Texas Baseball and RPI rankings

[utisdabomb12]

Up to 3 in Boyd's RPI rankings. 

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html

Up to 8 in USA Today Coaches Poll

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/rankings/_/pollId/9/sportId/10031000

Up to 6 in Baseball America 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/top-25-tracker-april-14/

Up to 6 in Perfect Game 

http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=9730

Looking good right now on hosting a regional and super-regional. 

 

[monarch]

"T"

talent!

 

[Juan]

Off topic, but still Texas baseball related

On this date in 1972, Burt Hooton threw a no-hitter with the Flubbies.

He was drafted in 1971, and started 3 games that season in MLB but 1972 was his first full season.

April 16, 1972: Cubs right-hander Burt Hooton, a 22-year-old rookie, throws a no-hitter against the Phillies at Wrigley Field.

Thirty years ago this afternoon, you'd have had a tough time finding a Cubs fan who didnot think Burt Hooton was headed for the Hall of Fame.

True, Hooton was just a raw rookie, a fresh-faced kid who had started only three big-league games before the '72 season. But two of those games were ... hold on, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

After three brilliant seasons at the University of Texas, Hooton was drafted second overall by the Chicago Cubs and signed for a $50,000 bonus on June 10, 1971. Exactly one week later, he started against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. Hooton gave up three runs in three-plus innings, and was sent to Chicago's Triple-A farm club in Tacoma, Washington. Hooton started a dozen games for Tacoma. He posted a 1.68 ERA and struck out 135 hitters in 102 innings, with 19 of those strikeouts coming in one game (against Tommy Lasorda's Spokane Indians), tying a 66-year-old Pacific Coast League record.

Having served his brief apprenticeship, Hooton returned to the majors in September. In his second major-league start, on September 15, Hooton beat the Mets with a three-hitter at Shea Stadium, striking out 15 New Yorkers to tie the club record for K's in a nine-inning game. In his third major-league start, back in Chicago against the Mets on September 21, Hooton pitched a two-hitter to beat Tom Seaver 3-0. So, entering the 1972 season, Hooton had pitched 21 major-league innings, permitted just eight hits and struck out 22 hitters.

The best was yet to come.

Thanks to an early April players' strike, the 1972 season didn't begin until April 15. That afternoon at Wrigley Field, the Cubs lost to the Phillies, 4-2. Hooton, the 22-year-old rookie, drew the starting assignment in game two of the series. Accounts of the game-time temperature vary -- from just above freezing to 46 degrees -- but it was definitely cold and wet, with a bitter wind blowing in from the north (left field); if you've ever spent an April in Chicago, you can imagine what that day was like, 30 years ago.

Only 9,583 fans showed up, but it's likely not one ever forgot what happened. Hooton struggled with his control, but the Phillies had even more trouble hitting strikes than he did throwing them. Hooton issued a walk in the first inning and another in the second, but no hits.

http://assets.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/neyer_rob/1369576.html

After the game, catcher Randy Hundley said, "You have to compare his knuckle-curve with a Sandy Koufax curveball. It starts at your head and winds up on the ground."

An exaggeration? Sure. Koufax's curveball may well have been the most devastating pitch of the 1960s. But Hooton's knuckle-curve -- he called it "the thang" -- had rarely if ever been seen before, and for a while it just gave the hitters fits. Was Hooton the first pitcher to throw the knuckle-curve? Probably not. He later remembered, "I started fooling around with the knuckle-curve when I was 14, pitching in the Corpus Christi Pony League," and it's unlikely that a 14-year-old would actually invent a pitch.

However, it's certainly true that Hooton was the first major leaguer to become known for throwing something labeled "knuckle-curve." Brent Strom, who pitched against Hooton in college and now instructs pitchers in the Expos organization, says, "The true knuckle-curve that Hooton threw was thrown like a knuckleball, with the finger nails placed against a seam, and the fingers would push out creating overspin. It was actually thrown with the palm of the hand going in the direction of the target." That pitch has virtually disappeared today -- the so-called "knuckle-curve" we see now isn't actually the same pitch -- and in early 1972 Hooton may have been the only major leaguer throwing it.

One last Burt Hooton story ... Tom Lasorda, in addition to his other skills, had a real knack for popularizing nicknames that he himself had invented. In his autobiography, Lasorda wrote, "He became Happy Hooton on New Year's Eve. Normally, he looks about as happy as a farmer during a drought, but when I caught him playing solitaire during a New Year's celebration, he earned his nickname, and he's been Happy ever since."