When [It] Strikes Me

Go Dores.

You can follow the brash band of Commodores using my Twitter list of the Dores’ feeds or by simply picking out the ones you’d care to follow.  If you’re a fan of VU baseball, Twitter is an interesting way to get in the mind of the players.  Most of the guys don’t update that much, but a few folks like Sonny Gray (@SonnyGray2) and Drew Fann (@DrewFann) are Twitter champions.

There aren’t necessarily any particular tweets that make you point to these kids and say “that’s why I follow them.”  It’s the course of the season, the year and the journey that leads guys like Anthony GoGo Gomez (@AnthonyG13) to being a future star like David Price (@DavidPrice14).

After the jump, the batting order of Vanderbilt Baseball Tweeps. Read more…

Sonny Gray will look to lead Vanderbilt as the Friday guy in 2010.

I’m quite excited to be out in Los Angeles this weekend for the first live college baseball I’ll have seen since last May’s disastrous series loss to Todd Raleigh’s Volunteer team (a weekend which caused such concern over the illegal bats used by the Vols, that composite barrel bats are now illegal). Anyway, enough of my loathing of all things Orange in baseball, the Black and Gold of Vanderbilt got going over the weekend and it was a dandy. The Commodores played host to the Niagara Purple Eagles, but were far from hospitable on the diamond.

Behind a strong pitching performance from the King (Sonny Gray), the Dores easily took the opener, 9-0. The bats then really woke up with a 16-2 thumping on Saturday, complemented by a solid start from Taylor Hill. Sunday was bloody with the Dores laying into the Purple Eagles with 25 unanswered runs after Niagara jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Big Jack Armstrong had some tough luck and was a little wild as the starter.

On Tuesday, Austin Peay came across town to the Hawk and gave Vandy all we could ask for. They threw a former weekend starter named Vicini who was coming off of an injury plagued season. He was healthy, shutting the Dores down through 6 before giving way. Chase Reid, Richie Goodenow and Russ Brewer were all really dominant for the Dores on the hill and Andrew Giobbi won it in the 10th with an RBI single, for a 2-1 win. Not quite the dominating performance of the weekend, but it’s sometimes nice to just get a nail biter win, especially before a top flight tournament against three NCAA caliber teams, including a showdown with the top pro prospect in NCAA baseball (UCLA’s Gerritt Cole).

The past week was the first look at some key newcomers, such as Mike “#YAZ!” Yastrzemski, Regan “Little Flash” Flaherty and Connor “I Don’t Have a Nickname Yet” Harrell, the three freshman leading the battle to fill the outfield spots vacated by Steven Liddle and Jonathan White. My thoughts on them and the rest of the team follow the jump in this, my Vanderbilt Baseball Preview for 2010.
Read more…

This is a character you’re likely to not know unless you’re a participant in college sports message boards.  On the Rivals.com network, in particular, LSUFreek is legendary for providing hilarious animated GIFs.

Terrance Donnels (the man behind the screenname) was recently granted his own domain on SportingNews.com to further distribute his images and thoughts.  You can visit that site here, but really all you need to do is follow his Twitter feed @LSUFreek.

Linked after the jump are some of my favorite LSUFreek animated GIFs.  There are a ten of them, so it may take a second to load. Read more…

I’m really not sure which athlete had the best single attribute among all Dores in the last decade. But I’m put together some nominees and corresponding video evidence of each. They are

• David Price’s Durability (Baseball 2005-07),
• Jeffery Taylor’s Bounce (Basketball 2008-Present),
• Pedro Alvarez’ Wrists (Baseball 2006-08),
• Jay Cutler’s Arm (Football 2002-2005),
• Shan Foster’s Fingertips (Basketball 2004-2008) and
• Sonny Gray’s Confidence (Baseball 2008-Present)

Click Through to Read a Bit About Each. Read more…

The Nashville City Paper has a great article on the Vanderbilt Baseball team’s trip through the far east and the generosity of Bill Kaye (full disclosure: a friend of this author) in making the trip possible.

This VU baseball team has some very special players (with as many as six or seven possible first round talents for the 2011 draft) and it will be great to see them on any continent.

The team has been getting ready for this trip, as noted in a few of the tweets below.

So most of the Tim Lincecum talk centers around whether or not he’s the best pitcher in baseball or… I don’t know… if anyone on God’s green earth was surprised that he’s a pothead. He has cut a deal on the marijuana possession charge. But I’m more interested in his lineage.

I think he’s clearly the love child of a Skeksis and a Gelfling.

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For those who missed the reference, it’s The Dark Crystal.