Tag Archives: Baseball

UT Baseball – A Model of Stability

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For Red’s lifetime, UT-Austin has had three Head Baseball Coaches.  Bibb Falk, Cliff Gustafson and Augie Garrido.   After UT reassigned 20 year veteran Garrido to other duties after failing to make the playoffs 3 out of the last 5 years, the School will have only its 5th baseball coach in the last 100 years.  Red guesses that if new coach David Pierce gets the average 25 year run for UT baseball coaches, he will consider himself well ahead of the game.

Pierce, most recently head coach at Tulane for two seasons, is a self-described “slow-talking Texan” who doesn’t yet have 200 total wins in a career spent mostly as an assistant and just five seasons as a head coach.

Pierce was introduced at a news conference on Thursday one day after being hired away from Tulane.  Pierce who has had stations in Texas high schools and at Rice remarked that taking over as the Longhorns’ coach at age 53 “a special day, a special journey.”

There will be pressure on Pierce to perform as the once-hot Longhorn baseball program now seems to be an afterthought on campus with dwindling fan interest.  A quick return to the College World Series would help. As his predecessor Garrido — the winningest coach in college baseball history — liked to say “Omaha is the standard” at Texas.

Today in Texas History – April 27

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From the Annals of Heat –  In 1983, Nolan Ryan playing for the Houston Astros set a new major league record with after recording strike-out number 3509 against Brad Mills of the Montreal Expos.  Ryan broke a 55-year-old major league baseball record with the K.  Ryan would go on to strike out a total of 5714 batters in his remarkable career and record a MLB record seven no-hitters.   Less noted is the fact that he also is the all-time leader in bases on balls – but that is the price of longevity.  Ryan is the only player to have his number retired by three different ball clubs – the Angels, Astros and Rangers.  Among the stranger records he holds is his claim to have been the only pitcher in MLB history to have struck out seven pairs of fathers and sons.   He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1999.  Sadly, he is depicted wearing a Texas Rangers cap on his hall of fame plaque.

Coldest Opening Day Ever for Astros

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Game time temperature at New Yankee Stadium was a nippy 36 degrees.  Colby Rasmus had partial ski mask on.  One might have thought this would be the coldest Astros game ever – but not so.  In April of 1982, the Astros played the Cubs at Wrigley Field with a game time temperature of 26 degrees.  They played again the next day when the temperature had risen to a balmy 36 degrees – thus, tying today’s afternoon start against the Yankess for second coldest game in Astros history.  Brrrr.

Red Keeps Streak Alive

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Yesterday, Red kept his streak of never having seen the Houston Astros win a post-season game alive.  The Astros collapse yesterday came 35 years to the date after Red attended his first ever MLB playoff game when the Astros faced the Phillies in Game 5 of the 1980 NL Championship series.  Remarkably, in both games the opposition scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th to wrest control from the Astros.

The 1980 game seemed in complete control entering the 8th inning.  A three run lead with Nolan Ryan on the mound seemed insurmountable. But the Phillies were made of sterner stuff. They loaded the bases with nobody out on three cheap singles, including an infield hit by Bob Boone and bunt Greg Gross.  Ryan walked in a run and then the floodgates opened.  The Astros rallied to tie in the bottom of the 8th, but back to back doubles in the 10th secured the win for the Phillies.

Red was also there for Game 5 of the NLCS in 2005 when Albert Pujols hit a rocket off of Brad Lidge to win the game.  The stink of that loss was erased when the Astros pummeled the Cards in Game 6 to advance to their first World Series.

Red also witnessed two other losses to the Braves in various series included the heart-breaking loss in the last game ever played at the Astrodome in 1999.

Yesterday’s game featured a seemingly interminable top of the 8th.  It was reported to have lasted 41 minutes but it seemed like more than an hour watching the slow steady implosion.  The Astros best chance to staunch the bleeding was lost when Kendrys Morales punched a ground ball that skipped off the mound, glanced off pitcher Tony Sipp’s glove and then was whiffed by shortstop Carlos Correa.  Correa’s error allowed two runs to score and the game was tied.  Alex Gordon pushed what proved to be the winning run across the plate on a ground-out fielder’s choice and the Astros were done.

The toll of the damage from the top of the 8th inning:

5 runs

5 hits

1 error

3 Astros pitchers

11 Royals batters

53 pitches

41 minutes

Red will not be allowed to attend any more games this season.

Astros Magic Number Update

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Astros Magic Number: 0

Red isn’t quite sure how they pulled it off, but the Astros are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2005.  They will play a Wildcard game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday at 7:08 pm.  Red congratulates Mgr. A.J. Hinch and the entire ball club on surprising the baseball world.  But for the September swoon they would have won the AL West going away.  As it stands, fans will have to hope that they can eke out one more road win to keep the magic alive for at least a few more games.

With probable Cy Young award winner Dallas Keuchel on the mound Tuesday, the Astros have a shot.  Keuchel has not exactly been a road warrior.  Keuchel is 5-8  away from Minute Maid Park this season with all of his losses coming on the road.  The good news is that this season, Keuchel is 2-0 against Los Yanquis with a 0.00 ERA.  The Astros really need something like a 3 hit complete game from their Ace on Tuesday.