How does Texas Baseball respond after sweep of Texas A&M with Ty Harrington and Texas Beach Volleyball coach Stein Metzger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glad to be with you here from UFCU dish Folk Field,
the site of quite a bit of excitement for Texas
long worn baseball fans these days is they have the
number one team in the country and the top team
atop the SEC standings. Neither of that stuff really matters tonight.
They do have a ballgame, but it's out of conference

(00:22):
against Prairie View A and M. But they will go
to work and look to make it ten consecutive wins.
We welcome you to the program this afternoon. My name
is Craig Way. We thank you very much for joining us.
Joined in the studio by the producer Cameron D. Parker.
The D on the birth certificate stands for Dallas, as
in the NFL team for which he was named, which

(00:45):
he only follows a skance from a distance and refuses
to watch on television with their misdeeds and goings on
on the off season. But hey, look they just came
through the draft and maybe get better and getting ready
for the coming twenty five season. We can all dream,

(01:05):
right Cameron, Hey, the D stands for Dallas.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Today, it's sands for Dallas, Dallas Stars I six two
last night, that's right, three to two series lead. Let's
go Stars, baby.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
What they do? They scored what nine seconds into it?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Wa Johnston with this an unbelievable goal that I don't
think he could do ever again. But sometimes, hey me
a little bit of luck, and it certainly went that
way for Dallas and lay head back to Colorado with
a chance to win the series tomorrow night. So let's
go Stars.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was impressive. And for folks
who don't understand, because I've had people to ask me
differently about you know, what makes the Stanley Cup playoffs
so different and in the minds of some people, the
best postseason around. You know, I said, it really becomes

(01:56):
that way if you get to sudden death, because unlike
the NBA, where you know what you've got, you've got
a five minute overtime that you play baseball, there's extra inning,
so if team scores in the top half of an inning,
the other team can match and or surpass it to
win the game in the bottom half of the inning.
NFL does have sudden death in its playoffs, but it's

(02:22):
quite often extrapolated throughout the course of an overtime period.
It doesn't always happen bang bang instantaneously. It could happen
with a long pass or a pick six, but it
usually doesn't, Whereas in the NHL, if you're watching overtime
in the Stars and as have played a couple overtimes,
if you're watching it, it can literally change instantaneously and

(02:46):
all of a sudden game is over, and if you
were cheering for the team that won, it's instant exhilaration,
and if you're cheering for the team that lost, it's
just instant heartbreak. I think that's the big separating factor
from the other pro sports leagues. You watch the NHL
a lot, do you agree with that?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah? And sometimes hockey, like I don't want to dumb
it down to say it's not about skill, but sometimes Craig,
you know, all it takes is a deflection that goes
into the back of the net and it changes the
entire series.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
You don't really have that too much in football or
basketball or other sports where you have a play like that,
but it happens a lot in hockey. I just think
back to why Johnston's goal. You know, if Dallas doesn't
score right there, the momentum is not on Dallas's side,
and who knows what happens, maybe they still win, but
there's moments like that that kind of add and build
up to what that makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs such

(03:37):
well probably you know a lot of people say it's
the best postseason in all sports. And I don't know
if I'm all the way there because I didn't grow
up with hockey, but watching playoff hockey, it's so much
different than watching it during the regular season.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, I think the intensity is I'll tell you one
thing that's different about the Stanley Cup playoffs from the rest.
And I was talking about this with Linda last night
because we were watching the game and she was amazed,
you know, at the amount of glove dropping an extracurricular
that was going on. And I pointed out to her that, uh,

(04:16):
this is quite commonplace in the regular season. In fact,
if you watch a regular season game anywhere in the
NHL and you don't see a fight, it's probably unusual.
In the playoffs, it's the other way around, because it
gets real unusual because teams are not wanting to take
that risk on a penalty. And you know, that's that

(04:39):
That's what I think comes out more than more than
anything else. That's why you don't see too many fights.
In fact, I wasn't even sure that the you know
that that that we'd even see a fight in the postseason.
But we've seen him a couple of times in the
in this Star series. I haven't seen him in the
other series, but I haven't watched every minute of every
other series.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, and I think part of that too, Craig, is
this It is the third playoffs series between the Stars
and the Avalanche is twenty twenty, and the two previous
series Dallas both won, but one in seven and one
in six. And now here they are. I mean, I
think they've played forty two times, and the record in
those forty two games twenty one in twenty one. You

(05:18):
can't get more even than that. So these two teams
know each other very well, so it'll it'll tend to
lead to, you know, more physical confrontations.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, yeah, And and so then I was having to
explain the difference between just regular fighting and out and
out game misconduct that you had near the end of
regulation when you had two guys on each side being
sent inside. But you know, Linda doesn't proclaim to know
much about hockey anyway, So I mean, I'm explaining you know,

(05:51):
things like icing and the slot and you know where
they do face offs, and you know.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
They still don't understand icing and never will. I've just
accepted that.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's kind of almost like balk in baseball. You know,
it's it's it's kind of an inexact science as as
to when they determine that there's like there are real
obvious ones. Clearly, if a team is trying to defend
against the power play and they're just shooting the puck
right back down the ice to get it out of
their zone, it's going all the way down there. You know,
you're you're gonna have that call for icing, But they're

(06:21):
they're there are more nuanced, uh strategies in play that
ultimately lead it. So I mean, I'm.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Explaining that the blue line is that what it is
if you're behind your blue line, you know, and slamming
down the other in the punk gets icy. Yeah yeah,
so you know, uh, you know that's that's.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
You know, that's that that that's one of the things
that I was that I was kind of explaining there.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Uh hey, coming up on the program, Uh we'll we'll
we'll talk to more college baseball.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Uh and uh uh. Coming up later on in the program.
Ty Harrington will be working the telecast tonight of this
Texas periode view game. We'll join us for our weekly conversation.
That's because you know we usually do with either Tuesday
or Friday, depending on whether it's home or on the road. Well,
since long words lead tomorrow as a team for Fayevl,

(07:21):
Arkansas for that Thursday Friday Saturday series in Fayetteville, I'll
obviously be checking in. I'll check in with you tomorrow
and check in with Andrews. And we have the Zimbel
Hours on Thursday and Friday, right we do, and I
will check in with him on Thursday and Friday. But
in terms of doing a whole show, that's what you'll
be hosting tomorrow, and that's what sim will be doing

(07:43):
on Thursday and Friday. So Ty will join us later
and we'll have a little baseball college baseball update thing
and talk about the national picture as well as the
local three o'clock hour. Stein Metzger joins us. Now some
folks might still be familiarizing themselves with the name Stein Metzger.

(08:09):
He's the coach of the Texas Beach volleyball team. That
won the conference championship in their first year of eligibility,
and we'll be playing in the NCAA tournament in Gulf Schwars,
Alabama this Friday, So we're gonna visit with Stein. We've
had we've had coach metsk Aro on before and it's
always fun to visit with. So we're gonna visit with
Stein coming up in the three o'clock hour, so we

(08:31):
will you know, we'll look forward to You had a
chance to call some beach volleyball. How much fun did
you have doing that?

Speaker 2 (08:39):
It was an absolute blast being out there at the
beach the right Whitaker Fields Complex where Texas Beach Volleyball
has their temporary home until they build that brand new
facility here in a year or so. It's a lot
of fun. It's been a lot of fun to you know,
cover this program in Washington and what Stein has done
and just technically it's year two, but year one, you know,

(09:02):
they kind of had to fill the roster with you know,
regular volleyball players who didn't play sand volleyball. But with
this season, Stein did a great job of utilizing the
transfer portal and bringing in girls and yeah, you know
it didn't take much. I mean, how many teams can say, hey,
in their first year of eligibility for the postseason, they
find themselves ranked in the top ten. That's a credit

(09:23):
to the staff and the credit to the players who
have come over to Austin.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
That's true enough. I had a couple of people text
me and ask me about whether for the game because
there'd been a couple of thunderstorm possibilities out there. Looking
at the forecast that I'm looking at, it looks like
everything's okay for the game today. Tomorrow stands the best

(09:52):
chance of rank so fortunately, since they're not playing tomorrow,
they are traveling tomorrow. But but it looks like everything
will be okay. Now, I will tell you this. It's
gonna be hot and it's gonna be windy. It'll be
about eighty seven eighty six eighty seven degrees at first
pitch time to night, and the winds are coming out

(10:14):
almost completely due south. It's very slight south southeast right now,
and they're blowing steady at eighteen miles per hour and
they're gusting up to thirty miles per hour. So yeah,
if you're hitting the ball out to left tonight, cam
probably got a good chance to send one out of

(10:36):
the ballpark. And I'm thinking of those deadpool hitters like
Casey Borba and you know, and Jalen Flores and Ryland Galvan.
Now those guys that all three of those guys, by
the way, have proven and shown the season that they
can go the opposite way when the situation calls for it.
But on a night like this, and if we're being

(10:57):
you know, completely revealing, completely honest, and you mentioned the
team that they're playing, Prairie View, I did mention yesterday
that Prairieview comes in with an RPI of two hundred
and ninety nine. They're not a horrible offensive team. They're
about about two sixty five. Uh, it's the pitching, that's

(11:20):
the bugaboot cam. Their team ERA is nine point three five.
So yeah, I mean, if if the long worn bats
are up and going tonight nine three five, nine three five.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
That's feeling it after what the weather you just mentioned
and the way Txes is swinging might be closer to
the ten.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
The day you think about this, Texas run ruled a
couple of teams that are in contention for the Southern
Conference championship. One of those is Houston Christian now they've
fallen off a little bit. The other is ut Rio
Grand Valley and they beat them two weeks ago and
run ruled them. And they're near the top. I think

(12:05):
they're twenty eight and fifteen. They're near the top of
the Southland standings. And as we speak right now, they're
up nine to two on Texas Tech in Love It
Wow in the top of the third and Texas Tech
is very relieved because they've just hit a weather delay there.
They've just had a storm blowed. They moved that game forward.
It was supposed to be a six o'clock first pitch,

(12:27):
and they were concerned about thunderstorms tonight. That's why I
had some other people ask me and say, hey, I
know it's going to be stormy out in West Texas.
Are those storms going to hit here? And the answer
is no, not this evening. It doesn't look like all
over because we're getting some really strong prevailing winds out
of the south. But yeah, and UTRGV came in with
a I think they were batting Campbell like three point

(12:50):
fifteen as a team or something like that when they
played here, and and Texas shut them down and played
well enough and obviously won the ball game and ut
Rio Grand Valley. Their week point was they're pitching, but
they came at their team ERA wasn't horrible. I mean
it was like five points something, but I think Texas

(13:11):
text might be even higher than that. The Red Raiders
have given up a lot of runs. They've really had
a struggle this year out Lubbock. It has been uncharacteristic
for those Tim Tadlock coach teams to be struggling. And
they're nine below five hundred going into today's game. Like
I said, they're down nine to two in the third
inning at home to ut Rio Grand Valley. But they

(13:32):
may get a reprieve on this deal. If they can't.
They're supposed to play two games there, a two game
midweek there, but I don't know that that's going to
wind up being the case because they've got they've got
the weather delay going on there. All right, what's going
on here is we've got some NFL notes to get to,
also some NBA get cam's review of the playoff games

(13:55):
that were played last night in preview the ones tonight.
We do have inconceivable coming up later on this out.
As I mentioned, Stein Metzger, the Texas Beach Volleyball coach,
choines in the three o'clock hour. We'll talk from college
baseball with Ty Harrington in the four o'clock hour as well.
So we got a lot on our plate this afternoon,
and glad you're with us as well. If you like
to text the program, feel free to do so. You

(14:17):
can avail yourselves of our text line. And what you
do is you text the word Texas follow by your
question or comment to eight one five three zero. So
just text the word Texas follow by your question or
comment to eight one five three zero. Standard messaging and
data rates may apply. There's one other thing I want

(14:38):
to do. If you've heard me tell you about several
different businesses product services that have been proud to endorse
over the years. One service that I will always always
be happy to indoors is our good friend, doctor Greg Eckert.
He's been in outstanding dentistry here in the Greater Rostin

(15:00):
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without that anxiety that usually accompanies the trip to the dentist.
There's anxiety free ways to do that. They will also
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(15:22):
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So you can give doctor Ecker to call at three
four five three one sixty six. This is thirteen hundred zone.
Always great to hear from the one and only Stevie Rayvaughn.

(15:43):
I always like remembering the fact that I when I
in my concert vending days when I put myself through college.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
So that's actually double trouble, by the way, let me occur.
That's from double trouble.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
In the in my concert vending days putting myself through college,
and I worked either for the band or for the arena.
I was working the rolling Stones at the Cotton Bowl
in nineteen eighty one, so it was in college, and
that's when Lynn and I were dating the first time
before we split up and lost contact for thirty five

(16:17):
years until we had our incredible random run into each
other in twenty eighteen and been together since. But when
I was working that it was a triple bill, so
you think about this. The rolling Stones obviously were the
headliner the Coton Bowl, and it was on Halloween weekend.
In fact, it was on Halloween and it was pouring

(16:39):
rain throughout the show. Didn't stop Mick Jagger. He was
out on the stage and he was doing the Mick.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Jagger strut the way he does, and the Stones were
rocking and all that.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
So they were the headliner. They were the last act.
The middle act Cam was none other then, as they
liked to call themselves, that little old band from Texas,
zz Top. So that was the That was the middle
and the first was the Fabulous Thunderbirds. So you had
both of the Vaughan brothers there, yeah, Jimmy, and you

(17:11):
had Stevie Ray, so you had that had that going on.
So that was quite a bill that day and in
that weekend at the Cotton Bowl. They played both Saturday
and Sunday at the Cotton Bowl back in nineteen eighty one.
And I think about it and I always tell the
story that it is true, absolutely true. When Linda and
I were dating, and this was like in January. It
was a few months later. It was in January of

(17:31):
eighty two, and my best friend Alex wanted to go
see Stevie Ray Vaughn and we went on a double
date and we took dates there and Linda was my date,
and we went and he was playing in a little,
tiny little club on Oaklawn Avenue in Dallas called the
New Bamboo. And we went in there and sat down

(17:55):
and he just walks out of that with that classic
hat that he always wore, the wide bread hat, sat
down and just kind of ducked his head, bowed his
head down and just began to play and just played
and played. It was awesome. Our dates didn't think it
was that great because it wasn't like a rock and
jumping band and doing all this kind of stuff, and
you know all that.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
And Lynna and I have had a laugh or two
about that in the year since, because she became a
big fan later. But that particular night, when she was
seventeen years old and we were going out, it wasn't
wasn't quite the same.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Put it this way, It hit differently for her back then.
It wasn't really quite the same. What also isn't quite
the same these days is what's going on with the
NBA playoffs. All Right, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you
a chance to just kind of I'm not gonna say,

(18:48):
explain yourself because you pretty much explained it yesterday. And
you also kind of let everybody know how you feel
and what you think of Luka Danci with some of
your comments about him. Would you start to say having
a beer or something like that. You were you were
kind of it's just a joke, guy, Okay, you were

(19:11):
kind of tossing around some funnies about him, uh, that
sort of thing. But Kendrick Perkins this morning on the
ESPN said, no, boy, Anthony Edwards is a better player
than Luka doncic Oh, boy, that was his take. Now,
I don't think you're a big Perk fan anyway, are you? Uh?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Purchase says stuff he's on shows like that, Craig. I
just try not to pay any attention because I know
what their end goal is, which is just, hey, let's
say the most absurd thing possible, right and get fused.
So I've you know, we we we've been around people
who know Perk well, like coach Brennan Chappelle, who was
on Artie staff, grew up with Perk and has something

(19:52):
but great things to say about him. Our own Michael
Harge has gone to basketball tournaments with his kids where
Perk has been there and has something great things to
say about him.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
I called the state championship game he played him with
Bo Motto's and when they lost to Lincoln High with
Chris Bosh Wow. Yeah, back in two I believe it was.
It's been it's been a while. So yeah, he was
he was quite the Uh, he was quite the weapon.
And he was coached by a friend of mine who
I went to college with the North Texas who played
at basketball in North Texas. Andre Boutet was his head coach.

(20:24):
So you're right, Perk can say some things to elicit response.
I think I think that's probably, uh, that's probably an
accurate statement assessment of how he is.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Okay, Uh, But with that take, yeah, he may be
on the something. Because last season we saw Luca carry
the Mavericks all the way to an NBA finals, right,
and then eventually they would lose to the defending champions,
the Boston Celtics, And they were in the conference finals
a few years before that, right, they have so we
have a proven track record with Luca. We have not

(20:58):
had that with Anthony Edwards. Now, we did see him
in the t Wolves, you know, take down Denver last
year in the Conference semi finals, so that incredible Game
seven win in Denver, but then ended up losing to Luca.
This season, if the t Wolves can can finish off
the Lakers in five or six games or seven, and

(21:19):
then advance to the next round and take out likely
the Golden State Warriors and then maybe go up against
the Thunder or the Clippers or maybe the Nuggets again,
then then I think I would say one thing right now,
and I think everyone would agree with me. The better
player in this series between the Lakers and t Wolves
has been Anthony Edwards. Now, can we see Anthony Edwards

(21:42):
carry a team to the NBA Finals like we've already
seen Luka Doncics do, Because let's not forget Luca is
a top five player this series, eh, I don't know.
You know, all the concerns that you know, the Mavericks
front off has had about Luca is kind of wearing
its ugly head right now because he's been a non
factor defensively. But Anthony Edwards has been playing out of

(22:05):
his mind this series.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
YEP. I agree with all that, No, no disagreement there.
I think in terms of the total player, let's give
it a little more time, let it marinate a little
bit more before we make the kind of declarative statement
that player A is better than player B, or whatever
that sort of thing. But I also understand in the
microwave existence of sports, the consuming of televised sports in

(22:34):
the world that we live in if quite often demands
whether or not we're interested in providing it. The outside
noise demands the you know, A, the instant gratification, and
B the immediate response, you know what, this guy is
better than that guy. This team is better than this team.

(22:55):
This team needs to fire its coach, This team is
that you know. It's those I've always said this, you know.
As much as I love broadcasting sports and being around
it and watching the game in all the sports, there
are very few sports I don't like, And in watching

(23:16):
all these the one element that I'm not crazy about
and never have been crazy about, is the instant reaction
or over reaction to things. Part of the reason what
makes sports, team sports great is it plays out over time,
and making an instant declaration of something sometimes that stuff

(23:41):
doesn't age very well. But I at the same time,
I understand the agency and in the medium that goes
on that that requires a reactive response. You couldn't have
Sports Center every day and say, uh, you know, uh,

(24:01):
the Major League Baseball uh season uh is you know,
is off to a slow start, but but uh, certain teams,
but they'll work it out that sort of No, it
requires things like the Atlanta Brave season is on the brink,
they're owing eight, you know, or anybody looking to see
what the Braves are done lately, you know. So it's
things take time, I think, and and but in the

(24:25):
world we live in with broadcast and televised sports and
and just really even in the public consumption of the
world of perspiring arts, it demands a more immediate review,
reply response, uh and position. And sometimes that's gonna be popular,
and sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's gonna be way

(24:48):
too premature. But that's that's part of what goes along
with this world. That's part of what goes along. You
want to watch last night, Kim Lendon, I, before we
were watching uh the Star Ours Avalanche and watch some
of the Dodger game and the Rockets and Warriors. We
were watching because it was it was on espn U,

(25:08):
but it was already underway. So then I went back
on ESPN Plus and just pulled it up and we
watched the whole thing that the Last Days of Night
about Bob Knight when when his time ended in Indiana,
and the Neil Reid thing and all that kind of stuff,
and we sat through all of that. It was compelling.
But what was equally amazing is the instantaneous response not

(25:33):
only from fans, because fans are going to be fans,
but the university and all this kind of stuff. And
it became kind of like protect Bob Knight at all
costs and attacking, you know, through the media Neil Reid
when all he did was tell the truth about what
happened the practice until you know, and nobody believed it
until the or a lot of people didn't believe until
the practice tape surface. So you know, that's but in

(25:57):
the world that we live in, in the and the
televised and public consumed world of spectator sports. By the way,
the rumbled at year above are some military helicopters going
over the ballpark here. But in the world that we're
living in, on that public fandom demands instantaneous reaction and

(26:21):
response sometimes whether we like it or not, it does
and I don't like it a lot of times, but
I also know it's part of the deal. It just
kind of goes along with it, all right. Coming up next,
speaking of things you might like and not like, it's
inconceivable here on a Tuesday afternoon, we'll continue from UFCU
just fall Field. I'm thirteen under the zone. Tonight, Texas Longhorne,

(26:44):
number one in the country, number one on top of
the SEC standings, will play a non conference game. They
only have two of those midweek non conference games remaining.
It'll be Prairie View A and M tonight and then
one week from against a good Lamark Cardinal team that's
won thirty six ball games. That'll be next Tuesday night.

(27:05):
And of course there's only one home series remaining, and
that is not this coming weekend, but the following weekend,
on Senior Weekend, the Florida Gators will be in town.
In Florida has been good of late. They just finished
taking two out of three over the weekend. From Arkansas,
the Loghorns, of course, are headed for Fayetbelle, Arkansas. The
leave tomorrow and then play Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at

(27:29):
ball Mark Or Stadium in Fayetteville. Texas will go into
that weekend with a magic number. And I always say
this when it comes to college baseball. It's different in
college baseball and college basketball than it is in Major
League Baseball or the NBA. The number, when you say
a magic number, it's pretty firm and solid. With those

(27:54):
at the collegiate level, it's a little more fluid. It
floats a little bit depending on remaining schedules and stuff
like that. But the Logorns have a magic number of
four to clinch the SEC regular season title.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Now.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
The reason why I say it floats a little bit
is because they could the magic numbers four right now
over both Arkansas and LSU, and Texas could beat Arkansas
the first two games and mathematically eliminate the Razorbacks, but
not necessarily LSU depending on LSU's got a huge series

(28:32):
of Texas A and M this weekend, So there's a
lot that'll be happening throughout the course of this weekend.
And it's a Thursday, Friday Saturday series against Arkansas. Thursday
and Friday night. You can hear the games one of
three point one FM and then Saturday's game here on
the Zone. A Saturday afternoon contest so they have that,
then they would come home play Lamar in the midweek,

(28:55):
then they have Florida to close out the home portion
of the regular season schedule, and then they conclude the
regular season in Norman at Oklahoma on the final weekend
of the regular season. So it's still a lot of
work to be done. But the long words, of course,
are playing really well. They won nine in a row
and they haven't lost since that Saturday fifteen inning game

(29:18):
in Lexington, Kentucky, which was seventeen days ago. It was
back some time ago, and as we head toward the
end of April, Texas is right now tied for the
best start ever in a thirty game SEC schedule nineteen
and two, along with Vanderbilt's twenty thirteen team. Now that

(29:39):
Vanderbilt team actually played only twenty nine games they had
a rain out, but they still have the best record
ever at the end of the season for a thirty
game schedule. They went twenty six and three, did the
Commodores in twenty thirteen, and Texas right now is nineteen
and two with nine games remaining, So we'll see if

(30:04):
the Longhorns are able to amount a threat to that.
But the main thing is continuing to play well and
try to enhance their position to be a number one
overall national seedy right now, are number one in D
one baseball dot com. They are number one in the

(30:25):
ESPN USA Today Coaches Poll. They are number one in
the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association rankings. They are number
one in Perfect Game, and they are number one and

(30:45):
I think just about every pole the RPI. Going into today,
they're the number one RPI team in the country. Interestingly enough,
the top five spots in the RPI are all held
down by SEC schools. The top five positions are all

(31:06):
SEC programs. Texas is number one, Georgia is number two
in the RPI. Then the rest of the RPI after
Texas at number one and Georgia at number two are Vanderbilt,
Auburn and Arkansas. LSU, which is ranked number two in

(31:29):
the voting polls is number nine in the RPI, and
the RPI may get negatively affected tonight by playing a
team that's two hundred ninety nine in the RPI, but
it'll bump right back up when they play three consecutive
road games at the number five RPI team Arkansas this
Thursday Friday, and Saturday. So a lot of those things
tend to sort themselves out, all some cleanup from our

(31:51):
number one. I was telling different stories about T shirts
and things like that, and someone said, I bet you
don't don't have a UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs shirt,
or do you? The answer is no, I do not.
I am familiar, of course with the banana slugs for
U see Santa Cruz Division two program. That's a great

(32:15):
mascot name. Don't you think, Cameron Parker, that the banana
slugs for U se Santa Cruz.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
I did not know that was their mascot name.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, yeah, D two program on that Yesterday on the program,
I was talking about the new Buckies' locations, because there's
going to be fourteen new and one of them will
be in Mississippi near the board down along the Gulf coast.
And you know, I looked at it and it said

(32:44):
it was going to be like past Christian. That's the
way it was spelled. But I'm glad somebody checks in
and say I heard the BUCkies talk. He said, So,
I grew up on the north shore of Lake Pontre Train.
That's the huge lake of course that borders the north
side of New Orleans and said, I spent much time
on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The locals down there pronounced

(33:05):
Christian in past Christian is Christian, so duly noted, thank
you past Christian, and this Texter we'd get a kick
out of the fact. When I was doing High School
Scoreboard show in Dallas on KRLD all those years, and
that was basically the ancestor, if you will, of this

(33:28):
television show I've done for the past twenty seven years.
High School Scoreboard Live kind of like an ESPN Sports
center for high school football across Texas, and we got
scores and highlights from all across the state all these
years of doing it. Back in that day, when I
was doing the radio show, one of the features I
used to incorporate, I had a weekly cheerleaders cheer to

(33:50):
open the show and go out and record a different
group of cheerleaders who would do a big cheer to
lead it off from our one hundred mile radius around
the Dallas Fort Worth area. The other feature I did
it was the mascot team name of the week, and
I would research why a school had selected its unusual

(34:11):
mascot name. For example, I always say. The quintessential mascot
high school name in Texas is it Task a home
of the it Taska Wampas Cats. Because it's a completely
fictitious creature, it's the Wampas Cats. I liked it so
much I'd name my fantasy football team that back in
the day, and it still is to this day. That's

(34:31):
the name of my fantasy football team. But anyway, I
called the school to find out and there was a
woman there. Her name was Nancy Bowman. She was the
school secretary at the time. She later became I think
the superintendent in later years. She kind of rose up
through the ranks. But she had a little script. I
didn't even realize this. I just called to do an
interview with somebody who could talk about why it Task

(34:54):
had selected the Wampas Cats. And she read this script
about its part bop Cat, part mountain lion, part panther,
all these things, and it got its origination back in
the twenties at the school and after a hard fought win,
one of the team stars, a young man by the

(35:14):
name of Trav Burks, shouted, Wow, we were really Wampus
Cats tonight. Silence fell over, the hush locker room. Everybody
knew the mascot had been born, so it went by that, uh,
the the itask of wampus cat. So I would do
this to find out, you know, and talk to a

(35:35):
different school officials and find out, you know, who were
the uh you know, the people that named it, or
whether I talked to a lady who was a wonderful
lady who was in her eighties out in Trent, Texas,
out that's out just past Abilene in the Big Country region.

(35:56):
And her name was Edith Rudd. She was in her eighties,
but she had been a cheerleader back in the twenties
when Trent High School selected the Gorillas as its mascot name,
and she said, you know, I don't know, I was
just trying to We all wanted a real ferocious name
and a gorilla see that. And it's the only gorillas

(36:18):
mascot in the state of Texas. So it did all
of these in the first year. I kind of burned
through all the ones in Texas. Huddo hippos. You know
why Huddo selected hippos, don't you, cam Uh.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
I think I've heard this story before, but please remind.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Me traveling carnivals circus going through town and the truck
that was hauling the hippos got stuck in the mud
or got stuck, and the hippo got out and went
down into the mud bog and they had a heck
of a time getting it out something like that. So
that was that's the origin of huddo hippos. So and

(36:55):
there were some places where it was hard to get
a definition for, like the Knip of purple rock crushers,
you know, but like rock springs, the Angoras after the
Angora sheep. So there were different ones. But after the
first year started branching out, and in branching out, one
of the places we did was Saint Stanislaus, which was

(37:16):
in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. This gets it back to
the text story, which would be right in that area
near past Christianne and Biloxi, Gulfport, that whole area along
the Gulf coast. And I called the school because their
team name was the Rocket Jaws. I didn't know what
a rocket jaw was. When I explained what it is, Cameron,

(37:38):
you will know exactly what I'm talking about. But I
called it and it was that Saint Stanislaus it was
a private Catholic school. So I called down there in
that Cajun country and they put me in touch with
a fellow by the name of Brother Aquen Gotier, and
he explained to me in his unique Cajun acts, that

(38:01):
a rockets hall is kind of like a little sticky
bue that you have in your yard. It falls from
your tree and you have a little stem on it,
but it's a little sticky ball. It's a sticky bue.
That's that's the way you described it. Well, you know
what I'm talking about. Those We used to call them
sticker balls here in North Carolina growing up. Those ones
that would fall from the trees had a little stem
on them, and it was just kind of a little

(38:22):
round ball. That's what That's what a rocketchaw is. So
that's that's what that came from. But it was Brother
Aqin Gochie from St. Stanislaus who told me about the
it's a little sticky bue. As he said, all right,
we'll get back into something else that's a little bit different.
How about beach volleyball Texas. They're headed to the NCAA

(38:44):
tournament and we're going to visit with the head coach
Stein Metzger coming up when we continue on thirteen hunderd
the zone coming up. Surely we'll visit with Tyme Metzger,
the head coach of Texas Beach Volleyball Logorn baseball team
getting ready to take on Prairie View tonight. And then
as I mentioned, it's on the fayv of Arkansas will

(39:04):
travel tomorrow and have a practice tomorrow evening. They're at BALLB.
Walker Stadium. They will then play the Arkansas Razorbacks on
Thursday night, and that would be at seven o'clock and
we'll have it for you actually at six o'clock excuse me,
on Thursday at five to forty five pre game start

(39:25):
time six o'clock Thursday, seven o'clock Friday night, and two
o'clock Saturday. The Thursday games and Thursday and Friday games
will be heard on one of three point one FM,
and the Saturday afternoon matchup from Fayetteville is a two
o'clock first pitch with a one forty five pre game
start time, and we'll have it for you on the
zone beginning. At'll be right here on thirteen hundred the zone.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
So's that's what they have in front of them as
Texas continues to prepare for the DWNLAS stretch for the
NCAA tournament, starting of course with the SEC tournament that
will take place in Hoover, Alabama.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
On that there was a couple of other texts to
play catch up on from yesterday. That when you get
a chance to do it. First of all, our good
friend Ryan, who likes to refer to himself as blind
Ryan because he is sightless. But he said, I just
want to thank you for the brief period of conversation

(40:25):
when you were in Round Rock. Were have the years gone? Man?
Since I've known you, Ryan and I have communicated many
times over the years when he's asked me about different things,
elements of a broadcast and stuff like that. So it
was good to see you on last Thursday. I also

(40:47):
mentioned a fast food item yesterday that Burger King is
going to like this frozen strawberry drink and it's kind
of like a slurpee, but you can get it with
Nerds candy in it. You can get that. And somebody
else said the good old rocket Pop comes in several
flavors now, including Nerd flavors. That one I'm not that

(41:13):
familiar with. Cam. I'm not sure if you've know what
you're talking about. Rocket pop. I don't know. Maybe maybe
we can be illuminated on the rocket pocket pop a
little bit. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about that.
The A couple other does want to get to there's
there's something else. Uh. I don't know that this was

(41:34):
necessarily bugging.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Me or nagging at me, but but I feel compelled
to say stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Uh. They're about this one particular issue as we know.
Of course, quin you were elected to go into the
NFL draft. Uh. And there were a great mini And
I can say this with complete confidence, a great many

(42:02):
unsubstantiated reports that Quinn was turning down anywhere from four
million dollars to eight million dollars to transfer to another school. Now,
I'm certain he might have had opportunities had he chosen
to do that, but that was never a part of

(42:22):
Quinn's plan. I visited with him about it, obviously, several
other folks visited with him about it. Long Worn's head
coach Tve Sarkeishan talked about said Quinn wanted to conclude
his career as a Texas Long Worn, so he wanted
to conclude it as a long Warning and then move
on to the NFL Draft. He made that choice, and

(42:45):
as we know, he slid to the seventh round in
the draft. That was unfortunate. I thought he might go
in the fourth round, but or certainly by the fifth.
But hey, I had to keep the fifth round open
for Shadur Sanders, right, because it didn't work out for
during the first four rounds. But in any event, he
goes in the seventh round and immediately draws a large

(43:10):
amount of criticism from folks who said that, you know,
he left money on the table, he made a foolish mistake.
He should have come back, transferred to another school, blah
blah blah, so on and so forth. And those were the
people who I think were conveniently and completely ignoring the

(43:35):
fact that Quinn Ewers wanted to finish his career as
at Texas. Longhornt that money was not as big a
determining factor for him. Start pointed out yesterday, and we
had it on the air in the sound that we
got from the Touchdown Club of Houston's luncheon that Quinn
Viewers never took a dime from the nil Collective Texas

(44:00):
the Texas Won Fund. He never took one to Any
money that he took was based on his own name, image,
and likeness, and that was the way it was originally
laid out by the NCAAA. What the NCAA clearly did
not realize is that in letting the genie out of
the bottle out of that, collectives would spring up everywhere

(44:21):
and all this kind of thing, and a lot of
schools had to do that to make sure to keep
you know, all those student athletes happy and you know whatever,
litigation free, and to keep the school in the same category.
But Quinn rs Never took any of that money. He
only went with his own stuff. And we've all seen
the commercials that he's been in from law firms to

(44:43):
this and that, and the doctor Pepper commercials and all
that kind of stuff. So the money thing wasn't It
certainly wasn't as big a deal as it was when
he left high school a year early and enrolled into
Ohio State, because at the time, it was unheard of
for someone to you know, a leave a year early

(45:05):
and then b do it for the kind of money
he did. It was one million dollars from to go
to Ohio State, where he played I think four snaps
in that red sharning freshman year. That was it. So
he took a million dollars then, and as he said,
he wanted to roll in to Austin and win with

(45:27):
his teammates, which he did at a very high level. Now,
he wasn't one hundred percent physically a lot, and I
think that was probably a big part of the reason
why he slipped in the NFL draft. The way he did.
It was not because of his decision making or because
of his intelligence, or because of his work ethic or
anything like that. And those who were active about this

(45:48):
either criticizing him or defending him because they were both
on social media. For his decision, several of the people
who were criticizing him were criticizing him. These were the
same or at least a collection of them, were the
same people who criticized him in the first place for

(46:08):
leaving high school early to take a million dollars. So,
I mean, you can't really have it both ways, you know,
one way or the other. But I guess, you know,
everyone certainly is entitled to their opinion the way it goes.
I just think that it's important to keep in mind
that Quinn Viewers was about being a Texas longhorn. That's
why he came back. That's why he played. That's why
he returned for one more year after they won the conference,

(46:30):
in their last year in the Big Twelve. That was
all very important to him to have an opportunity perhaps
to play for a national championship. They got to the
final four, they were a semifinals, and that's that's how
it was. So that went into his decision making process.
Did it, in the end on the NFL draft front
cost him a lot of money? Yeah? Perhaps it did.

(46:52):
I mean, we'll never know for sure had he gone
on and returned and transferred to another school, how much
money would have got. But the numbers got kind of crazy.
And what folks were printing out and talking about and
tweeting out about the money that he was saying, you
know that he was that you know that he was

(47:14):
turning down all kinds of money. Somebody just said on
the text line, you cannot convince me that Quinn didn't
get a hold of some bad intel entering the draft. Now,
that's entirely possible. It's entirely possible. But he also knew
where his time had come here at Texas and before

(47:34):
even if we followed that from the Texter and he
got some bad intel, it would have come after he
already made his decision to go into the NFL Draft,
not prior to it. I think, you know, I'm talking
about between the time he announced he was going to
go into the draft and the time that he actually

(47:54):
was taken on Saturday in the seventh round by the
Miami Dolphins. It happened somewhere in that window. If if
he indeed got some bad intel.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
You can't convince me that he was going to go
somewhere place, some else place besides Texas. Craig, like, you
can't tell me he's gonna transfer to another school for money.
He always wanted to be a Longhorn growing up, and
I didn't work out with Tom Hernon, but then Sart
came in, and then he always wanted to leave a
legacy at Texas and he did that. And you know,
think about Quinn falling to the seventh round, how about

(48:24):
Shador going to the fifth round when he was considered
to be a first round pick. A lot of the
quarterbacks in this draft kind of fell, you know, and
some rose up, you know, like Milroe went a little
bit higher than I think people thought for the most
parts the quarterbacks. It was a tough draft for the quarterbacks. Yep,
no doubt about it. All Right, we'll take a break.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
We've got more coming up as we continue here from
uf' hu dish fog Field on thirteen hunder the Zone.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
It'll be Texas in Golf Shores, Alabama this week and
as a Texas Beast volleyball team taking on number ten
California in their first appearance in the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships.
And now happy to have coach stein metzger aboard with
us here on the Craig Way Show. And coach, first off,
congratulations and we'll start before we get to the batch

(49:12):
up against California. How about your club appearing in their
first ever cc SA Championship and going up perfect three
to zero winning the conference championship, including back to back
wins over number eight Florida State. That must have been
a very special moment for yourself and your team.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
Oh so special. You know, the team's come a long
way in one season. We never would have guessed that
we could have had that kind of ending in the
first time being in this conference, and to go and
play and win three to zero and actually beat Florida State,
which is a perennial powerhouse, and the sport beat them
twice in the same weekend. Was just a really proud

(49:53):
moment for the coaching staff.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
And for the entire team.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
When I met you at the East First West Invitational,
I was played back in late March. You guys are
coming off the East Meats West Invitational in Manhattan Beach
where you went toe to toe with UCLA and Loyola Marrimount,
and you said, you're getting an idea what this team
could do. And then in the East First West Invitational,
you took down the number thirteenth ranked team in Grand Canyon,

(50:19):
number two Loyola Marrimount in number eleven Arizona State, and
that must gave you a pretty good indicare that this
team could go in and play against the top teams
in the country.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
Absolutely, it was at that point that we recognize that
we could be dangerous against anybody. And our goal this
whole year is could we be consistent and play at
that level for longer stretches, And this teams did has
done a real nice job this year of getting more consistent,
being more stable when it comes to ball control and
all the stuff that we're working on in practice, and

(50:52):
I feel like we're playing at our best right now.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Now. You face a California team that you have faced before,
you lost to them in five sets, the East first
wets in a match that really could have gone either way.
Does that give you some sort of maybe some comfort
with you and your team knowing, Okay, we've already faced
the suppointed before and we know that we can beat them.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yeah, And they actually came to Whitaker to our home
competition later in the year and we were able to
best them at that point. So we're split one in one.
We feel like we're playing better volleyball than we were
earlier in the season, so there is a sense of
confidence there. But this California team is a really good

(51:33):
team in the matchup can be challenging for us. They've
got a team and the ones that are extremely strong,
their fives are extremely strong, and so they kind of
puts you in a pinch where you either play amazing
in those two spots and then I feel like we're
in a really good spot. If they best us in

(51:53):
the ones and fives, then then we got to secure
the two threes and fours, which those spots have been
real strong for us all year. But it'll should be
a fun matchup. And really when you get to Gulf Shores,
it's all about who can show up and play as
well as they play and practice, and oftentimes half the
teams are so nervous and tight they can't play their
own game.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
You've won the national championship two times UCLA in twenty eighteen,
in twenty nineteen, so you understand what this moment is like.
But for so many girls on your team, they may
not understand what it's like playing in the Beach Volleyball Championship.
You know you do. You and your staff kind of
relate to them. Hey, it's a little bit different than
playing at right Whittaker or playing in other tournaments knowing

(52:34):
that this is you win and if you lose, you
go home.

Speaker 5 (52:38):
No question. Yeah, and it's new for all of them.

Speaker 4 (52:41):
We have one player on our team, Cotting's on the
Sikhova who played for Stetson before she came to Texas.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
She's played in this tournament.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
But other than that or the entire team, this is
new for them. But we've got a fair bit of
experience going into it with the coaching staff and we'll
talk them through it and get them to understand you
just got to show up and play free. And if
we can do that, I'm feeling good about our chances.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Did you expect to find yourself in this spot in
just your first year of eligibility for the NCAA postseason,
because you know, last season you were fielding players on
your roster that had not played san volleyball before, and
here you are in your first year, number seven, of course,
the highest ranking in program history, and you find yourself
playing for national championship.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
Well, that was our goal year one, is we wanted
to make the tournament and then whatever happens to the
tournament happens. You know, we'll end up where we end up.
It was the lofty goal. We knew it was bold,
but that's what we want to strive for. And in fact,
we secured a spot fairly easily. In terms of that
large bids. We were probably three or four from the threshold.

(53:49):
So I feel really great about where this team is at.
I think we're ahead of schedule. We continue to have
lofty goals for this program and see if we can
hit them.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
And you must feel really great about your number two
pair of Katie Hashman and Emma Grace Robertson some locals
the area who had such a fantastic week against the
in the in the CCSA Championships. Can you talk about
their performance and of course it led to them being
named the avc A Pair of the Week, the first
ever award for them.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Well, they they always play the second best team of
any opponent we have, so they've got they've got a
tough job to do.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
They're an extremely disciplined pair.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
If you really love the pearness of volleyball and the
skills of volleyball, it's a great team to watch. They're
incredibly skilled, disciplined, they communicate well together. They had a
chance to play last year together, and we don't necessarily
want to keep teams together for multiple years, but they just.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
It's a really good fit.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
So it's a it's a one plus one equals three
situation with this team.

Speaker 5 (54:54):
They've got great chemistry.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
They're just a pleasure to coach and a pleasure to
watch and just thrilled that they had the opportunity to
to really have some huge come from behind wins this
weekend to seal the deal.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
For us and out of the fact that they were
able to get.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
The ABC A pair of the pair of the Week
and looking forward to them continuing that run this weekend.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Of course, both of them are Westlake alumni, just on
the road from us. Last thing for you here, coach,
your team's only had one law since the Death Fally
Invitational and Baton Rouge at the end of March. And
in that invitational you went one in three, but you
played four top ten teams, three top five teams including
number one UCLA, Number four USC and number five Stanford.

(55:40):
Was there something from that week in that your team
took and it was able to use and propel themselves
to play so well. Then the final stretch of the
regular season leading up into the postseason.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
Well, I think I think they saw the level that
this that volleyball can be played at the top level,
and we realize is that coming into those games, we
have to be extremely aggressive, take some chances, and we
have to play we have to play good, volliable and
longer stretches like I said before, where we can hang
with any team, but can we do it for two

(56:12):
sets and and get those wins? So I think they
saw that there and a moment in the following weekend
when we went to Tallahassee where they really learned their
identity and how they want to play was going up
against South Carolina where we can't. We went in a
little with a protectionist mindset. Hey, we're number eight, we
want to protect that. We're about to reach our goal

(56:34):
of playing in the championships. And we played tight and
didn't play well and came out of that we barely
won that match, and we had a conversation about how
we want to We want to embrace being aggressive and
going after it and taking games from others, and our
quote is stealing lunch meet from the opponent. So this
team has really embraced that, and not only have they

(56:55):
become more confident and consistent with their with their game,
but they're all, i'll have a really aggressive mindset right now.
We're just we're really manifesting the underdog mentality and it's
working for us and we're going.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
To continue to do that come this weekend.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Has the you know, adjusting to or taking on the
underdog mentality, Has that been an a judgment for yourself, coach, No.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
I just think it's the more comfortable place to be in.
It allows you to play more free and more aggressively.
So it's something that you know, at my last institution
we talked about a lot even when we were number one,
like how do you still how do you still maintain
that mindset even though you might have a target on
your back. And as this program continues to grow and
our target gets bigger, we'll continue to try to have

(57:41):
that mindset where we have to go out there and
take the game and not wait for us to wait
for others to give.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
Us the game.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Texas takes on California Friday, one o'clock Central time on
ESPN two in the first round of the NCAA Beach
Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Coach, thank you for
the time and congratulations on the championship and looking forward
to watching watching you guys make a deep run in
the postseason.

Speaker 5 (58:05):
That's great, I appreciate it. Thanks for having us on
and for cheering us on.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Of course, that's coach Stein Metzger. Always enjoyed visiting with him,
and thank you to him for coming on the program.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Here.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Okay, we'll be back to wrap up hour two of
today's show here on AM thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Craig Waite with you alongside the producer Cameron Parker, thanks
to Stein Metzger, Texas Beach volleyball coach joining us last
hour and having that chat with Cam while I was
down stairs chatting with Jim Schlasning. We're going to hear
that coming up here in just a couple of minutes,
my conversation with the long orange Head baseball coach prior
to their matchup tonight here at UFCUS Field against the

(58:44):
Panthers a Prairie View. So that's coming up here in
just a few minutes. Also a little bit later on
this hour, Ty Harrington will join us our weekly college
Baseball conversation. NBA playoffs to get to as well and
which series might be on the losing end. Hey, you know, Cam,

(59:07):
the Rangers played a pretty sound defensive game last night,
something they had not done in a while. So they
played a sound defensive game. They just couldn't get the
bats going against the Athletics last night.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Havn't got the bats going all season. It's it's been
the same type of story every game. A lot of
two to one games, two, three, four or five, you know,
just not putting together enough frunts of pitching has been great.
It's just the offense has been very, very mediocre.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Yeah, it's weird, hard to explain. I know there were
some guys banged up early, but they they've got largely
everybody back, then they should be a lot better. Yeah,
all right, astros. It was noteworthy made a change in
that jose Al Tuve did not lead off. He requested
of Joe's spot of the manager to move him down

(59:56):
one spot to number two in the lineup, so it's
Army Pania leading off. It all seemed to work last
night for Houston that it was kind of all those
games that he had played and hit lead off, but
now batting second in the lineup. We'll see how that
works over time. Here, as we mentioned, Texas is getting

(01:00:16):
ready for its matchup with prairie View. Now, as I
pointed out, this is not a game that is designed
to boost your RPI, as we know now boost prairie
Views RPI, but they come in to ninety nine in
the RPI, and Texas of course is number one. But

(01:00:40):
whatever hit they might take for hosting prairie View tonight
would certainly be built back up and replaced by three
games coming this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in favor of
Arkansas against the number five team in the nation and
playing them on the road, and that of course is

(01:01:06):
the Arkansas Razorbacks that they're going to play. Travel tomorrow
to Fayetteville, will get in a team practice Tomorrow night,
and then the game's Friday Thursday evening at six, Friday
night at seven, and Saturday afternoon at two o'clock. The
Thursday and Friday games you'll hear on one of three
point one FM, like tonight's contest, and the Saturday afternoon

(01:01:27):
game can be heard right here on a thirteen hundred zone.
All right, this is just literally just within the last
thirty minutes when I went down and sat down to
visit with head coach Tim Slasnagle to talk about the
aftermath of the sweep of Texas A and M and
then getting ready for a quick turnaround week with the
Tuesday night game tonight and then travel tomorrow and play Thursday, Friday,

(01:01:51):
Saturday in fave. I'll have Sunday off and then be
off on the schedule Monday of next week. Lamar, a
good Lamar team will come in here a week for
the night for the final midweek game of the regular season,
and then of course the little host Florida at the
end of next week on Senior weekend and no midweek
game the following week as they navigate final exams and

(01:02:13):
then get ready to go for the Thursday, Friday Saturday
regular season concluding series at Oklahoma. I want to finish
up on Saturday with the SEC tournaments starting early the
following week. So here there's a conversation just a few
minutes ago that I had with the head coach of Slasnickel.
We were just talking about this early and I've been
asked by a lot of people, both on the radio

(01:02:35):
show and everything else about the intensity, the excitement, the verve,
the enthusiasm, all of those adjectives and all of those
descriptions that went into that just completed series with Texas
A and M and across the board.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Winning obviously makes a difference as well, but just the
excitement level, it was, what about for you and for
your staff?

Speaker 6 (01:02:57):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the personal stuff aside. You're
just looking at it purely from a SEC Baseball series standpoint.
I mean, I've only been in the league for three
and three and a half now years and it's you know,
some games at l s U. A night game in
the box is amazing Arkansas, which you'll see, you know,

(01:03:17):
we'll see this weekend up close and personal. Uh, that'll
be a different experience being the coach at Texas versus
Texas A and M. But just having those two schools, uh,
the attention from the from you know, the television and
then the games, you know, to have each game decided
by not just one run. But for the team that

(01:03:37):
lost for A and M, they had two guys on
all three games, so the tying run was in the
scoring position, and the winning run was on or the go.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Ahead run was on base.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
And so just that level, that's how close it was.

Speaker 6 (01:03:50):
You know, we we we swept, but we could have
we could have gotten swept.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
So it was good for college baseball.

Speaker 6 (01:03:56):
Obviously glad we won, but it was if it's going
to be like that every time, holy cow, that's going
to be something. Is it also a truism that a
team that continues to win games like your team did,
the one run games, the two run games, all those
graphics and numbers spare that out that that's good. The
deeper you get into a season, the more you have

(01:04:18):
those stockpiled, I mean, bad for the coaches's heart rate
an anxiety level. But yeah, just because you don't panic,
you don't you don't get anxious in those situations.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
At least the players don't.

Speaker 6 (01:04:29):
They make pitches, they make plays, they put together competitive
at bats, and whether we're behind by a little bit
or ahead by a little bit, guys just play.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
And I think.

Speaker 6 (01:04:39):
The more you're in it, the more you're able to
handle it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Is it also safe to say that a game like
tonight is a good test of how your team compartment
compartmentalizes success and goes back to that opening day mentality
when you're playing a team that's.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Not of that ILK.

Speaker 6 (01:04:57):
Yeah, I mean there's well, there's you know, first of all,
nothing's going to compare to that Texas and Texa saying
and what we experienced this past weekend. I would love
to think that the crowds would be the same for Florida,
but just you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Know, the weight that people.

Speaker 6 (01:05:12):
Had to see Texas and A and M play a
three game series much less than sec three game series
that was what twelve twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Thirteen years into making.

Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
So so you're just not gonna have that next year
that I'm sure they'll have. They he's will be fired
up to have that at olston Field. But yet tonight
it'll be you know, our guys have passed up in
my opinion that you know they've passed those tests. At
this point, they truly have an opening day mentality, faceless opponent,
all the stuff that you hear them say, but saying
it and doing it are two different things. So we

(01:05:42):
got to go out and and play good.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Baseball to win a ball game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
Time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Oh, he's asked you about your pitching plan, especially because
it's a curiosity.

Speaker 6 (01:05:50):
When you have a mid week ND and short week.
It's a short week. So Katee Bing's been feeling better.
We're gonna give him a chance to start the game
and we'll see kind of kind of torn a little
bit if he if he say he throws really good
for two innings. If we had a Friday Saturday Sunday series,

(01:06:10):
I'd probably take him out. But since it says shorter
and we have one more midweek game, probably what I'll
do is ride him, not crazy because he's he has
he's skipped a week, but let him go four or
five innings. So that next week we play a team
that's got going into tonight, I think they play A
and M.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
They have thirty six wins.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Lamar is very good, uh coach.

Speaker 6 (01:06:32):
Coach Kane's best man in his weddings is the head
coach of their teammates at LSU.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
So Lamar is going to be a handful.

Speaker 6 (01:06:38):
So and then maybe once we get past that, then
Being can help us out on the weekends.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Yeah, that's a good way to describe it, about where
they could go and and and that's why he wants
to get a little more of an extended look at
k Being tonight since he did not pitch. Remember he
didn't pitch the Tuesday game a week ago, that crazy game.
It's about the only guy didn't pitch. They actually threw

(01:07:05):
eight pitchers in that wild Tuesday night game a week
ago in San Marcus in the win over Texas State.
He was you know, he was held out of that game,
and then you know, didn't pitch over the weekend. They
held him out of that game because they thought, on

(01:07:25):
the quick turnaround and not having Jared Spencer, that they
might need Kate bing over the weekend. But as it
turned out, they didn't need Kate Bing Over the weekend,
it went down to the wire obviously all three games,
as Slaughters talked about, but they ended up not using him.
And that's why he'll get the start tonight. Now he
will not be the only who pitches. You heard him
say that. And if they had had a normal weekend

(01:07:50):
coming up Friday Saturday Sunday instead of the shorter week
of Thursday Friday Saturday, and it really does make a
difference with your pitchers that he might otherwise pull being
out after a couple of innings in the event that
they might need him. But now the way they're looking
at and this is where you can start to see
And I'll ask Ty Harrington about this when he gets here,

(01:08:11):
because here we are on April twenty ninth. If you haven't,
if you're a team in contention for a conference championship
or even perhaps more importantly, an opportunity to get into
the NCAA tournament, to land in a regional, maybe you're trying.

(01:08:33):
You're being on one of those bubbles to get in
or a bubble. This was something that Schlast talked about
last week. He said, in college baseball, you're almost always
on some sort of bubble. You're either on the bubble
trying to get into the tournament, and that can include
teams like Texas A and M and Baylor and a

(01:08:53):
few other teams like that. You're either on the bubble
trying to get in, or you're on the bubble trying
to host, and that could include a team like TCU
or Dallas Baptist the possibility of hosting, or your team
trying to close in on being a national seed in

(01:09:17):
the top eight, and that might say include a Vanderbilt
or say you know, somebody, a North Carolina teams like that.
In the Longhorns case, none of that really applies. I
think it's safe to say. I mean, even if they
were to lose out, I still think they'd be a

(01:09:38):
top eight because they're sitting way out ahead of the
pack at number one right now in terms of the
voting and the metrics that you look at. But they
could be depending on how they do over these next
couple of weekends on the bubble to be the number
one national seed. And again this goes back to something

(01:09:58):
I said yesterday when folk said, what's the big differference
if you're the number one overall seed, and they say
the number seven or number eight overall national seed. There's
a difference, and the difference is if you're the overall
number one, like the other national seeds, the two, the three,
the four, of the five, the six, the seven, and

(01:10:19):
the eight. There are eight national seeds. There are sixteen
seeded teams overall. So if you're in the top sixteen.
You see an example of that is Texas women's tennis.
They are for they are a fourteen seed, so as
a fourteen seed, they get to host on the first weekend.

(01:10:42):
But if you're a national seed in the top eight,
you would get to host super regionals as well as regionals. Well,
if you're an eight or eight or a seven, yeah,
you would be a top eight national seed, and if
you win your regional, then you get to host a
super But you might be playing the number nine seed

(01:11:04):
just off the edge and a really good team in
a super regional. If you're the seventh seed, you might
be playing the number ten unless there was an upset
at the regional level. And that's a much tougher assignment
than if you're the one or the two or the three.
I would say all you gurto used to say, and
it was gospel. You could take it to the bank.

(01:11:24):
Every year that would happen, He'd say, every year, there
will be some teams that are not top eight national
seeds that advance the super Regionals. In other words, there
will be some top eight national seeds who don't get
out of their own regional that they're hosting. More's the point,
and he said, this is another thing you can expect

(01:11:45):
to see happen. There will be an unseeded team win
at least a regional, may not win the super, but
they will at least win a regional and get to
a Super. Nobody knew it better than him, with all
the teams that he coached in twenty fourteen, we all
remember how Texas was actually a number three seed in

(01:12:08):
that Rice regional. Rice was the one seed, Texas A
and M was the two seed, Texas was the three,
and I think it was George Mason was the fourth
seed there at Reckling Park. And what happened was Texas
beat Texas A and M on the first day and
Rice won over George Mason. Then the next day, Texas

(01:12:30):
A and M eliminated George Mason. Texas won a thriller
over Rice in eleven innings to get to the final
on Sunday night. Then Rice played A and M an
elimination game and it was an incredible game with back
and forth. I always remember Justin Ruggiano hit a grand
Slam for the Aggies and A and M won that
game to eliminate Rice in their own regional. And then

(01:12:52):
that night Texas A and M played Texas A and
M won that game to force one final game on
Monday night, and that was the game where Chad Hollingsworth
I think threw one hundred and thirty two pitches for
Texas and the Loggrange won that to advance to the
Super Regional. And by the way, that game was the
largest attendance for a baseball game to this day still
is the largest attendants for a baseball game at Reckland Park,

(01:13:18):
Rice's home ballpark, their largest attendants. In fact, I think
their top two attendances that one in the game the
prior Knight are their top two attendances in neither one
involved the host school Rice. It was Texas against Texas
A and M. So Texas advances to the Super Regional
and you would think they're probably bound for Baton Rouge
to play LSU. LSU was the number one seed in

(01:13:39):
their own regional and they were a top eight national seed.
The problem was that LSU did not get out of
its own region. Houston beat them and knocked them out,
and Houston was a two seed and Texas was a
three seed. But Texas wound up hosting the Superregional because
Houston did not submit a bid to host the regional.

(01:14:00):
So they tried to then change it and see, hey,
we're willing to do now, but by then it had
already all the bids had been sealed and submitted and
all that sort of thing. So Texas hosted the Super
Regional against Houston. They won it and too straight. Always
remember Mark Peyton with a lead off homer in Game one.
They win the Super. Texas goes to Omaha and actually finishes.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
In third place. This was a team that was a
three seed in a regional.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
They were not a regional host, and they went all
the way to the semifinal round before losing a ten
any game to Vanderbilt that had that outstanding pitching with
Carson Fulmer and Walker Bueller, and they had Dansby Swanson
at shortstop, and they went on and won the national championship.
Vanderbilt did in beating Virginia for the national title. But
the point of all that is is that the unexpected

(01:14:48):
does happen, and you want to give your team the
best opportunity to advance in the NCAA tournament in a
regional and you can't have a better opportunity than if
you're the number one overall national seat. Texas sits in
that spot right now by all projections, but those are
just that projections. They have to continue to win to

(01:15:11):
be in position to be that overall number one, even
though I think they're in great shape to be a
top eight regardless of what happens over these final three weekends.
Up next, we'll talk some more college baseball. Ty Herrington
will join us. Coming up, We've got some other things
to get to in a couple of interesting notes. You
heard Jim Slastegle make reference to something. I'll get to
that when we come back where you FCU dish falk

(01:15:32):
Field long Horns taken batting practice on the field, and
right now by the way as long Worns take batting practice,
they're wearing T shirts. Several of the guys have the
sleeves cut off of them. But they're wearing T shirts
that have embodied what Jim Slastnegle has said, win anyway.

(01:15:53):
So it encompasses two ways of accent on the word
win anyway, you know, with all the injuries, with all
the stuff they had to deal with, win anyway, and
then on top of that, win any way. That's the
way that you get to that. So coming up with
visit with Ty Harrington when we continue from UFCU, just

(01:16:15):
fogg Field on thirteen under this up Jim's last Agele
and I were talking before before we had the recorded
an interview, and he wanted to know how this environment
for me as a broadcaster since it's you know whatever,
twenty four years in the play by play chair, twenty
eight years parts of the first four years on the broadcast,
filling in when Keith couldn't work with Bill showing on

(01:16:38):
some of those, but twenty four years in the play
by play chair about how the atmosphere and the environment
here compared to Longhorne series. And he said, and I
know you called the twenty five Inning Game and the
College World Series and Regionals and Super Regionals and all

(01:16:59):
that stuff, he said, but I want to know what
it was, what the environment's, like I said, for a
regular season series, this was the most electric, exciting environment
I have ever seen in this ballpark for a regular
season series. Now, there's been some postseason series. The one
the region with the Aggies here in eighteen was Cody Clemens.
That was that was pretty pretty atomic. And in nine

(01:17:23):
the night after the twenty five inning game when Preston
Clark hits the walk off Grand Slam to beat Army
to win the regional, that was pretty exciting even before
the Grand Slam. So there's been those moments where they've
done that, but a lot of the program in the
last thirty years, a lot of their best achievements have

(01:17:44):
been away from this ballpark. The five Super Regional they
won over Ole Miss was in Oxford, and it was
a great environment there, but they won that one there.
There were other ones like that that they had that
they had to win on the road to get to Omaha,
and so it was it was pretty exciting all that
kind of stuff. But but you've been around for a

(01:18:04):
lot longer in this building, pre renovation, post renovations, as
a player, as an assistant coach, as a broadcaster, So
where did it rate for you up there? You were
here Friday and you were here Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:18:18):
Yeah, you know, super regional.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Regional.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
I would go, I could go back to the eighties,
but it was the ballpark wasn't as big. It was close.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
Yeah, it was like sixty six sixty yeah, something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Yeah, And we'd have people standing down in the bullpen
where the batting cages, which is where the concourse is now.
And I thought, I thought Friday night was just like
this explosion that was waiting to happen, and then we
had to wait in an hour wait, right, and then

(01:18:54):
and then there you could just since like when they
finally opened the gates, it looked like what Walmart looked
like on Black Black Friday. I was just just screaming
in here, right, just you know, blasting in here. So
they were bringing that energy and probably a little you know,
got a little more excitement out in the parking lot
and created a little bit more of their you know,
adding how do I say this, you know have to

(01:19:16):
adult beverages that add to the excitement that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Just had a little bit of liquid courrieres.

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
They can't charge you there you go, yeah, yeah, yeah,
And so I think just all of it, and there
were so many people. I don't know what the viewership
was on the weekend and the listenership was for for
everybody involved in that, but there were so many people
looking forward to the rivalry to exist other than just
one game, right right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
Not a midweeknd. The excitement was pretty much there also
those Tuesday night games at Bluebell Park and here it was.
It was always there, but for the weekend and the
impact and the renewal of conference rivalry just stood alone.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
I thought, I don't think there's any doubt and I
and and I think also, look, you could throw it's
fair to throw in the emotion. If you're an Aggie fan,
it's fair to throwing the emotion about you know, coach
Loshnengo Leving. I mean, that's a legit, you know, for
them to be upset and disappoint, I guess if they
if they so chose to be, I guess from the
emotional standpoint, But but to overall just I mean, it

(01:20:21):
was just building in here and the intensity of every
pitch that was going on. I mean this as a compliment.
I noticed it. And you you do such an unreal
job of describing the games and the excitement of the games,
which I after now being on the broadcast side of it,
I have complete admiration for your energy levels that you're
able to do it, because I know you're scheduled too,

(01:20:43):
right And and but where I'm going with that is
that it was another octave for everybody, you me, the
crowd and everybody you know who wanted this this you
know moment UH to exist and this weekend and then
I came back. I wasn't here Saturday. I was at
a wedding in UH in Houston. I came back on

(01:21:06):
Sunday and met Todd Haney and Keishnick and Scott Bryant
and some guys out at Big Hat out in left
field and got here a little bit before the game,
and you could now Texas had already won. So there
was this, you know, this fever about where we're going
for a sweep of that, and so they brought in
a whole nother window of excitement and uh. And then

(01:21:28):
by the time I got into the stadium, you could
just I mean it was just now it was this relief,
you know, emotion of where we won a series, can
we pull this sweep off? Can we just do this?

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
And that?

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
And then just Now you know, if I was an
Aggie fan, I wouldn't have been as excited, wouldn't have
been I wouldn't have the same emotion. But I would
also say that that rivalry is back. And I used
to giggle and laugh at myself only when I would
say this. If I'd ever been the governor of Texas,
of the Great State of Texas, I would have mandated

(01:21:59):
they that these two programs would have had to play
each other. It meant so because it means so much
to the Great State of Texas. People can think what
they want, say what they want, but the reality is
this rivalry and that rivalry means so much to this
state and everybody. There's people that didn't go to school
at either place. There are people that went to other

(01:22:22):
schools that viewed this game, listen to this game, intrigued
by this game, and paid attention to the verdict of
the game.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
In my mind. Yeah, and now you're getting into the
Mac Brown territory where he used to talk about and
I heard Tom Herman talk about it, and I've heard
talk about it as well. Mac said the football game
every year he was told by Coach Royal and he
got a chance to see it firsthand that the football
game every year was one where you might not have

(01:22:53):
gone to Texas and you might not have gone to
A and M, but you picked the side. You chose
a side before coaches families. You wound up choosing a side. Uh.
And that's just that's just how that was. And and
to your point, that's kind of how it is with
the renewal of the conference.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
Right if you think, do you think for a second
that if you blasted out a question, you know, did
you do you remember the outcome of Friday's game across
the state if there was a way to do it,
which is not if you could, I guarantee there was
a huge fraction of this great state of Texas that
knew the outcome of the Friday game and then the
whole weekend when it was all said and done by people,

(01:23:32):
by the listeners and the people who had who had
a peaked interest in what was going to happen, and
you know, and look to answer your original question, there
were regionals, super regionals that had that same feel that
it was so loud out there that as a player,
I can remember my first regional in eighty four, my
freshman year, being in the dugout when we were about

(01:23:54):
to clinch and to go back to Omahawks. Remember they've
won the national title in eighty three, so this was
a chance to go back and be you know, to
try to win again. And got to the championship game
that year. But I remember looking around. I was just like,
oh my gosh, I've never seen this place like this
and this was that on steroids to me this past weekend, Yeah, a.

Speaker 1 (01:24:15):
Little more vibed up. When we come back from the break,
I want to ask you about something with regard to
the four team, since you were a part of it.
Ty Harrington's with us talking to college baseball. Will do
that when we continue from UFC huish fog Field on
thirteen under the Zone. I love listening to Willie cover
a lot of great tunes over the years, as well
as his original stuff. I do as well.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
How about you, Ty, Could you imagine what it was
like for those guys when they were all this music
was being written. It was kind of a folky country
and you know, as we Americana, I guess there's a
lot of people Texas country and all this, but those
guys at night are in the afternoon just sitting around
and their blue jeans and boots and a Lone Star beer,

(01:24:57):
hanging out maybe some other stuff, hanging right close to him,
and then just singing songs and and just writing. I mean,
could you imagine what that was to have been there
to listen to him and to watch it and to
and for them to orchestrate what they did and then
take other people's music and sing it like he just
like they just did or really just did. I mean,
that's got to be one of the coolest things that

(01:25:19):
a person would be able to.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
Here's what I wish I had seen and and and
Keith Mornland just driving. He played during this era. He
played for for Coach Royal, but I heard the legendary
stories of the picking party with with Coach Royal and
Willie Wayling be their different one of it. That's where
I wish I could have been sitting in attendance for that, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:25:39):
I mean, look this, the song, the music, the atmosphere,
you know, all of that, and people at ease and
Coach roll and and everybody just sitting around and hanging out.
And you know, Coach a lot of people don't know this.
Keith does Coach Guss was a huge UH music fan
and learned to play the guitar on the guitar on

(01:26:01):
the road. Took his guitar on the road the latter
part of his career, you know, going back even to
the like the one of his famous statements, we're coming back.
Just reminded from last weekend in eighty five. We went
to College Station. We were down eight in the eighth inning,
came back and won. And when we did it insured
us at least the time for the Southwest Conference all
we had to beat you of h once. We were
gonna do that regardless. But so everybody was amped up

(01:26:24):
on the bus and hollering and screaming and just above
average because it was the Aggies and to comeback win
and all that. And I'm coaches walking to the back
of the bus and he goes up, I know, you
know we're gonna be this excited. I'd have brought my
we were all singing hereuse if I don't know you
guys were gonna be singing, or have brought my guitar.
And I was looking around like what and uh. And

(01:26:45):
so that was the beginning of it. He would bring
it there once in a while with him and and
uh and picking on the bus and uh, but what
that was a different time. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
I wanted to ask you a question. You brought up
the eighty fourteen And here's why I want to ask
you about this. Lynd and I were watching about a
week ago. We like, you know a lot of those
ESPN thirty for thirties, and I'd seen thunder and Lightning before.
She had not about obviously Will Clark and Rafael Palmara
Mississippi State and went Ron Polkad and he had he

(01:27:16):
had Jeff Brantley, and he had Bobby thickpen and credible team.
And now they can only look back at it wistfully
and talk about maybe one of the greatest teams never
to win a national title. And and and a lot
of time was spent on the eighty five game with
Texas where they had the lead and the guy was
leading until he gets struck with the line drive, and

(01:27:37):
and and then the whole game changed after that, and
and and it was funny listening to Paul Mara and
Clark talk about it to have if that didn't happen,
we went, we went. You don't know that she was
in the sixth inning. You don't know, but it was
like that didn't happen. We went But the prior year
in eighty four, they were talking about this and they

(01:27:57):
got knocked out by Miami, and they were just talking
about how this this rag arm no nothing guy named
Rick Raither just kind of put him, put him down,
and he said they he had no business beating us,
and blah blah blah. Brentley was talking about had no
business beating me and so on and so forth. But
he was the guy who beat Texas to win the
national title.

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
Wasn't he, Well, no, so eighty five team he was.
That's right, he beat us in eighty five and like
they beat us in game one, Miami beats us after
we beat Mississippi State. Miami beats us in game one
and then just an unfortunate play down the right field
line and ball bounced out of Billy Bates was the
greatest fly ball catching second basement I've ever seen in

(01:28:38):
my life. And he an ol'd Rosenblatt Stadium and Keith
Morland test it is the bullpens were right down the line,
and but they were fully exposed. The dirt was and
so Billy was chasing a fly ball and ran up
on it and stumbled. The ball hit off this club.
So and then we get beat on the Friday night
game or the first game of the world of that

(01:28:58):
game with Miami, and then Craze that comes in and
just puts it on us. Well, they get to the
sixth or the seventh of the game too, because remember
back then it was double elimination, and they bring him
in the sixth inning and we just I don't even
know if we put a ball in play that got
actually got elevated over an infielder's head because hit that
ball was so hit so much sync to it, and

(01:29:20):
he threw from a low three quarter arm slot and
the ball just like it. It was like a six
foot break and trying to figure out how you were
going to center that ball was a challenge for us.
And yeah they and yeah, Miami got after us. I
will tell you this eighty four by the way, Aggie one,
Augie one, Yeah, yeah. They bring Eddie Delzer yep, comes in.
He was you know, five foot eight left hander, and

(01:29:42):
he carved us up for about six innings and they
went to reliever and then they had a closer, a
side arm guy that had forty two saves that year,
forty saves that year, and I can't remember the guy's name.
Do you think I would? Maybe I tried to block
it out, and but yes, and that was that was
the eighty fourteen that they beat. But if you think
about and you date it back to when keithon the

(01:30:02):
won in seventy five, and then you stretch the number
of game teams that went to omahall of that stretch, Okay,
then you go to the listen, listen to this list
in the eighties, I think they went eighty one, eighty two,
got beat, and then in eighty three you win a
national championship. All right. Eighty four my freshman year, we

(01:30:23):
get beat the National Championship game. Eighty five we get
beat in the National Championship game. Eighty seven, my senior year,
we get beat in the semi final game by McCarthy
from Stanford. And then that's the Ben McDonald game. The
two games before Ben McDonald gives up a grand slammed
to Paul Carey. Otherwise David Stanford was gonna get knocked
out and they would. They had no LSU, had no

(01:30:45):
pitching left. And then in eighty nine we go back again.
I was a student coach, and we get beat the
national championship game.

Speaker 1 (01:30:53):
With the one game winner, take one game.

Speaker 3 (01:30:56):
We hadn't lost the game yet and we were the
only undefeated team and Brumit beat us and beat us
three to one, and if.

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
You under the old format, you would have had one
more one more game, and then Dressendorfer would have been
would have.

Speaker 3 (01:31:12):
Been able to and Scott Bryant started that game, which
had been our mos. Scott Bryant would go four or
five innings and then Brian Dare would come out and
throw left handed changeups, just one change up after another,
and it worked, but we ended up getting beat I
think three to one or something like that. But think
about the number of national championships that would have been

(01:31:32):
hoisted during that eighties time and starting back with a
seventy five team with Keith and them, and what that
run would have looked like, you know, would it could
have you know whatever. But point being, when people talk
about traditional great baseball programs, and I get it LSU's
one seven, I totally get it respected. But if you
look at number of times in the tradition of it,

(01:31:54):
and there's no other program like this one in my
opinion now biased, Keith biasing, you are too, but there's
facts to back up what could have been and it
is I'm sorry, what really is right? But the national titles,
like Keith Morning sitting my left has the ability to
stand over the tough met and say, hey, I have
a national championship, right, I don't. I was on eighty

(01:32:15):
four to five team and coach didn't win a national title.

Speaker 1 (01:32:18):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:32:19):
Think about what that says. We're we're we're discussing national titles,
not just conference titles. We're talking about national Yeah, at.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
The most elite of levels. And that's why, you know,
in looking back at that and it was such a
different day in time because now now we look at
something like the top five or six are capable of
winning a national title and the SEC alone, the top
five spots in the RPI are occupied by SEC teams

(01:32:47):
right now. And here's the Mississippi State program won a
national title four years ago. They fired their head coach yesterday.
Chrys La Monis gets fired yesterday. So I mean a
lot has changed, clearly.

Speaker 3 (01:32:58):
I don't know how to answer that. I thought, like,
I like the idea of people if you hire somebody
do a job, you let him do their job, and
then at the end of it, everybody gets a chance
to reevaluate. It's not I'm not an athlete director, so
it's not my choice or my decision. But you know,
he won their only national championship that they've ever won.
And we were just talking those Gary Ward Oklahoma State.

(01:33:21):
I mean, you could write down at the beginning of
the year, you could almost write down five of the
eight teams that were going to be in Omaha.

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