Short Hops
Jan 26, 2004 | Baseball
Jan. 26, 2004
Hello Wave Fans! Let me be the first to welcome you to another season of Tulane Baseball. I hope all of you and your families had a Happy Holidays and are as excited about the season as we are over here at Turchin. Our sports information director, Richie "Dream" Weaver, gave me the opportunity to write this weekly column all season long to give you an inside look at Tulane Baseball beyond what all the scores and game recaps tell you. So, basically, it's my column and I can write about anything I want... sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
I'll be writing about anything and everything associated with the team, such as practices, road trips, hotels, sight-seeing, team chemistry, and basically anything that crosses my mind that I think you guys want to hear about. So, please, let me know if I'm leaving out anything of interest and I'll do my best to keep everyone happy. Since this is my first post, I'm going to try to catch you up to everything that's been going on up until now.
I don't know how many of you caught any of the fall practices to notice, but we have a lot of new faces in Green Wave uniforms - too many to really mention right now, but I'm sure you'll be seeing them soon. The 2004 Green Wave will have 8 true freshman and 4 transfers, as well as 2 new coaches: pitching coach Sean Teague and outfield coach Matthew Boggs. I know it sounds like a lot of people, so don't worry if it's mid-February and you're still not familiar with the lineup. It even took me a couple of weeks to get all the names and nicknames down myself (I called Matt Barket, a transfer from U of Miami, "Mark" for about 3 weeks... very stressful). Anyways, being associated with different players and coaches is great. Everyone is stirring around with a higher level of enthusiasm and it becomes contagious.
The word around the clubhouse is that we're ranked between 10th and 13th in all the major preseason polls and are picked to win C-USA. I don't know about you, but that just makes me more anxious to get the season started. We're definitely honored and excited about the preseason accolades, but we also know that, as a team, we need to keep our heads down and focus on the season one game at a time, realizing that there is a lot of baseball to be played on that road to Omaha
One major plus for us this year is that we have a very experienced pitching staff, basically returning every pitcher that tallied wins last year. The specific rotation is going to depend on who's clicking at the right time, but either way, I wouldn't want to be the team who has to hit against the depth we're throwing up there on the mound. Especially with all the experience all of our young pitchers received from playing in the postseason last year, I expect to see a very mature and gritty staff. You're not going to see anyone lighting up the radar gun at 95+mph, but you will see a guys who know how to get hitters out and who won't settle for anything less than a victory (not to mention put on the best pregame "flip" display this side of the Mississippi).
As for hitting, I believe that this is one our best kept secrets so I'm going to keep it like that for the most part. I will, however, say that I've never been around a more balanced and determined group of hitters in all my years of baseball. I see so much potential for us at the plate, and when we start to scratch the surface of that, I think we're going to surprise some people. You all know how it is, though. Talk is cheap. The only way to win ball games is to put runs up on the scoreboard when it comes time to produce. It's going to be real interesting to see how our lineup will come together when the real games start and the run-scoring situations arise.
Defensively, we're as sound as ever. Nothing too flashy, but very exciting to watch. People often overlook the importance of defense. In actuality, though, defense wins ball games. It takes a lot of pressure off of our pitchers when they know that all they have to do is get on the mound, pump strikes, and let the defense handle the rest. If we do that, coupled with steady hitting, we'll be a very tough team to beat. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?
Well, that's basically a quick rundown of the team from my perspective. As of now, we're wrapping up our preseason workouts with our new strength coach, Rob Schwartz. It has definitely been the hardest and most productive training that I've been through here at Tulane, which is a good thing. We don't think for a second, though, that any of our workouts stop when the season starts, but at least we'll be playing games and putting all of our hard work to the test. We had a great semester in the classroom with a team G.P.A. easily over a 3.0. So, as you can see, with spring practices starting tomorrow, we're poised and prepared, both mentally and physically, to have a great start to the season.
I hope that's enough for you all to chew on for a week. I'm about to head to the field for some final individual workouts before the real practices start on Tuesday. Quick reminder (as if I even need to remind): the Alumni Game is Feb. 7 at noon, and we open up the season with Texas-Arlington Feb. 13 at 6:30pm, both at Turchin Stadium. I hope to see all of you out at the field. I love to see those stands full of fans with Hullabaloo cheers overpowering the speakers. I'll be back next week to let you know how the first week of practice went. Thanks for reading.
Roll Wave,
Tommy
