5.04.2007
The cruelty of Baseball
August "Augie" Garrido came to be the coach of the Longhorn Baseball team in 1996. He is only the third baseball coach in the University's history. He had the unfortunate task of replacing our beloved Cliff Gustafson, who left the university in a cloud of controversy. The details of that have faded, but suffice it to say he had HUGE shoes to fill, especially in the hearts and minds of the die-hard Texas Baseball fans. And... he was from CALIFORNIA! He came from Cal State-Fullerton; an outstanding baseball program. The first couple of years at Texas were tough for him, and the fans were not pleased. While Coach Gus was a Texan, gritty and of few words, here came Coach Garrido - the Zenmaster. He talked of karma and such. We thought he was weird. His first trip to the College World Series, which is a must for us spoiled Texas fans or the season is a failure, was in June of 2000. (Not HIS first trip, but his first at Texas) He went back in 2002 and the Longhorns came home National Champions. We started to like him.
Two things Coach Garrido is quoted as saying, over and over: Baseball is a mental game. Baseball is a cruel game. Hang with me - this is going somewhere.
Tonight the cruelty of the game presented itself - loud and clear. One of my favorite players on this year's team is the catcher, Preston Clark. He is an outstanding ball player. And I'm a little partial to catchers since my brother was one. The cruelty of the sport hit him smack between the eyes tonight in Texas' loss to Missouri in 11 innings. Texas was down 6-4 in the bottom of the 9th inning. Two guys were on base when Preston came up to bat. He smashed the ball to the outfield, driving in the tying runs. "PRESTON! PRESTON! PRESTON!" So into extra innings the game went. Here's the cruel part. In the top of the 11th inning, Preston overthrew the pitcher on his routine throw back to the pitcher. He's made that toss tens of thousands of times. That error scored what proved to be Missouri's winning run. Augie's words of baseball being a cruel game rang in my ears.
I can't imagine how Preston felt - but I hope he realizes that they would not have been in that 11th inning without his great hit.
After the game, driving home, I was listening to Augie's post game interview. I don't believe I've ever heard a shorter Augie post game interview. I think he said a total of 5 words. The interviewer said something about the Longhorns rallying back. Augie's last word was "Whatever." The interviewer was wise enough to say goodnight.
Glad I wasn't in that locker room after tonight's game.
The nice thing about regular season baseball? For the most part, there's always tomorrow!
Two things Coach Garrido is quoted as saying, over and over: Baseball is a mental game. Baseball is a cruel game. Hang with me - this is going somewhere.
Tonight the cruelty of the game presented itself - loud and clear. One of my favorite players on this year's team is the catcher, Preston Clark. He is an outstanding ball player. And I'm a little partial to catchers since my brother was one. The cruelty of the sport hit him smack between the eyes tonight in Texas' loss to Missouri in 11 innings. Texas was down 6-4 in the bottom of the 9th inning. Two guys were on base when Preston came up to bat. He smashed the ball to the outfield, driving in the tying runs. "PRESTON! PRESTON! PRESTON!" So into extra innings the game went. Here's the cruel part. In the top of the 11th inning, Preston overthrew the pitcher on his routine throw back to the pitcher. He's made that toss tens of thousands of times. That error scored what proved to be Missouri's winning run. Augie's words of baseball being a cruel game rang in my ears.
I can't imagine how Preston felt - but I hope he realizes that they would not have been in that 11th inning without his great hit.
After the game, driving home, I was listening to Augie's post game interview. I don't believe I've ever heard a shorter Augie post game interview. I think he said a total of 5 words. The interviewer said something about the Longhorns rallying back. Augie's last word was "Whatever." The interviewer was wise enough to say goodnight.
Glad I wasn't in that locker room after tonight's game.
The nice thing about regular season baseball? For the most part, there's always tomorrow!
HOOK 'EM! BEAT MIZZOU!
# posted by Lisa @ 10:46 PM 
