I miss Augie I miss Gus I miss Bibb I miss Billy Does baseball have its own version of Charlie? It has been a looooong time since a three game series has been so poorly coached. Last night's game was the epitome of poor coaching/management. Just saying
Not sure what to say here except I miss Augie circa 2002-2011 too but not the Augie of his last five seasons where but for a late season run in 2014 his teams just didnt have it and he gave up on recruiting. I miss Gus of the mid 80's to early 90's as well but not the Gus of his last few seasons for almost same reasons as the Augie of his last few. I have closely followed Texas baseball since the early 80's and so I have as high expectations as anyone but I also know that you dont rebuild a broken ship in one season. Remember Augie's first two years at Texas were both losing seasons as he cleaned up what Gus had left. Pierce is on track and trying to crap all over that by recalling the best years of his two predecessors is fallacious reasoning at best, just plain stupid at worst.
FW, In his latter years. Gus had one MAJOR problem that he refused to deal with. That cost him his job. Augie had two problems continually distracting him, one being food. I, personally, did not want Pierce for the job, but then some friends of mine at Rice gave me pep talks to help me understand the guy. Yes, I have seen him make what seemed to be bonehead calls and personnel decisions, but, as my son told me, he wasn't exactly left a roster of first ten round picks.
Sabre you are correct and there is no need to drag up that issue which is why I didn't go too deep into Gus' last few years. I loved Gusball and still will find myself humming "its time for Gusball when you hear the call ..." but I understood and supported the decision to move on from him when it was made for the reasons both very public and very private.
Bill Yoeman didn't have his QB run to the back of the end zone against ND in the icy CB. DKR had Earl at 230 pounds playing fullback in the wishbone. Tom Osburne at NU went for 2 against Miami. All late in their careers.
David Pierce was my *first* choice and I am behind him 100%. Dude played HS baseball and coached HS baseball in Houston - he knows the game. The juniors and seniors he brought to SHSU just knocked off TTU. I am bullish on Texas Baseball going forward. We got the right guy. I can't believe anyone wants to bag on him after only 1 season where he took his team within 1 win of a Super Regional. Who here saw that coming when we played the Alumni Game?
FW, I would never post the details and refrain from talking about it out of respect for all Gus did for our University. I really regret that he didn't become Wayne Graham II. I shall always tell people that condemn Deloss for what happened and the way it happened, that he really had no choice, and until they know what they are talking about it would be really good to keep their mouths shut. As for Augie, it didn't take him long to piss me off, so I just didn't go to any social gatherings where he would be.
My fondest picture memory is of Gus, 3rd base coaching, with both hands stuffed in his back pockets, standing stoically like Tom Landry. Anyone else pick up his "take" sign to his batter up? It was whether he was standing on the white painted open rectangle just outside 3rd base. P.S., tragically, a few years ago a 1st base coach with a minor league team was killed by a line drive that struck him in the head. Saw Gus dodge a few frozen rope foul balls; I always thought he'd never be hit. The baseballs knew better than that. No disrespect towards the coach noted above. Just dark humor.
I always enjoyed when Gus took on the aggies and as would meander out to the mound they would give him hell about being a human rain delay because he was walking so slow and that just seemed to make him walk even slower. Of course his "where are the aggies now" comment in 1989 will forever mark just how he felt about our friends in college station.
One of my favorite Gus stories was in the summer of 83 after our national Championship, my son was in Gus' baseball camp (not an overnight camp). We were staying out at Lakeway, so I didn't want to drive back out there, only to drive back in and pick him up. That morning I had a craving for some Mrs Johnson's donuts, but as was preparing to leave DischFalk, it came a gully washer. I was waiting for the rain to let up and Gus walked up beside me. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to go out in this mess, and he replied he had to go to the airport to pick up a catcher from California. Now Gus was given any kind of vehicle he wanted by the Athletic Department, but he had a Chevy pickup, not a Silverado but a work truck with rubber mats rather than carpet, standard transmission, and his spittoon on the dash, so he said he had to go to the Toyota store to borrow a car. I said, "Coach, I don't need to go to the Toyota place, why don't you take my car" as I offered him the keys. He looked at me, look at the keys, and looked out in the parking lot, then said, "Is that your Mercedes over there? (as I nodded yes) I don't want to impress him that much". Later that day, I saw Gus and the kid standing on the pitcher's mound surveying DischFalk in a hellacious downpour.
FW, You may have been at the game against the Aggies when I made Chandler laugh so hard he fell down trying to walk to the mound. You remember how Chandler would wait until the batter was in the box, the pitcher was getting his sign , then he would call time and start his ten minute stroll to the mound.He was about half way to the mound and I yelled at him, "Chandler, you're too old to be out in the sun this long. Can I bring you a golf cart?' Not all that funny, but he started laughing and fell down. He thought it was funny, but the Aggies were really pissed, and of course I was sitting behind their dugout. The man ruined more great pitchers than most coaches see in a lifetime, most notably Rick Lueken and Randy Pryor for starters.
Sabre, I got to attend most every home game when I was at UT in the late 80's and early 90's so if it was during that period I was most likely there. I lived at Disch Falk as undergrad and then through law school, it was my escape. Gus would wear out pitchers and I always wondered if some of the great pitchers who decided to go to college avoided Texas for that very reason. Kieschnick's ridiculous game at the CWS in 1992 against OSU with some foolish number of pitches comes to mind. Of course Augie did something similar in 2009 with Austin Wood against BC in that 25 inning game.
With runners on second and third with one out, I am not sure what Pierce is supposed to do about two of our better hitters (clemens and boswell) failing to swing their dang bats. I am not 100% happy with all of Pierce's decisions, but I have never been 100% happy with any coach's decisions and I do not think many fans are. I have been a big Augie defender, but after this season, I do agree that Augie simply did not recruit the bats needed win a CWS. Pierce did perfectly fine for his first year. We just need to see if he can recruit better hitters and continue to recruit great pitching moving forward. So far he has made the ncaa tournament all six years he has coached at three different schools so I think the issue moving forward will be whether he upgrades the talent or not.
I think my favorite memory of Gus was watching the face of an umpire, ANY umpire, when he came out to argue a play. Gus didn't argue balls and strikes, he didn't usually argue tags and close calls, he argued rules. And if he came out, you could read in the umpire's face that he'd f'ed up!
As for the OP, you're so full of it you'd float. I grew up on Gus and still hate what happened to him. I adored Augie. But it was time for a change with both. Pierce took a team that hadn't sniffed at post-season play recently and had them one hit away from a Super, quite possibly home at DFF. I was disappointed we lost, but I don't have the dire feelings that I did the past couple of years. Talk to me in three years...If we see the same trouble in three years, then you may have something to talk about.
77, http://www.chron.com/sports/highsch...op-high-school-baseball-recruits-11200657.php Does this concern you at all? I had a list of the top 100 HS players in the nation and was amazed at the number of pitchers going to Tech & TCU. Can we crack that lock?
This is one of the worst threads ever started on Hornfans. Pierce pretty much took chicken^#*@ and made a decent salad. I was pretty disappointed about the way they played their last 2 games, but considering the talent he did a pretty damn good job of turning the program around. Look how long it took Augie to turn the program around. Damn, give the guy a chance.
@SabreHorn Looked at that article... it does look like Pierce needs to get on the recruiting trail! We do not have many open spots for next year so it will be interesting to see how the next class plays out. Hopefully another tournament appearance next year will help.
In the infamous words of Cliff Gustafson. "What the hell is one of my lpayers doing taking Calculus". Sounds like we may need some adjustment in class selection to make room for some people.
