50 degree temperatures and a recent snowfall can only signal one thing — COLLEGE BASEBALL TIME.

The Texas Longhorns begin their quest to return to Omaha on Friday February 19 against New Mexico.  First pitch is at 3pm.  Unfortunately, since I live in Cowtown, I will not be at the opening game, or the opening series.  I have said many times that the one thing I miss most about living in Austin is the sunny afternoons at The Disch.

Now, cold-ass February home dates at the Disch.  I could do without those.  Everyone knows it’s always inexplicably 10 degrees colder inside D-FF than in the rest of Austin.  But if I was in Austin, I’d be catching a 24-hour flu, and I’d be there.  I’m jealous, you Austinites!

This baseball season is going to take on a lot of the feel of the 2009 football season.  The Horns look to enter 2010 with a major chip on their shoulder, and nothing short of a 7th National Championship will satisfy us.  Fortunately, the 2009 Longhorn baseball team actually had the chance to play for a title (thanks to a novel idea called a post-season tournament!  Imagine that!)  Unfortunately, the Horns fell just short against LSU.

Hopefully the fans (and more importantly the team) can enjoy this ride and not spend the entire season wringing their hands about dreams of Omaha.  There’s a lot for us as fans to enjoy this year.  Like, uh…how about the pitching staff?  Completely and totally sick.

Taylor Jungmann was absolutely dealing towards the end of last year.  In his last 5 appearances (Super Regionals vs TCU, 4 CWS appearances) here was his total stat line: 21.1ip 10h 2er 6bb 23so. That’s a 0.85 ERA, friends.

Joining Jungmann are old familiar faces Cole Green and Brandon Workman.  That is a vicious weekend rotation.  Looks like Chance Ruffin will take over closer duties.  Will be an interesting experiment — but if anyone has the mental fortitude to shut down a game, it’s Ruffin.  And don’t forget Austin DiCharry, who is overlooked despite a 2.28 ERA last year.

If the Horns can improve their recent bugaboo of poor situational hitting, and stretches of punchless at bats, this could be a very special year.  And it’s the final year for the CWS at Rosenblatt.  I want to be the last team to celebrate a championship on that field.  Let’s do it, Horns!!!!

As far as my personal viewing plans, I’m hoping to make one game of the Stanford series.  The Houston College Classic, or whatever the hell it’s called, and some key conference dates.  Kansas is #2 in the preseason Big 12 standings.  That should be a fun weekend in Austin (April 9-11).  Spring tailgate, anyone???

For more college baseball fun-reading, by people far more expert than myself, try these links:

http://thecollegebaseballblog.com/

Burnt Orange Nation – Baseball

Longhorn Gameday – UT Baseball blog

And on to other subjects.  If this subject hasn’t whipped your ass enough already, here’s some intriguing discussion of the Texas to Big 10 talk.  Frank the Tank makes solid points.  A couple of thoughts.  1) I like the concept that Texas’ entry into the Big 10 flirtations is just a “fuck you” to Missouri and an effort to bring the black & gold back into the Big XII fold.  If Texas takes Missouri’s spot in the Big 10, Mizzou is up shit creek.  Hopefully that threat is enough to give the Tigers some pause and stop these foolish shenanigans.   2) It’s hard to argue against the short term positives of joining the Big 10, but I worry about the long term implications on college football in the state of Texas.  It took almost 20 years for the state to recover from the SWC era of scandal and the resulting dissolution of the SWC and formation of the Big XII.

What happens if Texas (and A&M, I guess) leave for greener pastures, and choke out Texas Tech and Baylor?  Then what happens when Texas inevitably has another couple of subpar years?  Conferences be damned, I want this state to have the best college football in the land.  Times are good in Texas, not just for the Horns.  We have half a dozen legitimate programs in this state, and the future looks bright for them all.  We’ve lived through an era of the nation robbing the state of our best blue-chips.  I never want to live through that era again.

This post is tagged Big 10 nonsense, college baseball, Rosenblatt, shenanigans, sick ass pitching