Hookem2147

Yeah, and the atmosphere overall around the place isn't helped by the fact it's located next to damn cemetery.

There are multiple factors at play; 1) student seating sucks. It is down the LF line into the corner. The Yeti Yard will help but I don't believe that is student-only. 2) Disch Falk Field is about a mile away from the closest dorm and closer to 2 miles or further for those who live in west campus. If you choose to walk, you are crossing 35. If you happen to have access to a car, you are dealing with trying to park around the field. 3) There are about 8-10 home games a year students will truly care about moving forward depending on when we are hosting A&M/OU/Arkansas. You could probably include the generic non-student fan in that assumption as well. It's why I don't believe expanding capacity is necessary. We aren't selling out 80% of home games regardless of how many "tickets were sold". 4) I've been to plenty of games where it's packed, yet the energy felt like it was at 50% capacity. Yes, any stadium in the country is going to have a great atmosphere in a home regional in June. Texas isn't special in that regard. It's the other 99% of games that should be focused on.

OB update on Pierce from their baseball writer

We are the dumbest athletic department in the country if we plan to bring back our hot seat coach and didn't at least make one half-assed positive public statement by this point supporting his retention to try to help in the most important recruiting month of the entire year.

Doesn't the fact that everyone knows he is about to be fired negate a lot of the advantages of "working in silence" and "trying to get a handshake agreement in place with another person before pulling the trigger"? I'm sure other AD's aren't dumb and know the Texas job is coming open. Now, would the message board and Twitter craziness get amped up once the job is officially "open"? Yeah, I guess. But these AD's don't operate on those things.

I don’t remember the full story, but I know Montgomery is from Mississippi and many thought he was going to end up back there. A member of A&M’s off-field staff was a former high school coach in Mississippi and had some connections to Montgomery. That helped along with all the other stuff.

His personal hitting coach is in the Houston area I believe and his girlfriend actually plays beach volleyball at Texas.

Pierce wrapped up exit interviews with players today. Still interesting to me that no one is in the portal yet.

That is a known fake Twitter account

You should feel more confident that he is being replaced with every day that passes. It would be self-sabotage to just say nothing at this point if, for some crazy reason, they did plan on bringing him back.

There will still be some good players in the portal at the end of the month, but the supply won't be anything like it is in the next 10-14 days. I think at a minimum dismissing Pierce this week at least causes some kids to slow down their process a bit and see what happens at Texas. It would also probably limit attrition on the current roster (I do find it interesting that no current player has entered the portal yet) If we really did wait until during or after the CWS to fire Pierce and hire a new guy, next year is going to be a gigantic question mark. Yes, it was going to be a question mark anyway but we would have essentially sat on the sidelines for the first three full weeks of portal activity at that point. Maybe that is cool with the decision-makers assuming they find "their guy" and they are willing to sacrifice next year for that.

I said it the other day but I really don't see the point in letting him twist in the wind for the next 2 weeks or whatever until you have your next guy en route to Austin. All that does is just hurt the current roster and kids who are potentially looking at the roster and still see Pierce as the coach. Just cut bait. There are ways to run a smooth process of firing someone and hiring someone else a week or two later. We have a real AD and stability in the athletic department. Not everything has to be like 2016.

I heard yesterday afternoon that there was a chance of movement today. We'll see. It's not the only factor at play (obviously), but I don't think CDC wants to overshadow the softball championship series starting tomorrow, so if it doesn't happen today I would assume nothing is happening this week.

KSU going 1-2 and WVU going 0-2 really hurt their momentum going into regional play. Also, here’s a fun fact: 4 of the 5 P5 conference tournament champions didn’t advance out of regional play. Arizona, Nebraska, OSU and Duke. Tennessee was the only one who did.

I love how Jay Johnson told the announcers before the game he didn’t know if Gage Jump would be available and if so, for only 1 inning. He’s going to throw 50 pitches

They aren't related. The incoming Flores is from the DFW area. Jalin is from the San Antonio area.

*postseason disappointment The guy has won the SEC West 4 of the last 5 years. As someone who continually points to Pierce's SEC record, I don't know how you can compare him to Van Horn. (We also aren't hiring 64 year old Dave Van Horn, so it's a moot conversation anyway)

Galvan showed me enough to where I would feel comfortable with him being the everyday catch headed into next season. Schuessler needs to grab a first base mitt or else he may be headed for DH duties again.

Chase Lummus has eligibility left at Texas but will not be using it, per OB. Either going into the real world or portaling down to a smaller school.

Trait, traits, traits. If you are looking for a coach who has never underperformed once in his career or never lost a game he shouldn't have lost, we might as well just fold the program. Tennessee was NOTHING before Vitello took over and now we are complaining about their performances in Omaha?

HS class coming in for those interested. Rainer and Gillen will not be making it to campus. Sterling is also probably gone but there might be a small chance there. Flores/Richardson/Schwartz/DeGroat I've seen in draft lists and mocks but all were outside the top 100-150. We get 3 of 4 from that group on campus and it will be a good class. https://www.perfectgame.org/College/CollegeCommitments.aspx?college=1829&grad=2024

Assuming Whitehead regains his velo following surgery, he should at least compete for a Sunday/Tuesday role.

Also the 3rd straight year where we opened the season with the wrong closer. Our closer to open the last two seasons was Chris Stuart and David Shaw. Like, I can't even believe I typed that.

I would love Vitello and think he would win huge here, but I don't think it is happening for a variety of reasons. Saarloos should be a complete non-starter at this point. That dude's seat at TCU will be somewhat warm headed into next year after the total flop this year when they went all-in.

I would be floored if we got more than 1 of those draft-eligible guys back. Constantine, Tole and Mercer are done (I don't think he's getting a medical redshirt) so that is 13ish guys that will be departing already before we even get into portal exits and there is a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed off the bottom of this roster. Honestly, outside of Gasparino, Belyeu, Galvan, Schuessler, Grubbs and Whitehead there ain't much on this roster I would lose sleep over if they left. Maybe throw Borba and Tumis in that mix but that's about it. We always get excited about young guys like Kennedy and Farmer and whatnot, but those dudes are a dime a dozen. Probably 20 dudes in the portal just like them.