Subject: College Baseball

• Year of Living Dangerously

  Sports palaces, city cell-phone shenanigans and subdivisions where Montrose once stood. Could any self-respecting survivalist leave the bunker behind?

  December 28, 2000

• Miss Cleo Answers the Bell

  April 2, 2007

• Teach Our Children Well

  June 22, 2007

• College Football Roundup

  September 4, 2007

• John Royal’s Top Twenty Sports Moments of 2007, Part One

  December 18, 2007

• John Royal's Top Twenty Sports Moments of 2007, Part Two

  December 19, 2007

• John Royal’s Friends’ Top Twenty Sports Moments of 2007, Part One

  December 20, 2007

• New Year's Resolutions

  January 2, 2008

• Spring Training: What a Glorious Place to Be, Unless Your Name Is Carlos Lee

  March 7, 2008

• The Five Biggest Choke Jobs in Houston Sports History

  April 24, 2008

• Houston Sports, Hurricane Ike Update

  September 11, 2008

• Top Ten Astrodome Sports Moments

  September 23, 2008

• College Football Preview, Lisa Guerrero Edition

  September 26, 2008

• Top Five Beatdowns in Houston Sports

  October 9, 2008

• The Year of Living Anxiously

  Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?

  December 29, 1994

• Don’t Blame Me. I Voted for the Duck.

  October 16, 2008

• Out of the Park

  Second Ward slugger Aaron Treviño scores a scholarship and prepares to leave the barrio behind

  June 16, 2005

• Sorry, UH Cougars. You Need to Go Down.

  November 10, 2008

• Nine Things Not to Be Thankful For

  I understand that yesterday was Thanksgiving, and that we're supposed to be all thankful and everything. But seriously, did any of you watch those football games? How can a person be thankful after being subjected to nearly 11 hours of blow-out football? So in that spirit, I've put together a list of nine things for which I'm not thankful, along with one item for which I am thankful. 9. The very special holiday-themed network NFL pregame shows. 8. No 30 Rock, and The Office was a repeat.

  November 28, 2008

• Top Ten Houston Sports Moments of 2008

  10. I never really followed the Houston Comets, who folded several weeks ago. By the time they came on the scene I was getting pretty sick of professional basketball. So I never became invested in the team, and I can't feel any real loss behind their demise. Still, unlike the Rockets and Astros and Texans, they did win a world championship within the past decade. 9. The Houston Astros were one of the worst teams in professional baseball for most of the first half of the season. But they

  December 20, 2008

• The Mt. Rushmore of Texas Sports

  ESPN is about to start on one of those stupid SportsCenter promotion things that has helped to make SportsCenter virtually impossible to watch. But over here at Ballz, we like stupid things - I'm sure that many of you think anything I write is stupid and virtually impossible to read anyway. So I've decided to rip-off ESPN's idea, which frankly I hear done on sports talk radio all of the time anyway, so... What ESPN is going to do is come up with is a Mt. Rushmore of Sports for each of the 50

  January 21, 2009

• The Passionate Pilgrim

  June 6, 1996

• Easygoing George W. Bush

  October 29, 1998

• Striking Out

  January 21, 1999

• Miguel Tejada Expected to Plead Guilty of Perjury; A-Rod Still a Scapegoat

  At ten o'clock this morning, a federal prosecutor and Miguel Tejada will appear in front of a U.S. District Court judge and a six-page criminal information will be entered before the Court. It is expected that, at that time, Tejada will plead guilty to lying before Congress. It is thought that the prosecution will then ask the judge to accept the terms of a plea agreement that has been entered into between Tejada and the Feds. The judge does not have to accept this agreement, but generally,

  February 11, 2009

• The Mt. Rushmore of Texas Sports

  ESPN is about to start on one of those stupid SportsCenter promotion things that has helped to make SportsCenter virtually impossible to watch. But over here at Ballz, we like stupid things - I'm sure that many of you think anything I write is stupid and virtually impossible to read anyway. So I've decided to rip-off ESPN's idea, which frankly I hear done on sports talk radio all of the time anyway, so... What ESPN is going to do is come up with is a Mt. Rushmore of Sports for each of the 50

  January 21, 2009

• Top Ten Houston Sports Moments of 2008

  10. I never really followed the Houston Comets, who folded several weeks ago. By the time they came on the scene I was getting pretty sick of professional basketball. So I never became invested in the team, and I can't feel any real loss behind their demise. Still, unlike the Rockets and Astros and Texans, they did win a world championship within the past decade. 9. The Houston Astros were one of the worst teams in professional baseball for most of the first half of the season. But they

  December 20, 2008

• Pro Athlete Musicians

  Athletes step off the field and into the studio

  November 29, 2007

• A Chat With Hannah Storm Of ESPN (And Houston)

  Photo courtesy ESPNESPN has been charged for years with having an East Coast bias. ESPN's morning SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm somewhat agrees with that charge, though she says the charge doesn't apply to her show and says that to her, "it is a non-issue." And if she does have any bias, it's probably to the Houston Rockets."I love my Rockets," she told Hair Balls yesterday. "I'm totally cheering for the Rockets. The Lakers are tough, but I love what the Rockets are doing this season. I love

  April 16, 2009

• Cat 'n' Bird Fight

  May 11, 2006

• Jock Radio: No-Call List

  What sports talk can do without

  June 28, 2007

• Eyes on the Prize

  Everyone's All-American Joe Savery and the top-ranked Rice Owls fight for college baseball glory

  February 8, 2007

• Paranoia Self Destroyer

  A New Birth Brass Band set at the Volcano makes Racket long for a new and improved tinfoil hat

  November 24, 2005

• Catfight

  TSU and Prairie View A&M claw it out at the Labor Day Classic

  September 1, 2005

• Christmas in July

  Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

  July 21, 2005

• Letters

  June 30, 2005

• Glove Love

  The diamond days of Rice baseball are in full swing

  February 17, 2005

• Love of the Game

  A Valentine's weekend for college baseball fans

  February 12, 2004

• Year of the Yao Woo

  The crazy times in 2002 — Kmart raids, Olympian losses, stadium mania and more —- now make sense. Houston was just mining Ming.

  December 26, 2002

• The Truth Is Out There...

  A rogue mascot reveals secrets of the trade

  December 20, 2001

• News Hostage

  June 17, 1999

• Rice Hosts NCAA Baseball Regional, Doesn't Get Top Seed

  Photo by Daniel KramerYesterday saw the announcement of the NCAA's 64-team bracket for the College World Series, and it was a mixed bag for local fans.Good news: Seven Texas teams are in it.Bad news: Rice didn't get a top regional seeding, for the first time in three years, kind of a slap to the newly storied program.Good news despite that: Rice will still be hosting a regional, so you can get the chance to see some good-quality college baseball for relatively cheap prices.Bad news for non-tea-s

  May 26, 2009

• A 16,000-Word Rant Against UH's Baseball Coach Becomes The Hit Of The Internet

  UH Coach NobleWarning. Before you click on this link, make sure you've had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make sure you've used the toilet, and make sure you've set your DVR to record anything that you might conceivably want to watch for the next two weeks. That's how long this thing is. (And while I'm not absolutely sure there's a link, I did come down with the flu within hours of receiving this on Friday night, so beware).  I would call this a manifesto, but "manifesto" fails to do

  June 16, 2009

• Rice's Joe Savery, Still On The Path To The Major Leagues

  Photo by Daniel KramerA little over two years ago, we did a feature on Rice's Joe Savery, a linchpin of the school's elie baseball team, a guy who combined excellent power pitching with a terrific batting average.Savery is a complete local product, having played in Bellaire, at Lamar High and for Rice. The Owls didn't quite get to the championship in 2007, his final year, but Savery became the 19th player chosen overall in Major League Baseball's ensuing draft.He expected big things from himself

  June 17, 2009

• Listen Up, People: The Top Ten Coaches In Houston History

  ​The Chron's Jerome Solomon has another of those endless lists we writers like to do, this one asking for input on the top 10 coaches in Houston college and pro sports history. And he helpfully provides us with some candidates for the list. So I thought I would help out and provide what I consider to be the definitive list of the Top 10 coaches in Houston college and pro sports history.  1. Guy V. Lewis: One of the most underrated, under appreciated coaches in history. It's a crime that t

  August 11, 2009

• The Best Sports Palaces In Houston History, Ranked For Her Pleasure

  Photo courtesy wikipedia​It's been a few years since Houston's most recent orgy of building new sports arenas for down-on-their-luck franchise owners. There's a new soccer stadium trying to get itself born, but other than that we probably won't be seeing any new facilities being built for a while.So it's as good a time as any to rank the arenas and stadiums that have housed Houston fans, for better or worse, in the modern era.These rankings result from highly scientific research, by the way, s

  August 12, 2009