(06-20-2022 06:50 PM)Stammers Wrote:  

(05-23-2022 09:23 PM)UofMark Wrote:  

(05-23-2022 09:02 PM)jsw3ent Wrote:  

(05-23-2022 08:29 PM)fsquid Wrote:  

(05-23-2022 10:19 AM)UofMark Wrote:  44 years ago today the Tigers lost to North Carolina 11-9 in a winner take all final game regional to advance to the College World Series. They had come out of the losers bracket to beat UNC 8-6 to force the final game. Tigers finished the season 40-9. Back in 78 there were 32 NCAA teams in 8 regionals where the regional winner advanced directly to Omaha and the CWS. Today it's 16 regionals where the winners advance to a best 2 of 3 super regional series. Then those 8 series winners are off to CWS. It's depressing that we've never even sniffed this level of success in the last 44 years.

Lea, Gilbert, and Graves were the weekend rotation.

Played with Charlie at the BIG K----an outstanding talent ---RIP

Kingsbury? That’s very cool. I remember he was drafted by the Expos and sent here to AA ball with our Memphis Chicks. In 1980 he was pretty much untouchable with a 9-0 record and like a 0.8 ERA. Got the call to Montreal. One of the few Expo pitchers to pitch a no hitter plus I believe he started an All Star Game. Yes, gone way too soon.

I remember quite a few things from that game. One, the weather was bad so there was almost no batting practice. This was a big deal, because a dozen of us went to at least 60 games every year, and used to sneak into the stadium early. We depended on batting practice to have a lot of baseballs to use on the field after the game.

Two, because there was almost no batting practice, we were roaming under the stands, picking out bats, gloves and cleats out of the garbage. Not your typical garbage. If a bat had a tiny tiny chip in it, the cleats had 1/4" of the sole unstuck, and the batting gloves had slight wear on the heel of the hand...the players threw them out. For years I had the luck of playing on teams with blue uniforms and wore professional batting gloves, and cleats. We used aluminum bats, but having the pro bats was still cool.

Three, it was the first time I ever saw a pro baseball player smoke. I was in the first row next to the Giants' dugout and had a short conversation with Ed Whitson two hours before game one. He was wearing his full uniform with flip flops and was smoking, I was in shock.

Four, the game itself. The first game was a real bummer and we almost didn't stay for the second game. There was no energy in the stadium up until the 7th inning or so; then it got progressively louder. What an amazing experience.

I had the good fortune to experience most of the memorable Expo moments at Olympic Stadium, good and bad. Kind of like being a Tiger fan. A lot of good and great memories, but quite a bit of heartbreaking bad.