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2021 Texas Baseball


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6 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

 

More on the story.    Quite an honor since only one LHP and one RP were selected.    Props to the fans who voted.

 

Former Texas stars Greg Swindell and Huston Street were two of the three pitchers named to ESPN’s Greatest All-Time College Baseball Team on Tuesday.

Swindell was the fan-selected team’s left-handed pitcher.  Street made the cut as the lone reliever. Swindell and Street’s selections come nearly three weeks after Cat Osterman, who is also a left-handed pitcher, represented Texas on ESPN’s all-time softball squad.

Street secured 32.4% of the votes for relievers and earned a decisive victory over ex-Wichita State closer Darren Dreifort (16.6%). Swindell (28.5% ) beat out Vanderbilt’s David Price (25.1%) and Michigan’s Jim Abbott (13.9%) in the category for left-handed pitchers.

Swindell pitched at Texas from 1984-86. He went 43-8 with a 1.92 ERA. His 501 strikeouts and 14 shutouts are still career records at UT. Swindell was an All-American during each of his three years on campus.

No Longhorn has saved more games than Street, who closed out 41 save situations from 2002-04. His five career saves at the College World Series are also a record for that event. Street was the MVP of the 2002 College World Series.

Swindell and Street, who have both had their numbers retired at Texas, were two of the 10 Longhorns on the ballot for ESPN’s all-time team. Roger Clemens almost gave UT a clean sweep of the pitching categories. But with 22.9% of the vote, Clemens finished second among right-handed pitchers to LSU’s Ben McDonald (30%).

ESPN’s All-Time College Baseball Team

RHP Ben McDonald (LSU)

LHP Greg Swindell (Texas)

RP Huston Street (Texas)

1B Will Clark (Mississippi State)

2B Todd Walker (LSU)

SS Alex Bregman (LSU)

3B Robin Ventura (Oklahoma State)

LF Barry Bonds (Arizona State)

CF J.D. Drew (Florida State)

RF Joe Carter (Wichita State)

C Buster Posey (Florida State)

TWO-WAY John Olerud (Washington State)

https://www.hookem.com/2020/07/01/texas-swindell-street-acknowledged-espn-unveils-time-baseball-team/

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Tough break for us, but damn solid decision for him.  All the best Kamron.  Thank you for your dedication to the Longhorn Mound which carries with it tremendous expectations, but sounds like you're taking a great leap forward in your academic studies and baseball career.  Really enjoyed watching you play this game we all love so much.  Godspeed.  

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6 hours ago, texifornia said:

 

Would not be surprised if Kamron  later enrolls in TSU's Law School (Thurgood Marshall School of Law) and purses a political career.

He and another recruit sat near my section during a game recruiting visit.     Mature beyond his years. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lengthy article on Gideon,  but worth the read.    Pitched the first game at the Disch,  he and Richard Wortham were aces that led Texas to the first national championship under Gus.

 

Admittedly, he was nervous, oddly enough.

Jim Gideon had pitched many times before as a freshman and sophomore at Texas and was the new ace of one of the Longhorns’ most talented staffs ever. But those games were at rustic Clark Field, where they might shoehorn in 1,500 fans at the site just across the street from what is now Royal-Memorial Stadium.

On that February day in 1975, Gideon was warming up in the bullpen, preparing to throw the first pitch ever before about 5,000 fans packed into Texas’ brand new Disch-Falk Field that was so gaudy it’d embarrass some major-league ballparks. 

Before the introductions, Gideon slipped into the locker room to change shirts and ran into former UT All-American Burt Hooton.

“He was like my idol,” Gideon recalled Thursday. “Here, I’m 20 years old, and he just got out of the World Series (where Hooton’s Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the A’s). And I asked how do you do it. How do you come back and keep winning? Burt’s so unflappable. He just looked at me and said, ‘Because you’re better than they are.’“

Gideon quit stressing after that. Despite going 19-2 the year before, the antsy Gideon overcame that anxiousness and ushered in a new stadium with a 4-0 win over St. Mary’s.

The tall, silky-smooth right-hander would win 16 more games that spring in a perfect season that ended in Omaha with Texas’ third College World Series title and the first of coach Cliff Gustafson’s two national championships.

As Hooton reinforced, Gideon was better than the other guys. Almost always. He won 36 games his last two seasons, threw eight shutouts and paced Texas to a 59-6 record and its first title of the modern era.

And that’s exactly why this gifted pitcher with tremendous command and a dominant mound presence has been selected into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame along with other greats like versatile Minnesota shortstop Paul Molitor and Georgia Tech barrel-chested catcher Jason Varitek.

“It’s a great honor, and I’m very happy,” Gideon said. “It was a real golden era of UT baseball in the early ’70s.”

As for his place in the pantheon of Longhorns luminaries, the 66-year-old Taylor native who still lives in Austin after a career in health insurance knows the pecking order.

“At UT, you have Hooton because he is the king,” Gideon said. “We’re all measured from there. He was the greatest college pitcher of all time. Obviously,  

Greg Swindell is right there. Kirk Dressendorfer, Richard Wortham and myself probably fall in behind there. It’s a good crowd to be associated with.”

Gideon and Wortham, in fact, have to rank as one of the best one-two pitching tandems on the same staff in college baseball history. Between them, they won a staggering 90 games, an NCAA-record 50 by Wortham, a left-hander from Odessa. Gideon won 40, a three-year star out of Houston Bellaire where he once beat Texas Rangers phenom David Clyde of Houston Westchester twice, the lefty’s only two high school defeats.

Maybe Arizona State can compare with a pairing of Eddie Bane and Floyd Bannister or UCLA with 2011 draftees Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer, but few others, save probably Texas’ own Calvin Schiraldi and Roger Clemens with Mike Capel as a strong No. 3 on the 1983 staff.

Gideon joins 11 other Longhorns players and coaches in the Hall of Fame, including incredibly a record six pitchers in that prestigious company. No other program has more than two, which USC, Miami and Wichita State boast.

“I’d say it’s about time,” said former UT third baseman Keith Moreland, a teammate of Wortham and Gideon and a Hall of Famer himself. “It’s a cool thing. My biggest thing was he had really good stuff, but it wasn’t that he threw harder than everybody. He wasn’t overpowering, but he had tremendous command. A great demeanor and calm. That’s why his nickname was Ice.”

Few pitchers cooled off opposing bats like Gideon, who finished his three-year college career in 1975 with just six losses, four of them as a freshman and three of those in relief. He had such an economical style, patterning his mechanics after the drop-and-drag style of Tom Seaver, the Mets star Gideon studied on television during the 1969 World Series.

Throw strikes and throw low in the strike zone, bending the right knee and dragging the back toe to keep pitches down. It was a style he perfected and one he used to throw a no-hitter against SMU at the dumpy, city-owned Riverchon Park in Dallas where the grass was about “U.S. Open rough-high” and a grounder wouldn’t think of leaving the infield.

Gideon would pitch so often at Texas that he’d frequently finish up a seven-inning complete game and, fortified by a Coke and a candy bar in between, win a game in relief in the nightcap. Ten of his 19 wins as a sophomore came in back-to-back victories in doubleheaders, a formula Longhorns assistant Bill Bethea chided him for as a victory vulture.

“I can’t think of a time after my freshman year that Coach Gus ever came out and took the ball out of my hands,” Gideon said. “Gus rode his horses.”

As Moreland reminded, “There was no pitch count back then.”

No pitching coach either. Gideon was groomed by the legendary Ray Knoblauch at Bellaire, where the coaching legend won 598 games and four state titles, one with Gideon. But he also credits summer-league pitching coach Robert “Bus” Campbell of the Boulder Collegians with giving him some key advice after his freshman season.

“He turned around my career,” Gideon said of the late Colorado pitching coach who also tutored Goose Gossage, Roy Halladay, Brad Lidge and dozens more. “He just settled me down and got me to slow down. He told me I was over-throwing.”

That was all he needed for his college career to take off. He relaxed, trusted his stuff, relied on the fastball down low in the strike zone, counted on “three or four runs from Moreland every game” and pitched himself to glory.

Professional baseball wasn’t so kind. Despite being drafted with the 17th pick of the Texas Rangers, he managed just one major-league start in his career before a debilitating neck condition from a teenage car wreck resurfaced, wrecked his shoulder and put a stop to his pitching. He didn’t keep the ball. Figured there’d be plenty more chances.

“Yeah, just one game,” Gideon said, laughing. “As Abe Lemons would say, one more than a dead man.”

 

https://www.hookem.com/columns/20200806/bohls-texas-jim-gideon-now-latest-long-line-horns-hall-famers/

 

Longhorns in the National College Baseball Hall of Fame

Cliff Gustafson (inducted in 2006)

Brooks Kieschnick (2006)

Bibb Falk (2007)

Billy Disch (2008)

Burt Hooton (2008)

Greg Swindell (2008)

Kirk Dressendorfer (2009)

Keith Moreland (2009)

Richard Wortham (2010)

Augie Garrido (2016)

David Chalk (2019)

Jim Gideon (2020)

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^Thats amazing. Really wish still played there, even though I love the Disch. 
 

So this upcoming season, we should be fuckin stacked. Deep pitching staff, legit middle infield. A good rotation of catches, Austin Todd, Kennedy and Zubia all coming back looks like one of those 2000-2011 Augie teams on paper. Can’t fuckin wait to see what this teams got 

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Updated roster projection:

CF Antico

SS Faltine

1B Zubia

3B Williams

RF Todd

LF Kennedy

DH Dixon/Hodo/Melendez

2B Campbell/Stehly

C Petrinsky/Ardoin/Powell

SP: Witt, Madden, Cobb, Hansen, Sthele

RP: Duplantier, Quintanilla, Kubichek, Southard, Stevens, Walbridge, Gordon, Johnson, Wenzel, Shifflet 

 

Antico and Johnson were big gets.

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On 8/14/2020 at 2:41 AM, Fletch said:

^Thats amazing. Really wish still played there, even though I love the Disch. 
 

So this upcoming season, we should be fuckin stacked. Deep pitching staff, legit middle infield. A good rotation of catches, Austin Todd, Kennedy and Zubia all coming back looks like one of those 2000-2011 Augie teams on paper. Can’t fuckin wait to see what this teams got 

I wouldn’t say the middle is legit. Second base will be the weak link until someone shows they can be consistent. Catcher was wasn’t pretty either for majority of the season. 

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I’m going to have to say no on the chemistry because who can develop that in  the amount of games they played. It’s hard enough to do it with two starters but apparently our freshman shortstop (who will eventually be elite) had elite chemistry with two different guys in a span of 17 games? Not to mention Dixon was a non factor at the plate. 

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On 8/18/2020 at 2:38 PM, DoneWithit said:

I’m going to have to say no on the chemistry because who can develop that in  the amount of games they played. It’s hard enough to do it with two starters but apparently our freshman shortstop (who will eventually be elite) had elite chemistry with two different guys in a span of 17 games? Not to mention Dixon was a non factor at the plate. 

True, but our middle infield and catcher play the last 10 years has been baseballs version of oline and QB. CJ was solid but no Seth Johnston or Brandon Loy. Then Teagarden and Rupp to Felts and McCann. Just the talent base alone will win is 10-15 more games cause Hibbeler isn’t out there way out of his league. Baseball is definitely chemistry driven but it’s easier and quicker to develop than in football imo. A few weeks shooting the shit during practice and they’re turning routine double plays. Just having no errors or passed balls with who gives a shit catcher launching it 40 feet over the 3rd baseman’s head when if was clear even Molina couldn’t get him

Cross posting from another thread. Rewatched the 02 South Carolina game and it felt like I was watching it for the duet time. Next up, whatever 04 post season games I can find that aren’t the ending I still vomit over 

Also, random bored stoned thought. Damn shame Kyle Russell or Jordan Danks didn’t get to play in Omaha. They would’ve put up legendary numbers there

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5 hours ago, Fletch said:

True, but our middle infield and catcher play the last 10 years has been baseballs version of oline and QB. CJ was solid but no Seth Johnston or Brandon Loy. Then Teagarden and Rupp to Felts and McCann.

I seemed to remember Barrera, Hamilton, Clemens, Boswell, Marlow being pretty good. Some collegiate golden glovers and variations of the middle infield leading country in double plays (CJ and Marlow?). 
 

Texas second baseman Brooks Marlow has been named to the Rawlings Division I Gold Glove Team, the American Baseball Coaches Association announced Wednesday.

Marlow has fielded at a .991 clip this season, committing just three errors in 326 chances, and has helped form one of the best double play combos in the country with shortstop C.J Hinojosa. Texas ranks second in the nation with 70 double plays, with Marlow helping turn 56 of those.

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They were good, yes. But Boswell was inconsistent as fuck and a meh infielder. CJ, Hamilton and Barrera are kinda outliers here. Felts was baseball Shane. Solid but not game changing. Cantu was Gilbert. I’ve forgotten so many names from those years. Like Weston Hall. Ty Marlow. Just a bunch of meh. And yeah Hamilton would’ve gone apeshit last year but shit happened. Faltine can make the routine plays. That’s all we need at the moment 

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7 hours ago, Fletch said:

True, but our middle infield and catcher play the last 10 years has been baseballs version of oline and QB. CJ was solid but no Seth Johnston or Brandon Loy. Then Teagarden and Rupp to Felts and McCann. Just the talent base alone will win is 10-15 more games cause Hibbeler isn’t out there way out of his league. Baseball is definitely chemistry driven but it’s easier and quicker to develop than in football imo. A few weeks shooting the shit during practice and they’re turning routine double plays. Just having no errors or passed balls with who gives a shit catcher launching it 40 feet over the 3rd baseman’s head when if was clear even Molina couldn’t get him

 

I would hope at this level our middle infield could turn routine double plays—that doesn’t take a lot of chemistry at all. But the notion that we have elite chemistry is just not there. Elite chemistry is knowing your teammates, in this case short and 2B, range and abilities. You don’t figure that out shooting shit or playing 17 regular season games. Even doing live BP won’t give them enough to develop the elite chemistry needed because nothing will replace real game experience. Your last sentence there, well I don’t know what exactly you’re trying to say but the catcher situation was a problem and still is. There’s no way around that one and it’s not going to be figured out over night. 

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