5.1.07 Family notes
This entry was posted on 4/30/2007 9:06 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
If you are a first-time visitor to http://seriousplaythebook.com, you may want to scroll to the previous entries. This one consists mostly of random thoughts about the team and its supporters that I jotted down during Sunday's bus ride from Georgetown, Texas, to Memphis.
The best thing about the bus ride was that we got home at a decent hour. That was also the worst thing about the bus ride because of the circumstances that prompted our early departure. One synonym for resilience--a word I have used to describe the Rhodes baseball team all season long--is elasticity, the ability to bounce back. But even elastic loses its spring if it's stressed too hard. Having to play two consecutive games against two well-rested teams on Saturday was exactly that kind of stress. If there was any benefit at all to being the No. 1 seed in the tournament, I can't imagine what it was. We received no bye, were the visiting team in two of the three games we played, and were the only team that had to play back-to-back games.
This is an especially challenging time for seniors Daniel Killary, Robby Piper, and Patrick Tolivar. For each of them the question hangs in the air: Have I played my last game? With any luck, they (and we) will get an indication soon about whether the team will advance to the NCAA regional.
On a more positive note, I counted parents, siblings, and friends of fifteen players in Georgetown--along with the ever-staunch parents of Coach Rob Schrier. Many others have been at other games during the season. You just can't say enough about how much support these good folks have given not just to their own sons on the team, but to everyone's sons .
We had some real twenty-first century moments when the Gametracker webcast of the game went down during Friday's game against Southwestern. Among the stories I heard were these: Daniel Vanaman's girl friend called our trainer with the track team at Trinity on her cell, who then called our other trainer in the Rhodes dugout on his cell to find out the score. Drew Hubbard's mom in North Carolina called John Robert Bizzell's mom in the stands at Georgetown to ask her to let the folks in the Southwestern press box know that Gametracker wasn't working. Bill Jack told me that his son's mom called him "forty times" during the game to keep up with the score.
I personally had a great nineteenth century moment when Arnold H. Hurd III (yes, that's Bubba) gave me an autographed copy of his new book, Tears on the Bluestone: A Civil War Portrait of Mercer County, Virginia.
Finally (almost), a few words of thanks to some good people. Evan Elliott, a Rhodes senior, was instrumental in getting this web site up and running. (Those of us with gray hair will always speak computer as a second language, like immigrans who never lose their accent. Those of Evan's generation speak computer as their native tongue, which is why we turn to them to help us navigate this new country.) Frank Ezelle, the senior statesman of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference message board at www.d3baseball.com, has been kind enough to give this web site a couple plugs, which has drawn visitors from around the conference. Thanks, too, to the writer of the Daily Dose blog at www.d3baseball.com for posting a permanent link to the site. And thanks to all of you who have posted comments, both pro and con.
Finally (really), on Thursday the Rhodes College home page will feature a story about http://seriousplaythebook.com (go to www.rhodes.edu on Wednesday and look under "News" in the lower right-hand corner of the page). Also, a link to the web site will soon appear on the Rhodes athletics page and the Rhodes baseball page.
The best thing about the bus ride was that we got home at a decent hour. That was also the worst thing about the bus ride because of the circumstances that prompted our early departure. One synonym for resilience--a word I have used to describe the Rhodes baseball team all season long--is elasticity, the ability to bounce back. But even elastic loses its spring if it's stressed too hard. Having to play two consecutive games against two well-rested teams on Saturday was exactly that kind of stress. If there was any benefit at all to being the No. 1 seed in the tournament, I can't imagine what it was. We received no bye, were the visiting team in two of the three games we played, and were the only team that had to play back-to-back games.
This is an especially challenging time for seniors Daniel Killary, Robby Piper, and Patrick Tolivar. For each of them the question hangs in the air: Have I played my last game? With any luck, they (and we) will get an indication soon about whether the team will advance to the NCAA regional.
On a more positive note, I counted parents, siblings, and friends of fifteen players in Georgetown--along with the ever-staunch parents of Coach Rob Schrier. Many others have been at other games during the season. You just can't say enough about how much support these good folks have given not just to their own sons on the team, but to everyone's sons .
We had some real twenty-first century moments when the Gametracker webcast of the game went down during Friday's game against Southwestern. Among the stories I heard were these: Daniel Vanaman's girl friend called our trainer with the track team at Trinity on her cell, who then called our other trainer in the Rhodes dugout on his cell to find out the score. Drew Hubbard's mom in North Carolina called John Robert Bizzell's mom in the stands at Georgetown to ask her to let the folks in the Southwestern press box know that Gametracker wasn't working. Bill Jack told me that his son's mom called him "forty times" during the game to keep up with the score.
I personally had a great nineteenth century moment when Arnold H. Hurd III (yes, that's Bubba) gave me an autographed copy of his new book, Tears on the Bluestone: A Civil War Portrait of Mercer County, Virginia.
Finally (almost), a few words of thanks to some good people. Evan Elliott, a Rhodes senior, was instrumental in getting this web site up and running. (Those of us with gray hair will always speak computer as a second language, like immigrans who never lose their accent. Those of Evan's generation speak computer as their native tongue, which is why we turn to them to help us navigate this new country.) Frank Ezelle, the senior statesman of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference message board at www.d3baseball.com, has been kind enough to give this web site a couple plugs, which has drawn visitors from around the conference. Thanks, too, to the writer of the Daily Dose blog at www.d3baseball.com for posting a permanent link to the site. And thanks to all of you who have posted comments, both pro and con.
Finally (really), on Thursday the Rhodes College home page will feature a story about http://seriousplaythebook.com (go to www.rhodes.edu on Wednesday and look under "News" in the lower right-hand corner of the page). Also, a link to the web site will soon appear on the Rhodes athletics page and the Rhodes baseball page.