LIKE IT IS : Hitting to all fields as summer draws near

WALLY HALL

Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/225083/

This time of year, as the dog days of summer approach, the e-mails start to slow down, dropping from around 275-300 per day to 85-100.

Almost all are answered.

Granted, there are a few fanatical Frannies whose rants make no sense, and there are a few that are long enough to be chapters 1-3 of a novel.

There are a few that have become e-mail regulars. They understand brevity and getting to the point.

A few are even e-mail pals.

One of those is Doug. He’s a retired lawyer from eastern Arkansas, played college baseball at Mississippi State and has more longtime, good friends than one man should have.

Sometimes Doug is a bit critical, but always in a constructive way.

He’s married to his childhood sweetheart, and they are as much in love today as the day they met. They attend church regularly. He’s very, very proud of his children and grandchildren.

Doug leads an uncomplicated life that includes breakfasts with his friends, lunches too, generally at the North Little Rock Corky’s, where he almost always gets the ribs.

Doug doesn’t care much for horse racing and some other sports, but he keeps up with the Razorbacks in football, basketball and baseball.

Baseball is his passion.

“Doug was an exceptionally talented baseball player,” said Ken Hatfield, who along with his brother Dick grew up with Doug.

Doug thinks Donnie Kessinger is the greatest athlete in Arkansas history, part of that because he taught himself to switch hit when he was already in the majors.

Doug has had some health problems, but for the most part remains an outspoken spokesman for what has long been known as America’s pastime.

In an e-mail Wednesday, Doug closed with: “Don’t ever write about baseball. I’d have a stroke from shock.”

The reply: Get on blood thinners immediately.

Here are a few comments about the boys of summer: Roger Clemens is a disgrace to a sport that has made him a multi-millionaire.

This is the same guy who not only used drugs to enhance his performance, but had it in his contract that he didn’t even have to come to the ballpark on days he didn’t pitch.

And he didn’t.

Baseball is a team sport. Having great pitching is the start of having a great defense, but those eight guys behind him had to make plays in the field and hit the ball when at bat.

His apology this week was a sham. It was a broad paintbrush that really covered nothing.

The rivalry some hoped would develop between the Northwest Arkansas Naturals and the Arkansas Travelers is ridiculous. The vast majority of the players on both teams are only in the Natural State because they were assigned here. Both teams will want to win because it helps their pocket books, not because it gives them bragging rights at winter ball somewhere far away. The Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team totally controls its own destiny as far as making the SEC baseball tournament. The Hogs host a good South Carolina team this weekend, but the Razorbacks are a much better team at home than on the road, and a lot of that has to do with some of college baseball’s greatest fans who come to Baum Stadium in droves.

The Razorbacks have a final road series against Mississippi State, the only team in the SEC to have a losing record at home and on the road.

The Bulldogs are only 7-17 in SEC play this season.

It is possible that only four teams from the SEC will have winning conference records when they get to Hoover, Ala., for the SEC Tournament, so obviously, anything is possible.

Dave Van Horn, the head Hog, seems to be at his best when his team has its back to the wall.

Now, that may not be enough baseball news to cause my friend Doug a stroke, and hopefully it won’t, because your scribe has been there and done that, and it’s not fun.