Dear Sweeter,
Time’s a funny dog, am I right?
Has it been more than 30 years since we’ve been calling you Sweeter?, when your grandboy toddlers said “Sweet Lou” and that morphed into “Sweeter”? Time flies, but the name is timeless. And fits.
So Happy Birthday, Sweeter! Sorry I missed being there. Somehow, after more than 40 years, I have wound up back on the Louisiana Tech Baseball bus, which is why I was calling you from Lake Charles and Sugar Land, Texas this week.
Bad news: I missed “Happy Birthday To You” and the cake and you wearing your goofy Happy Birthday hat the gang bought you.
Good news, we got to talk on the phone and the Bulldogs went 4-0 on the trip, swept the Battle at the Ballpark at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, and have started their season 11-0.
So far, so good.
Since you asked, yes momma, the baseball bus is the same, even after all this time:
Somebody plays the music too loud or not loud enough or the wrong music;
Somebody needs to go to the bathroom and has to run through a gauntlet of shins in the aisle to get back there;
Somebody says too many dirty words too loud;
Somebody forgot something;
Laughs and food and inside jokes.
It’s a beautiful thing. And it’s one of those things that never changes.
But thank goodness, some things do. Like, for instance:
Last year’s Tech team was more up and down than a gopher on speed. Every game was like going to meet your tough-to-read girlfriend: you didn’t know whether to bring a tank top or a windbreaker or a heavy jacket.
Couldn’t throw a strike. Guys hurt. One missed the whole season. Missed a couple of seniors who’d graduated, and no one picked up the Accountability Stick. Most everyone had a sub-par spring …
Just one of those sports deals where few things went right and every game was like going 12 rounds with Tyson. That the program was coming off back-to-back NCAA Regionals made it more trying.
A Pepto-Bismol season.
But maybe Tech’s time in the barrel is up. The Diamond Dogs have come into 2024, as I heard an old cowpoke say one time, “a-rippin’ and a-roarin’, a-rompin’ and a-stompin’ …”
Hard to win 11 in a row in anything in college, but especially in baseball, where the tiniest thing — passed ball, throwing to the wrong base, missed cutoff — can blow it all up.
First trip of the season, the Dogs left the Love Shack Wednesday at 11, teed it up against McNeese at 6 and, on a cold, blustery, next-to-last evening of February, beat the Cowboys 13-4. Were right on every pitch. Maybe three swings and misses.
Slept fast and got on the bus at 8 and were practicing in Sugar Land at noon. Then a 20-minute bus ride to Houston to lift weights at Rice, then finally checking into the hotel back in Sugar Land, team supper, sleep, and in the next three days, beat Army 4-0, Creighton 12-0, and Air Force 8-5. Bulldogs had been in town 72 hours before they allowed a run.
Outscored opponents 37-9.
Is that good? I think that’s good.
It’s early but … cautious optimism. Double cautious. Super-duper cautious. Still healing up from last year’s ulcer(s).
I’ll keep you up to speed Sweeter. You’ll enjoy a game when the weather’s warmer. The crowds for this weekend’s three games against Southern Miss — Friday at 6, Saturday at 2, Sunday at 1 — should get the Love Shack heated up.
See you at the park or at the kitchen table soon. Love you. The boys say hey, and smoke ’em high and tight.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu