First Game of College

Spizzle- This calls for a wave!



No fair though, we still have to wait 2 weeks.
Although son did get 5-2/3 innings in two days ago, (still intrasquad)he was happy with his outing.
Sam's a cutie. Good luck this season!

Spizzlepop - love it!

ClevelandDad - I can't find a way to see it after having searched, but my son's first game is: Feb. 26, 5:00 Arizona (son is a Wildcat) vs. Georgia IN Georgia.

Anyone know how I might tune into that online?

Oops. Make that Feb. 22, my bad.

Kt-
Go here:
http://www.arizonaathletics.com/Multimedia/Default.aspx?id=1346
Click on MultiMedia and then Live Stats.
On game day, Gametracker, or whatever they use, will not start up until the game officially begins. Make sure to disable your pop-up blocker.
It usually shows up on the schedule with a little video camera indicating live stats.
As far as tv coverage or watching games on the internet, there is probably a fee involoved.

iheartbb,

Thanks! I wasn't sure how that worked. I will be using it. I appreciate it.

Sizzlepop.. wow, GREAT JOB!!! Man, I love to see successful lefties! (Being a dad of one.) Keep in touch and let me know how his season goes.

Although DII, instead of DI, my freshman son made his college (Upper Iowa) debut over the weekend. He made relief appearances in two of the teams four games, allowing 1 hit and no runs, did walk a couple, over 2.1 innings. The team didn't win any of the games, but it was nice to see him living the dream, and to do well.

quote:

Although DII, instead of DI, my freshman son made his college (Upper Iowa) debut over the weekend.

baseball17 - congrats to your son! No need for caveats about D1 or D2 etc. This is college baseball we are talking about here and it is a challenge to get in the game at any level

spizz - thanks for posting that article and congrats to your son. Gotta love this:

quote:

"He was 88 to 90 (mph) the whole time he was throwing,"

Exciting times indeed

ktcosmos - given that your son's team is ranked #1 in several polls, I am guessing they are going to have a big year

ClevelandDad,

That preseason ranking thing is interesting.

Coach spends all his time telling kids not to pay attention to that, for good reason.

Then there are all the naysayers slinging their brand of hash as soon as the polls come out.

Finally, there's the novelty factor of being the family of a player who has landed on a ranked team. We're pretty excited. (I'd be lying if I said otherwise!).

Now we're just hoping they do well and are trying to forget about the scrutiny of having been singled out.

The yin yang of baseball, I guess.

quote:

Finally, there's the novelty factor of being the family of a player who has landed on a ranked team. We're pretty excited. (I'd be lying if I said otherwise!).

kt - I feel the same way and feel the polls serve a useful purpose for those that are ranked and those that are not. For those that are not ranked, keep your mouths closed, use any perceived snub as motivation, start winning, and you might be surprised how that will all take care of itself. For those that are ranked, the recognition is nice. Rankings cannot win a game however so that coach is obviously giving the team good advice. I can assure you this, when you are ranked, you will get the other team's best game. When both teams are playing at a high level - regardless of ranking, that is what makes college baseball exciting. My son loves to play against ranked teams.

Baseball 17 - congrats to your son on his D2 debut and living the dream!

I can relate as my freshman son also had his D2 debut yesterday in Colorado! He got to pitch 3.1 innings in relief in the last game of the series (only game they won in a 4 game series) - one earned run, no BB's - good start for him.

As there is no internet broadcast or live scoring for his school at this time, we were anxiously awaiting for the phone call or stat updates. It was nice to hear the upbeat tone in his voice!

We are amazed at the high scores in some of the D2 games - some of them sound like football scores.

KT- what a thrill to be part of a #1 team in the polls - hope your son has an awesome season!

What an exciting time of the year for all the players no matter what division you are playing in!

quote:

I can relate as my freshman son also had his D2 debut yesterday in Colorado! He got to pitch 3.1 innings in relief in the last game of the series (only game they won in a 4 game series) - one earned run, no BB's - good start for him.

As there is no internet broadcast or live scoring for his school at this time, we were anxiously awaiting for the phone call or stat updates. It was nice to hear the upbeat tone in his voice!

Your family must have been on cloud nine after that phone call

curveball07,

I can imagine how excited you were to hear from him after that game.

Thank you for your well-wishes.

The beginning of the season will never seem routine, will it?!

I am flying out to philly this weekend. to see my sons first college pitching start. hopefully the weather will be okay.we have a lot of snow here in newengland. hard to believe they will be playing this weekend.I dont want to miss his first college start.Hopefully he is not as nervous as his dad is.

This is all very inspiring! It's great to see a few freshman getting their shot. We are waiting patiently though cognizant that we may be waiting for a long time. What I'm enjoying is getting to know the players on son's team and keep track of their progress. Living vicariously..but I figure son will be hanging with these guys for awhile.

Good luck to all!!

So..first home college game for son was today. Yikes. So exciting! And it was a great game with lots of stomach twists and weird calls and all the bells and whistles. This was the first time we saw son officially suited up. It was simply the best experience to see him with all these great players, running down towards the bullpen, warming up a bit, stretching, chatting with his teammates. And though he didn't get in, it just reaffirmed to me that he worked darn hard to get here..and it's all worth it to see him just walk onto that beautiful field. We stood next to a dad of a player on the opposing team. It was cool to compare notes about our experiences. When his kid hit a home run, yeah, I cheered a bit (silently) because I knew how the dad must have felt. And that dad even kind of chuckled and winced. when a weird call cost us a run.

If anybody tells you that just "being there" isn't special, they're nuts! Good luck to everyone as the season progresses!

Please, please, pleeeeeeeese keep these stories coming in.
For those of us who still have players in highschool,( and are still stuck in the basketball gym due to snow ),...it is these kinds of stories that make my day!

Such enjoyable reads that blend quite smoothly with my morning mochas!
THANK YOU!!!!...please keep em' coming!
I love reading about these kids and our fellow HSBBW'ers!

nc I agree.we also got to see our son play this weekend.we flew to philly rented a car got lost looking for the school.we made it before the first game started saturday.we were the only parents from our sons team there.But we did meet alot of the other teams parents.we played 4 games we lost all 4 games.but they were all close games.really good baseball games.my son a freshman pitcher got his first start the 4th game he pitched 5innings gave up 4 runs. 3 walks 5s.o 7hits.we really enjoyed our weekend.just to be able to sit and watch some baseball and cheer for our sons new team.

BBrown..congrats on your son's first start!!

Shortstopmom: I'm not sure you really want to encourage me...I could wax prosaic about simply seeing my son in the team picture. But I well remember the high school days when you just couldn't wait for the season to start and wondering if this was going to be the break-out year. Hope the snow stops for you soon. I'm afraid I'll be stuck in the gym for the next four years.. 15 yr old daughter plays a ton of basketball year-round. That's why it is nice to get out to the yard to watch son!

Son's first game was actually on the 22nd of Feb in Georgia, but we did get to see the series via internet video feed.

The biggest thrill was this past Friday in Tucson for the home opener.

To look around the stadium and hear that 3200 were in attendance was just unbelievable. I have never watched him play in front of a crowd that size before.

The icing on cake: son got a single, a double and, a grand slam in that game. Holy Cow.

They swept the series, but not without some wobblies, and son certainly didn't repeat that kind of performance on Sat and Sun, but I will never forget it: watching his teammates surround him and the reporters speaking with him afterward.

Priceless.