coverage, bracket expansion and stadium renovation. In addition to his committee experience, McArtor also spent 30 years officiating high school and college football games that included numerous years of playoff and championship game experience.
McArtor has been a member of the executive committee and board of directors for the American Baseball Coaches Association. In 1987, he was elected fourth vice president of the organization and rotated through the vice president chairs to the presidency in 1991. He is also a member of the ABCA Hall of Fame.

McArtor stepped into athletics administration at Missouri later in his career, first taking the position of associate athletics director and then senior associate athletics director in 1997. He then moved to director of project management and also served a stint as MU’s interim director of athletics.

As head coach, McArtor guided six teams to the NCAA Tournament, coached 13 All-Americans and 41 all-conference players, and guided 55 players to the professional ranks during his tenure. During his 21 years as head coach, he compiled a 733-430-3 record and became the winningest coach at Mizzou when he recorded his 482nd win in April 1987. He won Big Eight championships in 1976 and 1980, including three-consecutive Big Eight Eastern Division crowns under the old divisional format. The Tigers also claimed four regular season conference championships, with McArtor twice earning Big Eight Coach of the Year honors. He led Missouri to a school record 46 wins in the 1976 season and remains the winningest coach in MU baseball history. McArtor earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D degrees at Missouri.

“We’ve seen significant progress in umpiring over the years, and much of that can be attributed to Dave Yeast’s leadership and individuals who love the sport and are willing to accept change for the betterment of the sport,” said McArtor. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue the growth and build on the successes we’ve witnessed, which helps our umpires and provides a great experience for student-athletes and coaches.”

Record-breaking night for the Tigers

On a windy and cool Friday night, a crowd of over 1,200 fans showed up at Simmons Field, drawn by the coverage and speculation about a possible historic record-breaking game. The energy and expectation in the crowd was apparent even before the first pitch. No one was really very sure how many innings it would take for Aaron Crow to set a new all-time national record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched (since no one really knows what the record is for sure), but they all wanted to be there to witness the event when it happened.

Just a few short minutes into the 1st inning, the anticipation crashed to earth as Aaron Crow showed that even Superman has his kryptonite. The excitement shifted from the crowd to the Longhorn dugout as the Texas players, obviously fully aware of the scoreless streak, celebrated at a level not usual for merely scoring the first run of a ballgame.

And by the time the Longjohned Longhorns had finished their seconf inning at bat, our Tigers were down 8-0. I saw a small number of faithless fans head for the exits at that point. Boy were they stupid.

MU answered back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 2nd, Texas added a 9th run in the 3rd, and then the slumping Mizzou offense woke up like an angry man whose home had been invaded.

10 runs in the bottom of the 3rd was the first explosion, followed by more runs as the game went along, piling up to a final tally of 31 runs, against the Longhorns' total of 12.

The 10-run inning was the biggest inning for the Tigers since an 11-run second inning against Mississippi Valley State on May 6, 2006

Jacob Priday (aka The Incredible Hulk), led the attack with his own record-breaking performance.


Priday was 5-for-5 on the night. He set the single-game school record with four home runs, nine RBI and six runs scored. The four home runs is the most ever in the Big 12 Conference and is tied for third most in NCAA history.

With the four homers, Priday moves within one of the Missouri school record with 44 for his career. The nine RBI give him 218, which is four shy of the Mizzou career mark.

Every Tiger in the starting lineup had at least one hit and five had at least three. The 26 hits for Missouri tied a school record, which was set in 2005 against Navy.

The 31 runs are the most scored by the Tigers since they defeated Truman State 30-0 in 2003. It is the most runs scored by MU against a conference opponent since a 27-4 win over Nebraska in 1956. The all-time MU record for runs scored in a single game is 35, set in 1904.

The loss is the worst for Texas since a 25-6 defeat against Texas A&M in 1995. Friday was the first game in which Texas allowed at least 20 runs since 1998.

The 31 runs is the most ever allowed by any Texas baseball team in their ilustrious history.

But hey, they got to celebrate that first run they scored.

Oh, and the winning pitcher in the game?

Aaron Crow.


Records:

Jacob Priday
4 home runs
(previous record:3)
9 RBI (8)
6 Runs scored (tie)
18 Total Bases (13)

Team Records
26 Hits (tie)
65 Total Bases (45)
28 RBI (27)


Top run-scoring games by the Missouri Tigers against conference opponents

BIG 12

2003
MU vs. Baylor
23-18

BIG 8

1977
MU vs. Iowa State
23-5

BIG 7

1963
MU vs. Colorado
21-7

1958
MU vs. Kansas
25-14
MU vs. Kansas State
24-2

1956
MU vs. Nebraska
27-4

1953
MU vs. Kansas State
25-3

1948
MU vs. Iowa State
22-6

The record for most runs scored by MU in a game is 35, in a 35-2 game against William Jewell in 1902.

The 2008 MU Media Guide shows it as being a record set in 1904, but the Year-by-Year detailed records show that game in 1902.

Here in the MU Baseball History pages of SimmonsField.com we have a feature on the 1902 season. In doing that research, we found no record in the Columbia Daily Tribune archives of a 35-run game against William Jewell.

But I'm sure it happened some time.

Big 12 Conference Announces 2008 FSN Baseball Telecast Schedule Mizzou's April 27 game against Texas A&M to air on FSN.

(mutigers.com, 2/13/08)
IRVING, Texas-- - The Big 12 Conference has announced its 2008 baseball telecast schedule on FSN. Six games, including the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on May 25 from AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, will be televised.
Missouri's series finale against Texas A&M on April 27 in College Station, Texas will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net.
Additional television appearances are possible through other Big 12 broadcast partners and institutional contacts and may be announced at a later time. Mizzou Sports Properties is also working with FSN Midwest to broadcast one of the Tigers games this season.
The six games selected for Fox Sports Net will be available to FSN's regional affiliates, reaching more than 82 million cable and satellite TV homes nationwide.
2008 FSN Big 12 Conference Baseball Telecast Schedule Saturday, March 29- Nebraska at Texas 6 p.m.Saturday, April 12- Texas Tech at Kansas 12 p.m.Sunday, April 27- Missouri at Texas A&M 1 p.m.Saturday, May 3- Baylor at Texas 2:30 p.m.Sunday, May 18- To Be Determined 3:30 p.m.Sunday, May 25- Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship AT&T Bricktown Ballpark; Oklahoma City 1 p.m.

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Tip of the Cap Awards: 2007

It's time for our annual year-end awards, named in honor of John "Hi" Simmons' signature gesture.

3,630 !!

The highlight and climax of the 2007 MU Baseball season was the first-ever NCAA Regional hosted at Taylor Stadium / Simmons Field.

In the weeks and days leading up to the regional, fans and followers debated whether the MU Athletic Department would show their support of the baseball program by submitting a serious bid to the NCAA (and by finding a way to move the MSHSAA Baseball championships away from Taylor Stadium); then there was some doubt that fans would actually show up in large numbers, given the average attendance during the regular season of just 574, last in the Big XII.

As Tim Jamieson said, "From everything we’re feeling around town, it’s going to happen. It’s almost overwhelming. We’ve played in front of some big, big crowds. But never here.”

And it did happen. A new record was set on Friday night. Then Saturday night's crowd broke that record (see attendance totals at right).

And so our first tips of the cap are for those involved in that weekend:

A tip of the cap to Tim Jamieson, who, as the Tigers continued to roll toward their best win total in TJ's tenure, gained confidence to speak his mind about the questionable level of support given to baseball from the Athletic Department:

“There’s a lot of support,” he said. “But in terms of getting the word out and marketing our sport, we need to do a better job. . . We wanted everybody, including the people within the university, to see things through our eyes. To see things the way they could be." (Kansas City Star)

A tip of the cap to Mike Alden, Tim Hickman and the rest of the athletic department, for defying the cynicism of long-time fans and moving heaven earth and the MSHSAA in order to bring the Regional to Columbia. And for their great job in organizing the weekend to be a great experience for everyone. Mike Alden himself was in attendance for the full 9 innings of nearly every game, sitting in the stands, absorbed in the game when he wasn't shaking hands with MU supporters.

A tip of the cap to the people of Columbia, and to MU fans from all over the state, who shelled out more money than a season tickets cost to buy tickets for the weekend series in record numbers. Many of them expressed their enjoyment to me, and their surprise at how nice the stadium is, how exciting the games were, and how much they would like to come back again next season.

And most of all, a tip of the cap to the Tiger nine, a bunch of guys who were picked to finish 8th in the Big XII, a team that had to see article after article in the news well into the season, one after another mentioning the names of Scherzer and Culp before ever mentioning the players of 2007.

This was the scrappiest, gutsiest, most determined Mizzou baseball team I've watched in my time as a serious fan. They found ways to win games when it seemed impossible.

Like the Friday night game at Texas on May 4th, when the Longhorn catcher overthrew when tossing the ball back to the pitcher, sent it flying over his head, and Kurt Calvert stole home for the winning run.

The season was full of moments like that, with the Tigers taking advantage of every opportunity - no matter how unlikely - to score runs and win games.

Thanks for a great ride, guys!

For someone who learned to cheer and heckle in order to make up for the fact that the 100 fans who would show up at the old Simmons Field to cheer for the visiting team would invariably outnumber the 30 or so parents and girlfriends, plus Larry, myself, my son and at best 10 or 12 other fans . . . tonight was like opening up a Christmas present from the aunt who always sends hand-crocheted underwear, and instead finding in the box the keys to a new sports car.


For Love of the Game

A big tip of my cap goes to Christina Walden, MU student and baseball fan, who offered before this season began to write a blog on SimmonsField.com. I was happy to let her have some blog space, since I have found less and less time to devote the website in the past few years.

Her comments and musings have garnered a lot of attention and comments from fans at the ballpark, and have added a different flavor to the website.

She also received an e-mail from a certain nationally known sportswriter for a national magazine, complimenting her on her 108 Stitches of Passion piece.

I look forward to more of her thoughts at the Inside Corner through the off-season and into the 2008 season.

"A nudge helped me push myself back into a world I did not realize how much I missed. It's the area between the chalk lines, a place where history and tradition are as much a part of the game as the present and future of the sport. It is the place where instant replay does not affect an official's decision and where we all learned as kids that there are always 90 feet to first and a diamond is the best geometric shape. Baseball made its way back to me, or I guess I should say I made my way back to baseball."


The Jay Bell Award

Our annual award for the best performance against the Kansas Jayhawks was really no contest this season.

"How do you like your Jayhawks cooked? Evan Frey’d," quipped Matt Nestor in the Columbia Daily Tribune.

The Chickenhawks came to Simmons field on a rainy weekend at the end of March this year, and left having given up the series to the Tigers, 2-1.

The hero of the weekend was centerfielder Evan Frey. Frey had been hot for most of March and carried this streak into the MU-KU series.

Frey hit at a .438 clip for the weekend, with 4 runs, 9 RBI, 1 double and two home runs.

Both homeruns were big ones. The first, in the Saturday victory, was Frey's first homerun as a Tiger.

Frey's second career homer came a day later in the bottom of the ninth inning, with 2 outs and Brock Bond on base, Frey connected. The ball over the wall, the Tiger players and fans went crazy, and the poor Jayhawks went home with a series loss.

A quote from KU Coatch Ritch Price: “That’s about as tough of a loss as I’ve ever had,” coach Ritch Price said. “Especially when you’re down 8-0 and you play that hard to get back in the thing. We had some huge clutch hits along the way. Obviously it isn’t over until the final guy’s out.”

Comments from Tigerboard.com about the April 1st, 2007 game:

bolivartiger: Just wow. Probably the most exciting college baseball game that I have ever seen.

kegger: The look on Smith's face as the Tigers celebrated at home plate after his pitch wound up on the other side of the fence was one I will remember for quite some time. The way their whole team stayed at their positions as if the homer was going to be waved off or something was quite as enjoyable as well.

Our Tigers beat Kansas in the most cruel way possible. Not only taking the Friday night game and reversing it, but to do so with a deserving celebration at home plate after the one in the top of the inning... That had to be the baseball equivalent of ripping someone's heart out and showing it to them while it was still beating.


MySpace.com meets HeckleDepot.com

The award for the Easiest Player to Heckle goes to A.J. Ramos, Texas Tech's "Ace" pitcher. He made himself an easy target for heckling by failing to protect his MySpace page from the non-"friends".

That page revealed lots of information about A.J., including "Occupation: student/part time stripper". It also revealed his nickname for himself, "Papi Chulo Baby" (translation).

Armed with this info, the Simmons Field fans greeted the pitcher on Friday night with near constant cries of "Papi Chulo!" as well as a few other choice heckles based on his MySpace bio.

Poor Papi Chulo didn't do very well in that game, lasting just 2-1/3 innings, surrendering seven earned runs on 5 hits, 5 walks, 2 wild pitches and a hit batsman.

I suppose his coach thought he would be fresh on Sunday, having spent so little time on the mound Friday night, so with the game on the line in the 9th inning, Ramos was brought in to close the game.

The moment I saw him exit the bullpen, I knew the Tigers had the game won. As he approached the mound, the hecklers in the crowd went wild, chanting "Papi Culo! Papi Chulo!".

Ramos intentionally walked Priday, unintentionally walked Coleman, struck out Senne, then threw a trio of wild pitches that moved the runners around the bases, finally allowing Lollis to score from third.

And so, a tip of the cap goes to Papi Chulo for entertaining the animals in the Zou.


Hot Streak & Hot Tempers

Boo-ing is a practice not heard often at all at Simmons Field. Heckling - sure. But a Boo is reserved for the worst offenders.

An all-or-nothing third baseman from Los Angeles by way of Louisville, Dominguez had compiled a lowly .250 average with only 9 home runs during the course of his season.

Through the first two days of the Regional, he was noticed most when he stood next to (or, during one play, ran into) Louisville shortstop Chris Cates. Cates, generously listed on the roster at 5'3" was over a foot shorter than the 6'4" Dominguez.

Dominguez made himself known in the Sunday Missouri-Louisville game, though, when he hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning that went on to be the game-winner. (He would hit two more home runs on Monday to help the Cardinals win the championship game).

But it was what happened AFTER the homer that really grabbed attention. After standing and admiring his homer, he mouthed some unidentified trash-talk in the direction of MU Catcher Trevor Coleman, then proceed to run the bases, tossing more trash, grins and finger-pointing at the Tiger infielders as he passed.

This created quite an uproar on the field, with MU players and coaches demanding the umpires discipline Dominguez, the U of L coach doing a lot of shoulder shrugging, and a large percentage of the 3,400 fans shouting and screaming and Boo-ing.

I'd like to give a tip of the cap to the umpires for following through on the guidelines laid down by the NCAA before the tournament began, to the effect that no sort of trash talk or disrespectful actions would be tolerated.

I'd like to give a tip of the cap to Dan McDonnell, the Louisville head coach, for removing Dominguez from the game and voluntarily sitting him out of the next game.

Instead, I'll keep my cap on this time.


Hit the showers

It was a great idea - market Big XII Baseball to the people in Kansas City by playing a "non-conference" game between the Tigers and Jayhawks, and put on the show in Kauffman Stadium.

Unfortunately, this game fell victim to the same fate as three other midweek Mizzou games, being rained out.

Hopefully, the idea will be resurrected again, so the folks in KC can see how fun it can be to watch MU beat the ChickenHawks.

Rainfall on Mid-Week Game Days

April 3rd, Southern Illinois @ Sauget, IL
.96 inches

April 10th, St. Louis U @ St. Louis
.82 inches

April 25th, Kansas @ Kauffman Stadium
.41 inches

May 2nd, Missouri State @ Simmons Field
1.56 inches


Bad Call of the Year

While Bill Speck did everything he possibly could to earn this award by refusing to exercise his authority in reagrd to Chris Dominguez of Louisville, even that see-no-evil approach leaves him a distant second.

The worst call of the year took place in Austin, TX, when Jim Garman called Evan Frey out at first base. In the 6th inning, Garman ended a Tiger rally prematurely by disagreeing with nearly everyone in the ballpark, all of whom saw clearly that Frey beat the throw by a Texas mile.


"We taught him how to do that!"

One of the small highlights of the season for me was the weekend when Jim Senne introduced to me a young man who had driven all the way to Columbia from Rochester, MN to watch Aaron Senne play ball. Turns out this was one of Aaron's coaches along the way, in Legion ball (I did not catch his name).

As the team played Texas Tech that weekend, I was not sitting far from Aaron's old coach, who had claimed a front row seat for himself. At one point, when Aaron hit a long ball that he stretched into a double, the coach's face lit up like the 4th of July. He turned around to Aaron's dad and I could easily read his lips amid the crowd noise as he shouted, "We taught him to do that! You and I taught him to do that!"

A tip of the cap to Aaron Senne's Legion coach - and to all the coaches in Little League, High School, American Legion, summer leagues, and wherever they toil, patiently training young boys in how to play the game. And they do it simply for the love of the game, which is where the boys learn to love the game so much.

HBP

John McKee made a name for himself by being a magnet for baseballs, setting a new MU single season record in 2006 of 35 HBP. He got hit 23 times in 2007, matching his HBP numbers of both '04 and '05, for a career total of 104.

This season, though, he carried on a season-long competition of sorts with fellow masochist Brock Bond, who wound up with 24 HBP in the end. (In the end of the season, not . . . well, never mind).


Base Cadet of the Year

Brock Bond continues his streak of "Base Cadet" awards for his adventurous approach to baserunning.

In spite of finding himself stranded off base several times during the season, he showed that his aggressive baserunning could have good results, too.

For example, in the Tigers' April 17 game against the Missouri State Bears, Brock took off from second on a Kyle Mach base hit and aggressively laid claim to 3rd in spite of the presence of MSU SS Tanner Mattson in the basepath. While the collision brought back memories of Brock's 2006 run toward 3rd during the Kansas series, at the cost of a Price, this battle turned out better when the umpire awarded Mr. Bond not only 3rd but home, ruling fielder interference.

If and when Brock Bond gets drafted and works his way toward the Big Leagues, we'll miss the fun of watching him on the basepaths.

He'll have company if he makes it to the bigs, though, since one past winner of our Base Cadet award is Ian Kinsler, another 2nd baseman.


Talking head of the year

J.C. Field stepped into the broadcast booth this season, sharing the booth with the veteran Tex Little. After the usual breaking-in period for a Tex Little side-kick (learning to do more than read from the Press Guide, learning when not to interrupt Tex), J.C. turned out to be a knowledgable and enjoyable color commentator. His knowledge of the individual players, plus his experience as a catcher dealing with pitchers, gave him an insight that was invaluable.

The one moment I remember most was when J.C. accurately predicted a certain play (I think it was a hit-and-run), and Tex turned to J.C. and quipped, "So, I take it the coaches are using the same signs as last year?"

J.C. admitted that maybe that was the case.

Here's a tip of the cap to you, J.C. We missed your voice at the end of the season, but wish you well int he Frontier League.

Tex told me that when J.C. left for the Frontier League, he joked with the catcher that he expected he'd be back in the booth by the NCAA Tournament. No such luck. He's still calling pitches and barking at umpires.


Media Mogul

A tip of the cap for best job in the covering MU Baseball goes to a young man who has quickly distinguished himself in being a national media voice for all of college baseball. Kendall Rogers, webmaster of CollegeBaseball.Rivals.com, has emerged in the last couple of years as one of the leading media experts on NCAA Baseball. He first started online as a high school student with Big12Baseball.com, graduated to RosenblattReport.com, and now has matured in his writing and his reach with what has become the most popular College Baseball site on the web.

Kendall scored a real coup with an interview with Tim Jamieson in mid-May in which the Coach spoke plainly and confidently for the first time in the media about the historic lack of support for MU Baseball, challenging the athletic department to step up and make a Regional hosting happen:

"If we hosted a postseason tournament, I'm pretty sure we'd have good crowds," Jamieson said. "We've had 1,500 fans at our games at times this season. That's impressive considering we've yet to devise a marketing plan to get fans out to games."

Anything less than a packed house for a Regional would be considered a disappointment for Jamieson and the Tigers.

"If we host a Regional, the stadium should be packed - no excuses," he said. "Right now, baseball is not a high priority. But if we hosted, I think that attitude would change in the postseason."

"Attendance is probably the missing ingredient for this program," he said. "We need the community to rally around the program and hosting a Regional would accomplish that. It would also help our athletic department see things through our eyes."

Here's to you, Kendall, for a great job as an ambassador and chronicler of college baseball.


Norm!!!

Among the many local "celebrities" who showed up at the NCAA Regionals at Simmons Field (including all the various Tiger sports coaches, Mike Alden, Mario Moccia, Mayor Darwin Hindman, Chief Randy Boehm, US Rep. Kenny Hulshof) was a notable veteran of the 1954 College World Series Champion Missouri Tigers, none other than Stormin' Norman Stewart himself.

I first spied him across the aisle during the Saturday afternoon game between Miami and Kent State. Norm seemed only mildly interested in the contest - I heard later that someone in his family had told him the Tigers would be playing at 1:00, so they came to the ballpark.

Saturday evening, before game time, I met a fellow Tigerboard.com poster who had come to the game from his home in Manhattan, KS. We talked awhile and he was looking forward to the MU-UL game that night.

A few minutes later, as I was back in my own seat, here came Norm Stewart again, with his family. As they walked into the row and took their, seats, Norm in the lead, I saw my Manhattan friend look to his left to see who was sitting down next to him, and his eyes grew large as he recognized that most recognizable of Mizzou faces.

I saw later that Norm was often leaning toward his new seat-mate, chuckling and talking a lot.

The next day, when my Tigerboard friend arrived at this seat, I asked him how it was to sit with Norm during the game.

"That was worth the price of the whole weekend pass," he said. "Norm sat there and told me stories about playing for old 'Hi' Simmons, and about the Colelge World Series, and made comments on the current players and the action on the field."

He showed me the bill of his MU ballcap, which had Norm Stewart scrawled across it.

"I usually don't bug people for autographs," he explained, "but how can you pass up an opportunity like that? Norm said he was used to it."

Here's a tip of the autographed cap to Norm Stewart and all the other notables who not only put in an appearance, but actually stayed around and watched the games. Mike Alden was sitting at the far end of my row for the entirety of every game of the weekend except one, his attention on the field except whenever people would come by to talk or shake his hand (which was often). Mike Anderson also really seemed to be enjoying the game.

Gary Pinkel, who stole Cindy Stein's seat for one game, was fascinated by the little hand held scorecard gadget being used by John Thies to chart pitches. When the sprinkles began in the middle of one game, only one person in the entire lower tier of seats put up an umbrella to stay dry - Mr. Pinkel, of course. This lasted for about an inning until the temp-service event staff finally found a veteran event staffer brave enough to ask him to please put his umbrella down, as they are not allowed.

Chief Boehm sat in the cheap seats up behind home plate on Saturday evening - and returned again to watch the game the following night.

All over the ballpark were folks who showed up because Taylor Stadium was "the place to be" that weekend. And then they discovered it was a really fun place to be.

Unassisted Trripleplay

You can read my thoughts on baseball in two places:

· SimmonsField.com

· http://mizzousanity.blogspot.com/

Tip of the Cap: 2006

It's time for our annual year-end awards, named in honor of John "Hi" Simmons' signature gesture.

Bloody good tune

Without a doubt the most memorable tune to come out of the Taylor Stadium speakers in years was The Blood of CuChulainn.

An obscure song from the movie "The Boondock Saints", Senior Outfielder Zane Taylor chose it to be his at-bat intro song. The Irish jig caught the attention and the fancy of the Simmons Field crowds, inspiring an outburst of dancing and foot-stomping that majored in enthusiasm even if it lacked in dancing skill (or even rhythm).

A couple of times during the season, the opposing coach was kind enough to come out to the mound to make a pitching change after Zane stepped up to the plate, prompting the guys up in the booth to leave the song playing for more of its considerable length.


The Jay Bell Award

I'll never forget March 24, 1998, the day when senior pitcher Jay Bell took the mound against the Jayhawks in a mid-week game and pitched one of the quickest, most dominating shutouts I've ever seen. (Read the Columbia Daily Tribune's account of the game) When the game was over and everyone was celebrating, my son asked me why it was such a big deal.

"It's just a shut-out," he said.

"No, Cody," I explained. "It's not just a shut-out. It's a shut-out of the Jayhawks."

I proceeded to explain to him the depth of the rivalry between MU and KU. He's been a diehard Beaker-hater ever since (Just ask his cousins, who live in Kansas).

And so, we honor Jay Bell by invoking his memory as we honor the best performance against the Jayhawks.

Unfortunately, the Tigers were 1-2 against the Jayhawgs at Hawglund Field back on April Fool's weekend, and lost their contest with the 'Hawgs in the Big XII Tournament.

The one performance definitely worthy of the Jay Bell award in that series was Nathan Culp's complete-game victory on Friday night of that series. that performance was typical of Culp's gutsy leadership on the mound in 2006.

Special notice does have to be awarded, though, to Brock Bond. His {ahem} aggressive play against KU during that Tourney game may have, in the end, cost the Tigers the game, but not too many Tiger fans looked down on Brock for his anti-Jayhawk zeal, exacting a "Price" from the "Beakers".

Jay Bell would be proud.


Take me out to the ballgame

2006 brought a notable increase in attendance at Simmons Field.

The total home attendance was 23,906, for an average attendance of 885.

This compares to 16,965 in 2005, a 707 average (the 2004 average was 637).

The 41% increase could be attributed to any number of causes. Certainly the preseason expectations (and hype) surrounding the team's prospects for success helped early on. Also, the attention in the media given to Max Scherzer helped.

And yet, even when the team showed definite signs of struggling to live up to those expectations, and even when Max was out with injuries for several weeks, the attendance still was improved from 2005.

In part, it can be attributed to the efforts of people like Lance Edwards (see below, "Promoter of the Year") to bring more students out to the ballpark. Longtime denizens of "Johnny Hi" noted an obvious increase in the student body representation.

The temperatures cooperated for much of the season as well, offering a number of pleasant baseball-weather weekends.

Whatever the reasons, it was great to see the stands rocking.

I personally talked to a number of non-student first-time fans who came because of the hype and stayed around because they discovered how much fun a trip to Simmons Field can be, and what a great game is played at the Division I college level.


Take me out to the ballgame: The bad news

Missouri is still in last place in the conference, both in total attendance and average attendance.

Two reasons often given for poor attendance at Simmons Field are (a) the weather, and (b) lack of a dominant winning team.

I notice, though that the #2 team in attendance is Texas A&M, which finished dead last in the Big XII standings. And the #3 team in attendance is Nebraska, a team which undoubtedly has the worst location for weather.

So now how do we explain it?

Mizzou does not have any significantly smaller student body than the other Big XII schools. Columbia is not a significantly smaller town than the other Big XII cities (larger than some).

Is it just a matter of tradition? True, Texas A&M has a long-standing tradition of supporting Aggie Baseball.

But Mizzou once had a strong tradition of supporting Tiger baseball, as well. In researching the history of MU Baseball, I found several references in the past 100+years of Tiger baseball referring to much larger crowds and a greater level of excitement and support from the University and from Columbia.

Somewhere along the line, that support dwindled.

Hopefully someone will come up with the ideas and the energy to rebuild that tradition, and thus beef up the attendance.

Speaking of which . . .


Promoter of the Year

Toward the conclusion of the 2005 season a Mizzou student from the state of Texas was bemoaning the sub-par attendance and lack of enthusiasm at MU Baseball games, especially as compared to the college baseball atmosphere he had grown up with at schools in his home state. And so he decided to do something about it.

Lance Edwards, a journalism student at MU, went to the Athletic Department offices and talked to the people in charge of promoting Mizzou Baseball and shared his enthusiasm and his ideas with them.

At least one suggestion became a reality. Read Lance's comments from Tigerboard.com on February 27th (he posts under the board-name of Quadrupleplay, a friendly dig at some guy who goes by the name Trripleplay):

"Today, the marketing department handed me 1500 student vouchers and the Tiger Crew (aka diamond darlings 'hey bat girl') an additional 500 free tickets to this weekend's games. The idea behind these vouchers is to push students, especially the younger ones living on campus in the dorms, to attend as many baseball games as possible. The 2000 are only used once, but if we get 600 students each day, that would be amazing. Who knows how this will go but it is an attempt placed in my hands so I'm trying to push attendance and hopefully the team can wake up at the plate and put together a nice home-stand before going to Aggieland.

"Also beware, Coach J suggested that our new student section sit behind the visitors dugout (which kind of opens up the flood gates) for the reason of making team support visible to the player in the dugout, to get them more pumped. I agree, most student sections are behind opponents dugouts in colleges around the nation. So if your particular seat on the first base side is your favorite in the house, then I warn you that the rowdy Friday night crowds will be right beside you hopefully all season. The goal is to fill one lower chairback section and the entire upper GA section."

Rowdy they were indeed, sometimes even more than us old fogies could believe (fortunately I do NOT have a photo of Lance at the Texas series with his shirt off, displaying Zane Taylor's Number 18 shaved into his back). But the atmosphere at Simmons Field ratcheted up a notch this season, as did the attendance, with so many students around.

Here's to you, Lance and Friends, for spicing up the old ballpark.


Missing Max

The Tigers missed Max Scherzer for much of the 2006 season, due to his injuries. No one can really say whether Max's travails were the instigator that trickled down into the rest of the team, resulting in an uneven and less-than-expected performance this season.

I can say, however, with great confidence, that we will all miss Max now that he is gone.

Tim Jamieson put it well in a Baseball America back in January: "For me he's a once in a lifetime type of guy. You can't think that you'll ever coach another player like this."

For fans and followers of the Missouri Tigers, the sentiment is the same. I've not seen any player - even those on the visiting teams - that impressed me like Max. I will especially remember the April Fool's Party Max threw for the Texas Tech Red Raiders last year.

The thing that I will remember the most, though, is that Max is just Max. You expect a guy who is a potential superstar, a stud athlete, a future millionaire, to be arrogant and aloof, keeping himself separate from the common folk.

But not Max, he is just a goofy young guy who loves to throw a baseball and loves to hang out and have fun with his friends.

I got to know his parents, Brad and Jan Scherzer, better over the past three years than I did Max, It's easy to see where Max got that easy-going personality. His dad and mom deserve kudos for raising a down-to-earth son.

We won't be seeing them or their son around Simmons Field much anymore. We do, though, expect to see Max in the future, his goofy smile and mismatched eyes looking out from an Upper Deck baseball card sometime in the near future, his intensity and fastball lighting up the TV screen.

I never bothered to get an autographed official Big XII ball from Max, to place next to my Ian Kinsler ball. But a lot of people have autographs.

I have memories. And you can't take those away or put a value on them.

Here's to you, Max.

"He reminds me of a predator. He can't sit still. It's almost like the movies where you see the dinosaur on the hunt. His head's never still. He's looking for something all the time."
Tim Jamieson, 3/4/06

"You need to come out when he pitches on Friday nights when he pitches, because you may never get an opportunity to experience something like that again in college baseball. It doesn’t come around very often.. It’s electric. You have the chance to watch a guy who’s going to be in the big leagues pretty soon."
Tim Jamieson, 2/6/06

"My biggest concern with this year's team are the number of draft-eligible players we have and the number of potential high-draft players we have. Frankly, we haven't been in a position like that before. So I think the attention is something we haven't had. The scouts, the number of guys that are going to be at our games, especially early in the year, we're going to have to make sure that the whole team is focused, but Max is probably the one guy that I'm not particularly concerned about."
Tim Jamieson, 1/26/06


Nickname of the Year:

Legion of Doom, also known as the relief staff. On the flag are a skull and two swords in place of the crossbones, which the group of Tigers pitchers say symbolizes the attitude of the legion.

“It’s a cocky, ‘we’re the best, we’re going to come out and get to you,’” senior left-hander Taylor Parker said. “We’re always talking about going to war, which is kind of a little extreme, I guess, but ... we’re going to attack and throw strikes to get ahead.” (Columbia Missourian, April 14, 2006)

And speaking of the Legion of Doom . . .

Most interesting career as a Tiger

In the 2003 version of our ""Tip of the Cap" awards, Travis Wendte won the "Most Interesting Pitcher to Watch": He led the team in saves with 8. He could blow batters away at times - he struck out 27 batters in 28.1 innings. He was an honorable mention to the All-Big XII team.

And he always made it "interesting" (that's not my word - it was used by a fellow Tiger player to describe Wendte's pitching appearances).

In those 28 innings he had allowed 37 hits, walked 9, threw 5 wild pitches, got called for 1 balk, allowed 2 triples and 2 home runs, and somehow finished the year with an impressive 3.45 ERA, the best on the team.

Travis Wendte has been with the Tigers now for five long years. Many fans who followed the 2006 Tigers might not even remember the names of the other "young guns" that joined Wendte in the great Freshman pitching class of 2002, part of one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, according to Collegiate Baseball: Justin James, Abel Newton, Garrett Broshuis (redshirt freshman).

Wendte has continued to be "interesting", but always for those same reasons named back in 2002. As the ring-leader of the "Legion of Doom" bullpen, Wendte was one of the most reliable arms in the relief corps in 2006. His performance in that 14-inning game against UC-Irvine in Malibu was key to the Tigers' ultimate Regional victory.

We're going to miss you, Travis.

Youth Movement

In 2005, Tim Jamieson played only one Freshman regularly (Jacob Priday), plus two others only occasionally (Evan Frey and Dan Pietroburgo). Compared to that, 2006 saw a veritable explosion of young blood on Simmons Field. Ryan Lollis, Aaron Crow, Rick Zagone and David Cales all saw significant playing time, and Kyle Mach saw some action as well.

At the Malibu Regional, the fabulous freshmen would prove to be valuable indeed, as Zagone and Crow through back-to-back complete games on Sunday, and Ryan Lollis provided what had to be the pinch hit of the year, breaking up the 14-inning marathon against UC-Irvine by delivering a pinch hit single to drive in the winning run.

And speaking of pinch hitters:

Pinch Hitters of the Year

What a joy it was to tune in to KTGR for the first game of the Pepperdine Regional and hear the voice of former catcher Ryan Pickett alongside Tex Little in the broadcast booth. "Pick" provided color commentary a few years ago (I think it was during the 2003 season) and excelled in that role.

To hear him again was not only a treat for his own sake, but also because it was a breath of fresh air compared to the insipid comments heard all year long from Mike Willington (or was it Wellington, or Willingham, or maybe Willing-but-not-at-all-capable). How many times can one "color" man tell us where such and such a player went to high school? Reading bio material from the Press Guide seemed to be the extent of his knowledge and insight.

His blessed departure after the Texas series (I never did hear the whole story on what happened with him that weekend), also opened the door for another pinch hitter: Mario Moccia. The Senior Associate Athletic Director is always a welcome addition to the booth, where his personally history as a player (New Mexico State MVP in 1998 and 1989; Detroit Tigers' organization, '89-'90) and his obvious love of the game make him an interesting and insightful counterpoint to the always enthusiastic Tex Little.

Easiest opponent to heckle

On the first weekend in May, someone had the brilliant idea of scheduling some gratuitous entertainment for the Simmons field Faithful, in the person of Mississippi Valley State. While the Tigers outscored the Delta Demons 50-4, we were all treated to the sight of their centerfielder hilariously misplaying easy fly balls (his coach - disguised as Santa Claus - unceremoniously pulled him from the field in the middle of the 2nd inning).

This was later followed by the even more entertaining performance of the right fielder, who lost sight of a fly ball, only to suddenly discover it heading straight for him - whereupon he threw his hands over his head and ducked, allowing the ball to hit to drop at the base of the wall.

Internet Quote of the Year

By NSUDemon on TigerBoard.com, February 12, 2006: "Here is a team with all the talent and TJ will coach them to another 4th place finish and 2-3 games and out in the regional."


Base Cadet

Our annual award for the most creative approach to base-running has to go to Brock Bond, who distinguished himself by getting picked off between 1st and 2nd two games in a row (during the Nebraska series).

We deliver this award with tongue in cheek, and with a reminder that our first ever "Base Cadet" award went to "Shortstop Ian Kinsler distinguished himself above his fellow road-kill candidates during the Texas series, and never let go of his claim to the title of Base Cadet." Mr. Kinsler has done fairly well for himself since then.


From Underdog to Top Cat

Tim Jamieson has been at the helm of Missouri Baseball for a dozen years now, and he has to be one of the most underestimated and underappreciated head coaches in Division I.

Sure, I'll grant you that his overall record over those 12 years is not in the same league as more celebrated succesful coaches, like Texas' Augie Garrido

But you cannot simply dismiss TJ's abilities by focusing on the negatives. Not when he has so many positives on his resume:

Jamieson and Garrido are the only two coaches in the Big XII who have taken their teams to the NCAA Regionals over the past four years straight. That's quite an accomplishment considering the tigers had failed to even make it to the Big XII Tournament the two years prior to the beginning of that streak. Bad coaches - even mediocre coaches - don't make that kind of turnaround and maintain it for that long.

All year long the media have put Max Scherzer under a microscope, examining his career and his potential. One thing every article mentioned was that when Max was in high school, he was erratic. As Jamieson was quoted, "he was very violent, with a lot of body parts moving in different directions."

At least one of Jamieson's critics wondered how much better Scherzer could be if he had spent his college years under a really great coach, instead of someone like Jamieson.

Apparently Max's coach was good enough to turn him into a top collegiate pitcher and a first round draft pick. Give Tim Jamieson credit where it's due.

And then there's the 2006 season. A really good coach, goes the argument, would not have taken a team ranked #10 pre-season and knocked it down so far they were unranked in the polls by the end of the regular season.

But Tim Jamieson, magician extraordinaire, pulled a rabbit our of his hat by pushing this team to peak at the right time, sweeping through Texas and on into a strong run in the Big XII Tournament, and all the way to somehow grabbing that last spot on the NCAA bracket.

And, to top it all off, Tim Jamieson put his name permanently in the NCAA Division I record books by coaching the only 4th-seeded team to ever win a Regional.

Coach J, you deserve an unreserved, long overdue tip of the cap (or perhaps, a tip of the magician's hat). We're proud to have you as the Tigers' head coach.