daboman of Aggieland

But we were "pressure oriented," lots of activity on the bases. Very aggressive. We were under Deggs, and we are now.

No we were not this patient and selective at the plate. I started going to games in 1991, and we've *never* had patience like this... and I *love* it.

I can represent the Aggies and what to expect of us on this thread.

We won only nine conference games last year and didn't renew our coach's contract. This year we have 21 new players. including 15 transfers. We were not good the first month or so of the season, and it looked like this would be another long year.

Since then things have improved steadily and dramatically. We led the SEC in most offensive categories this year having the oddity of having better numbers against SEC opponents than non-conference opponents because of our early season problems. This is far and away the best offensive team A&M has had in the BBCOR era; probably the best since 1999.

We still have serious issues with pitching depth. We've really only had two reliable arms in the bullpen this season. If you get deep in our bullpen, you're likely to score some runs. We're also not good defensively. I heard early in the conference tournament that we were 13th in conference in fielding pct. I'm going to guess that LSU was 14th.

Anyway, we're a strange case this year. Due to a number of early season losses (some against bad opponents), our RPI is 22. We also won the SEC West and were the 2 seed in the conference tournament. If I had to guess where we should have been picked, I'd have said 8 to 10, but I'm happy as hell to be 5. We have a long history of getting screwed by the committee, and I'm happy to be on the other end of it for once.

It seemed like every time we were beaten deep, none of our defenders made any effort to stop a TD after the catch.

I looked at my father-in-law at some point in the first half and said "Football may be a brutal sport, but there's no reason you should have to break a sweat."

I don't know. I am from Beaumont, and I also like the Trill.. at least these two.

On DirecTV, channel 611 has LSU and 611-1 has us.

I was looking through our press release for the Lamar game and noticed that we have Spanish language radio. Is this new? I've never noticed it before if it isn't.

I know a PhD student from Arkansas. You're not in Economics, are you?!?

It looks like the Big Bad Wolf took steroids and then caught The Road Runner.

1990-94

Players (in no particular order)

Bucky Richardson
Quentin Coryatt
Rodney Thomas (RIP)
Darren Lewis
Sam Adams

Games (also in no order)

1990 Holiday Bowl
1991 TCU
1988 Cotton Bowl (was a soph in HS at the time)
1986 Baylor - Huge come from behind win. First game I went to at Kyle (was a fish in HS at the time)
1987 tu - LOUDEST crowd I've ever heard at Kyle Field (was a soph in HS at the time)

We were undefeated at home in my five years as a student, but we played against mostly mediocre opposition. I just don't remember many huge wins. My high school years though (1986-1989) were awesome! There was still some quality left in the SWC back then. My sister is four years older than me, so I got to stand in the student section all four years I was in high school.

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Sup, dabo, my fellow MOAggie

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TbirdSpur2010, Good to see you and good to be back! Here's a longer answer than you ever expected or wanted. I think it will be cathartic for me though. I am the best I've been in about ten years. There's no way to explain it all, but ...

I'm from Beaumont. I was born and raised there and grew up within a couple of miles of all four of my grandparents. With the exception of an aunt, uncle, and cousins, in Mandeville, LA, my entire family was in Beaumont. It may be the armpit of Texas, etc, but it's my home town and always will be. Also, both of my parents are alcoholics... will come into play below.

They retired at the end of 1998, and from 1999 to 2007, they had season baseball tickets at Olsen. My maternal grandfather was TAMC class of '25, and Mom was a more hard core Aggie than I could ever be. My mom's drinking got completely out of hand after she retired, and she died in March 2007 from liver failure at the age of 62. I was closer to my mom than anyone else on earth including my wife of 19 years (not in any creepy way though, I promise!). Her death absolutely fricked up the experience of visiting old friends in Beaumont as well as going to games at Olsen, one of my favorite places on earth. By that Christmas, a couple of things had happened: I found out that I was going to be a dad, and I started drinking A LOT. My first Christmas without my mom was tough to say the least, and I didn't stop drinking when it was over.

In early 2009, I got a call from my sister in Houston. At this point, we had one grandparent still alive, our paternal grandfather. He was 93 and in assisted living as he'd come down with pneumonia at Christmas and never regained his strength. Our father had been using his power of attorney over his father to liquidate his assets. Dad had never gotten along with his parents, was an only child, and was outraged when he found out that they had left their assets to my sister and me instead of him. To that end, we contend, he stole almost $400k from our grandfather. Our grandfather wanted to sue him, so we hired a lawyer.

We spent almost three years in the legal system. Our grandfather died at 94 about 8 months into all of this. With mediations (plural) depositions, etc, this meant a lot more trips to Beaumont giving me lots more bad memories of my home town. Olsen had always been my break from the stresses of life, but with all of the years I had spent at Olsen with my parents, it didn't help much at all. I kept drinking. If you ever want to pack on the pounds faster than you thought possible, trying drinking 2 or 3 bottles of chardonnay every night, seven nights a week. You'll feel like shite every morning as well.

By 2012 we'd settled out of court. I quit my job in March 2013 and moved to Missouri in August with the inheritance money that dad hadn't stolen plus the part I got back in the settlement. Long story on how we wound up in Missouri, but I just had to get away from A&M and away from Texas... bad memories EVERYWHERE. I loved living here last fall. We went to Cardinal games as well as very Midwestern things like cornfield mazes, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, etc. I was still drinking though. I inherited the "alcohol's bitch" gene from my parents.

In January, I finally had a physical. I was way over weight, and my liver function was awful. Everything else was good though. I haven't had a drink since January 18, I've lost 40 pounds, I am having a ton of fun with my little boy (can now play outside with him and not be out of breath in 30 seconds). I short, everything is looking better. One major problem remains though... still unemployed and on pace to run out of money by the end of 2014. I had an interview last week, and I *really* think it went well. I could have a job by next week!

A longer answer than you expected possibly?!?
:)