Morning Coffee Welcomes Baseball Season
by Peter Bean on Feb 21, 2008 7:48 AM CST
in Quick Hits
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Why do they even bother asking? For the seventh straight year, the Texas baseball team has been voted the Big 12 preseason favorite by conference coaches. The defending Big 12 champion Longhorns romped through conference play last season, finishing 21-6 (46-17 overall). The 'Horns stumbled in the playoffs to up and coming UC Irvine.
Big 12 player of the year Kyle Russell (who set a single season Texas record with 28 home runs in 2007) will anchor an offense which returns five position starters, including All-Big 12 First Team catcher Preston Clark. The pitching situation is less clear, but Texas will be hoping for a big bounceback season from Kenn Kasparek, returning from injury that sidelined him for all of 2007.
Texas starts its season this Friday afternoon at 2:30 against Virginia Commonwealth, as fans will get their first look at the new and improved ($25.8 million rennovation) Disch-Falk Field.
Um, where did that come from? Nebraska upset Kansas State 71-64 last night, holding Michael Beasley to 'just' 17 points and 10 rebounds. How'd they do it? Three defenders playing zone, with the remaining two draped all over Beasley. They denied him in the post, and quickly trapped him on the perimeter, forcing him to pass to his teammates. Who cannot shoot. The Wildcats came into the game 217th nationally in three point shooting, and they held true to form last night, bricking on 18 of their 26 attempts.
Wondering how Texas is going to deal with Beasley next Monday? There's your answer.
Godspeed, young men. Seven Longhorns will workout at the NFL Scouting Combine beginning next Wednesday in Indianapolis: Jamaal Charles, Jermichael Finley, Marcus Griffin, Tony Hills, Frank Okam, Billy Pittman, and Limas Sweed. Only Sweed seems to have a chance of being a first round draft choice, though Charles and Okam could be first day choices come draft day. I'm using this story as an excuse to post my favorite Jamaal Charles touchdown run, his 75-yard burst against Oklahoma State this past October.
Quick Hits. Of course you'll be watching Texas take on Oklahoma this Saturday at 2:30, but after a dinner break, you may want to tune in to ESPN at 8 p.m. for a rare #1-#2 matchup featuring Memphis and Tennessee... The Lady Horns fall to 4-8 in conference with a loss to Oklahoma State... Memphis football coach Tommy West is gunning for Terrelle Pryor. Mkay... Help Save Friday Night Lights... Tommy Blake, the new Ricky Williams?
--PB--
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Derek Lokey
Disch Renovation
For anyone who's interested JoAnna's blog has beaucoup photos of the renovations at the Disch.
Beautiful facility, but...
that turf is an eyesore. Grass would be heavenly.
by ArcticLonghorn on Feb 21, 2008 3:36 PM CST up reply actions
I can't figure out
Why we won't install real grass. Artificial turf is disgusting, both visually and in terms of a playable surface.
hmmmm....not buying that.
DKR looks awesome and is a money machine.
by ArcticLonghorn on Feb 21, 2008 6:35 PM CST up reply actions
If we can't afford grass for baseball...
... why are we selling ads at DKR, again?
you've got it backwards
question should be: if we can't afford grass for baseball, shouldn't we be selling MORE ads at DKR?
MORE ADS! MORE ADS! MORE ADS!
I mean the cost
DKR's grass costs over a million if I remember correctly. And while a fake field may cost that much or more, Im sure in the long run it is cheaper due to maintenance.
When I was in LHB we had one practice in DKR prior to the football season. We were made to practice in our socks as to not disturb the ass expensive field with our sneakers.
by BoddickerIsClutch on Feb 22, 2008 8:47 AM CST up reply actions
we have a huge advantage
by playing on that turf. it's our turf, and we know how to play it.
just watch once the tourney rolls around.
by the other Andrew on Feb 22, 2008 5:44 PM CST up reply actions
true
i dont think anyone likes it. but it does represent a home field advantage.
by the other Andrew on Feb 23, 2008 1:24 AM CST up reply actions
If horses can't eat it, we shouldn't play on it.
Totally agree that the turf needs to go. Real baseball is played on grass. Money is not a legitimate excuse. If we can raise $25M for a remodeling, surely we can budget something for lawnmowing. A school as wealthy as ours with a renowned baseball program should be able to afford real grass. Plenty of poorer schools manage to afford it.
I am glad the aluminum benches are gone, though!
By the way, this is my first post on BON after being a lurker for the past 2 years. So be gentle!
by JudenSmithFan on Feb 21, 2008 7:02 PM CST up reply actions
Welcome, sir
A strong entry... "surely we can budget something for lawnmowing."
You'll fit right in.
I've thought about this before
And decided that if I ever got rich enough that I wanted to give money to the university, it would be for real grass on the baseball field as well as naming rights to the new turf. I can see it now. "Meekrob's Hits and Grass at Disch-Falk Field".
I think you mean
"Meekrob's Hits and Grass at University Federal Credit Union--Disch-Falk Field"
by ArcticLonghorn on Feb 22, 2008 8:50 AM CST up reply actions
Nah
He will buy them out.
Might as well while we are fantasizing!
by BoddickerIsClutch on Feb 22, 2008 9:00 AM CST up reply actions
I'm so scared...
... of ending up like Louisville with "Wendy's Baconator DKR Texas-Memorial Stadium, Brought to You by Wells Fargo, Put Your Future in Our Hands!" Strung in giant neon letters around the outside of the stadium.
that's ridiculous Horn Brain...
clearly they would go with the abbreviated version: "Welcome to WBDKRTMBtYbWFPYFiOH Stadium", Home of the Longhorns"
by ArcticLonghorn on Feb 22, 2008 11:34 AM CST up reply actions
You're Right
I'm just paranoid, I guess.
One thing
The only reason why I like the turf is that it gives us a bigger home field advantage. The team practices on it and knows how the ball rolls/bounces. Someone should look up team error stats for us and our opponents over the last many years to see if it really is that way.
But in the bigger picture, I do think we need grass.
Yes.
Help Save Friday Night Lights. Yes. Even if you don't feel like donating, take two seconds out of your day to sign the Best Week Ever petition.
FNL
In a typical fit of network insanity, NBC decided to bury the show on Friday night and now they worry about the ratings. I guess they thought the word 'Friday' in the title would confuse poor little us. And now they figure since football season is over, no one will be interested. Is it any wonder that cable is eating them up? And wouldn't FNL be a great cable series -- are you listening, FX?
2008 Houston College Classic
I didn't know about this until I checked the baseball schedule this morning. If you're in the Houston area and want to see the Horns play next weekend at Minute Maid Park.
7:00 2/29 TEXAS v. Tennessee
7:00 3/1 TEXAS v. Rice
6:00 3/2 TEXAS v. Houston
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/fa...
Combine Update
Tony Hills won't be working out in Indy, but he says he "should be full-go" at UT's Pro Day on March 19.
From Rivals' blog of all the events. The Hills bit is WAY down the page.
Micheal Beasley
haha, he predicted that he will score 50 points. not.
RE: DFF
It is officially the UFCU Disch-Falk Field. UFCU, my employer, paid quite a bit of that $25 million. We've been doing a lot this past month to promote the rededication of the field at each of the branches. We even had one of the athletic department staff members let us borrow quite a bit of baseball stuff for our branch.
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