I'm in Natchitoches, La and I met an former ol miss player who came to college station for the 98 regional. He said that us, LSU, and MSU were the most impressive places to play.
He said that he couldn't believe how y'all knew the family members and neighbors of the ballplayers before the social media. He was very impressed by it all.
98 was one of our best seasons, yes?
And I believe his daughter is being recruiting by us for softball.
'98 season was outstanding except we ran out of pitching in the regional. Jason Tyner, Ryan Rupe, and lots of players who were also on the '99 team. Almost forgot Craig Kuzmic. He set a HR record that year.
First Big 12 tournament at Bricktown which was light years better than All-Sports Stadium.
Ole Miss came in '99, the first year of the current format (4 team regional followed by a super). We went to Omaha in '99, although we did lose the 2nd game of the regional to Long Beach, so had to come back and do it the hard way (starting off by beating Ole Miss in an elimination game). Mississippi State beat us in a six team regional in '98 (Rice was the 1 seed, A&M 2, State 3).
We didn't play Ole Miss in the 1998 regional They were here for the 1999 regional
1998 was the last season of the old format with 8 six team regionals . That regional was us, Mississippi State, Rice, Washington, Oral Roberts and UNC Charlotte.
The 1999 regional was us, Long Beach State, Ole Miss and Monmouth
The old format with 6 teams here provided some really really good baseball. The new format with 4 teams still is a great weekend of baseball but something about having 6 teams in one location over a weekend and winner to Omaha was a great setup.
I miss that scoreboard. Yes I know Blue Bell park is a much nicer building than the old Olsen Field. But man there was just Something about " The Shack by the Tracks.
I graduated in '99 with my victory lap. We did all the regional and supers that year. It never failed at night players from the other teams would be at northgate. They were jealous of everything A&M....Olsen, the Raggies, northgate..and the coeds
Pretty sure his name was Jimmy and I think I read he passed away. But he was a skinny dude with a booming voice. Among many things the Raggies did that were awesome....when opposing players would come to the plate the entire stadium could hear him say something to the effect of "Ricky Bolton is from long beach, CA, his favorite ice cream is chocolate, and his favorite toy is a teletubby".
I don't know if he made it up or if he had maybe their program from their home games but man it was hilarious. YOu could literally see the other teams entire dugout just laughing.
obligatory, times were so much better then and new army is pathetic!!
Ole Miss came in '99, the first year of the current format (4 team regional followed by a super). We went to Omaha in '99, although we did lose the 2nd game of the regional to Long Beach, so had to come back and do it the hard way (starting off by beating Ole Miss in an elimination game). Mississippi State beat us in a six team regional in '98 (Rice was the 1 seed, A&M 2, State 3).
Great memories of the 1999 Regional! The rain delay shenanigans, all the home runs in the championship, and "Let Jaime pitch!"
In that '98 series, Ole Miss pounded Ryan Rupe on Friday. We lost that game some something like 15-2. It was ugly. But the Ags bounced back and won the Saturday and Sunday games to take the series.
Oh...and there is a fairly good chance I had something to do with that guy's great time at The Chicken. After the Friday 3:00 p.m. game, a group of us went to The Chicken to grab a bite and a few drinks, thinking we'd be out of there before all of the college kids went out for the night. We ran into a few members of the Ole Miss staff - trainers and student workers...and one assistant coach. We ended up closing the place down and had a blast with those guys. As I recall, they got in A LOT of trouble when they got caught sneaking into their hotel after curfew. Can't remember the Ole Miss's head coach's name back then, but he was livid on Saturday. We went down to talk to the Ole Miss guys before the game and they were like, "...yea...y'all better get outta here or we're all going to get our *** (butts) chewed..."
Good times.
But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)
I loved that 98 team. I still have my baseball signed by the entire roster. I remember the following year opening weekend, I was doing the player guests check in at Olsen, and Jason Tyner and Ryan Rupe arrived. Jason took a few minutes to talk to me, and he said he remembered me from working the games and sitting with Coach Chandler before games at various times. This was the week before spring training, and it is still one of my favorite memories as a student worker.
I loved that 98 team. I still have my baseball signed by the entire roster. I remember the following year opening weekend, I was doing the player guests check in at Olsen, and Jason Tyner and Ryan Rupe arrived. Jason took a few minutes to talk to me, and he said he remembered me from working the games and sitting with Coach Chandler before games at various times. This was the week before spring training, and it is still one of my favorite memories as a student worker.
Jason has made quite a few games this year. His son is a freshman at Beaumont Kelly and will probably be wearing the maroon and white four years from now.
Remember the Friday game against Baylor at Olsen (seems like it was also first weekend of May) had some Wizard of Oz-esque weather at the beginning...bad thunderstorm, really windy.
The Rice-MSU game that eliminated Rice was great fun to watch as a semi-neutral observer with a group of MSU fans. Seems like the Dogs had a 10-run inning at some point to come back and win.
The crappy part for us was that Rice knocked out MSU's starter after about an inning...that dude came back to pitch Sunday night against us and did a pretty decent job.
I graduated in '99 with my victory lap. We did all the regional and supers that year. It never failed at night players from the other teams would be at northgate. They were jealous of everything A&M....Olsen, the Raggies, northgate..and the coeds
Pretty sure his name was Jimmy and I think I read he passed away. But he was a skinny dude with a booming voice. Among many things the Raggies did that were awesome....when opposing players would come to the plate the entire stadium could hear him say something to the effect of "Ricky Bolton is from long beach, CA, his favorite ice cream is chocolate, and his favorite toy is a teletubby".
I don't know if he made it up or if he had maybe their program from their home games but man it was hilarious. YOu could literally see the other teams entire dugout just laughing.
obligatory, times were so much better then and new army is pathetic!!
He didn't make it up. We used to print out the opposing team biographies before every game. They'd include fun facts like favorite ice cream flavor in the basic media questionnaire.
Some great seasons in Aggieland I've been fortunate to witness .. been watching Aggie baseball since the 1989 season , first year my family had season tickets. But that 1998 and 1999 seasons were really something. The series vs Baylor both years were some of the most intense games I've ever seen.
The 1998 Saturday game in Waco that clinched the Big 12 title for the Ags was wild. Ags jump out to a big lead just as they did night before, this time Baylor comes back. Tight game and Scheshuk hits a towering 2 RBI triple off the wall in center and awarded home after the ball ends up in Baylor dugout as the video linked shows. This game was played at the old Ferrell Field Ballpark ( Baylor would build the Baylor Ballpark the following season) which was the equivalent of a 3A East Texas high school back in the 90's. It was all temp bleacher style seating with small riser bleacher seating behind homeplate stretching to the dugouts People were in lawn chairs down the chainlink fenceline down each foul line…. That video does shows the crowd reaction but imo doesn't to it justice as to how wild the Aggie crowd was that night. I was seated in the main bleachers between Aggie dugout and homeplate ( we are in the shot on the video, )I looked at my girlfriend at the time ( now wife) and told her these stands are about to collapse. It was insane. And then the guys in the front started climbing up the chain link fence backstop. They were set to tear down that part of the stadium after the season to start construction on the new stadium and all the Ags there were like.. we're gonna tear it down for you. Honestly one of the wildest and most fun moments I've ever experienced at A&M sporting event and been attending baseball, football and basketball games since the late 1980's.
I was a member of the athletic field staff that season (still miss ya' Leo!!) and I traded some Aggie gear for some Reb stuff with one of their players as my dad is an Ol' Miss alum and figured this was a once in a lifetime moment. Who knew we'd be in the SEC just under 15 years later?
