For those of you baseball fans in the city of Houston, do yourself a favor and go watch the Rice Owls play. After HUMILITATING the University of Houston this evening, 11-0 (one-hitter), Rice has now won 26 game IN A ROW. And these wins haven't been over push-over schools, either. Rice has beaten the likes of Texas (defending nat'l champs), #7 Baylor (twice), #19 Texas A&M, #22 Nebraska, #25 Mississippi, #23 Stetson and UofH 4 times. Rice is the consensus #1 in all the college baseball polls. Rice has scored MORE RUNS than their opponents have HITS!!!! (235-209). Rice's top 5 pitchers should ALL be drafted in the top 3 rounds of the MLB draft. In fact, one MLB scout has proclaimed the Rice rotation better than that of the Detroit Tigers!!! And our ace has been hurt all season! Will they win the College World Series? Who knows. Anything can happen in the playoffs, but man is this team fun to watch...
GO RICE NEVER DIE BLUE GREY IN THE SKY STAND CHEER DRINK MORE BEER GO GO GOOOOOOO RICE Rice is on track for the best season in college baseball history. What's unbelievable is that they've been able to do this despite the stringent acadamic standards that athletes must adhere to for admission, rigorous coarseloads for athelete, and a high tuition (baseball only has 11.7 scholarships and this puts expensive schools like Rice at a severe financial disadvantage). Kudos to Coach Graham.
I caught the game vs. San Jose Sunday afternoon. Beautiful weather, cold beer, free seats - can't beat it. Only problem was they put a damn padlock on the gate to the OF bleachers, so we had to pass the cooler, 2 dogs, and ourselves over the fence. Ended up sitting next to, and drinking a few with, Stats, the ex-Rockets radio guy. Very cool guy. Are they at home this weekend?
Yes, for three games versus Hawaii. They play A&M on Tuesday night as well. I'm at all the games, in section C if you go. Look for the guy in the black E*Trade fleece.
Hell yeah. I was pissed I couldn't go to the game tonight because I had a flag football playoff game. It was out on the lighted field by Autry though so we kept looking over at the beat down we were giving to Cougar High. This team is playing so well right now. I hope we keep it up in the CWS because we were good enough to win it last year and really missed a great chance. Go Owls!
I'm a Rice fan, because 4 players from my HS, Memorial, are current Owls. 3 of them play significant roles in: Austin Davis the starting RF, Jeff Jorgensen the starting CF, and Josh Baker, who usually starts as pitcher on the Sunday games. Go Rice. Go MHS.
I've never gotten into college baseball. (but then again, I'm only a luke-warm baseball fan) It's always seemed that Texas baseball collegiate wise has always been superior to any other state. Anyway, good luck to Rice. It would be nice for SOME team in H-town to win something.
One of the reasons we're been so good over the past 5-6 season is because we're able to keep local talent in town. Houston has amazing high school baseball teams, such as Bellaire, Lamar, Memorial, the Woodlands and some of the private schools. Rice has really done a good job of keeping a lot of these guys in town.
Yeah, Rice and U of H are usually good at all the sports that nobody really cares about. College baseball is a mutated version of our national pasttime, the aluminum bat used to artificially increase scoring because most college students don't have the attention spans to fully appreciate a normal baseball game.
A-Train, your point has validity with certain pockets of college baseball, but it is not applicable to the state of Texas' programs. This season Rice has arguably the best pitching staff in the country. Last year, Rice and UT were 1 and 2 in team ERA, and UofH had two All-American pitchers. These teams are winning because of pitching and defense, not because they are slugging 10 homers a game with their aluminum bats. Watching teams like UofH, UT and Rice play baseball is not a mutated version of our national pasttime.
The real reason is that the majority of highly ranked players go straight from HS to the Pros. Imagine the McDonald's HS All American Game and 70% of them went straight into an NBA developmental team.
If you have never been to Reckling Park on the Rice campus, it is a wonderful place to watch baseball. I've been there several times, and was there alot during the tournament last year. I personally would much rather spend $4 to watch a game there than $30 to watch one at the Juicebox.
Well, then Rice, UH, and Texas are the exceptions, because usually when I see college baseball scores on a ticker, the runs are repeatedly in the double digit range. I never said that there wasn't good pitching, it's just that it's isolated.
<blockquote><hr> <i>Originally posted by A-Train</i> College baseball is a mutated version of our national pasttime, the aluminum bat used to artificially increase scoring because most college students don't have the attention spans to fully appreciate a normal baseball game.<hr></blockquote> I thought the whole reason for aluminum bats was economical and had nothing to do with HS and college wanting to score more point to attract more fans. HS teams (and many college teams) cannot afford 3-4 wooden bats per player, and it is just not right to make the player pay for them. Thus, aluminum bats were invented.
Just be thankful that their basketball and football teams suck or it could get unbearable in this forum.
