FAYETTEVILLE — With Major League Baseball in a work stoppage, former Arkansas catcher James McCann brought his family on a last-minute weekend trip to Baum-Walker Stadium.
McCann, the New York Mets catcher who played for the Razorbacks from 2009-11, was in attendance for all three of Arkansas’ games against Illinois State. It was his first time he and his wife, Jessica, came back to Fayetteville since they moved away to Franklin, Tenn., in 2017.
McCann said he first broached the idea of coming back when the players union received a proposal from MLB owners last weekend.
“I told her, ‘If this proposal doesn’t go well, do you want to go to the Catfish Hole?’” McCann said. “I think her response was something like, ‘What about Sassy’s?’ I said we’d hit them both up.
“It was literally a last-minute thing to where if I’m not going anywhere for spring training, we might as well go take in Opening Weekend and bring the boys (4-year-old twins Christian and Kane)…and let them see the Razorbacks, hear the people call the Hogs.”
McCann threw out the first pitch before Friday’s season opener. It was the first Arkansas game he attended since his final game as a player in 2011. His spring training and regular-season schedules had previously overlapped with the Razorbacks’ schedule each year.
“We walked the concourse yesterday and I told my wife, ‘This is the first time I’ve walked the concourse during a game,’” McCann said. “I had never taken in a Razorback baseball game from the concourse.”
Prior to Sunday’s game, McCann spoke to Arkansas’ position players.
“With the hitters I talked about stuff I’ve learned in the big leagues that I would have given anything to know when I was in college,” McCann said. “With the catchers I just talked about my thought process as a catcher and calling a game, controlling a pitching staff, controlling a game from pitch No. 1 to the last pitch, and just letting them bounce things off of me with questions they have for me. I was opening up a line of communication so that if at any point in the year they want to reach out and say, ‘Hey, I’m having this issue getting through to the pitcher. What would you do?’”
Arkansas outfielder Brady Slavens said it was “cool” for McCann to speak with players.
“He had a lot of wisdom, a lot of things that he learned from being in the big leagues so long,” Slavens said. “A lot of it was really good stuff. It’s something that not a lot of guys get to hear, especially in their college career early.”
McCann said he contacted Arkansas baseball operations director Clay Goodwin about setting up a Zoom call with the players, but decided to make the trip due to the prolonged MLB lockout.
“I said I might as well come, check out a game and talk to them then,” McCann said. “Like I said, open that line of communication. I feel like one of my duties as a big leaguer, as a veteran, is to give back to the younger guys. I was once a young guy and I wanted guys to pour into me and teach me what they do.
“I take that seriously and to heart, that part of my job is to give back and help in any way.”
McCann also spent time inside the Razorbacks’ new $27 million Hunt Baseball Development Center that opened to the players last summer. The 52,000-square-foot Hunt Center includes training and meeting areas that McCann said are larger than facilities in MLB.
“The stuff in the big leagues is nice,” he said, “but the size of everything, there’s nothing like this except the spring training facilities.
“One of the coolest things is knowing I was one of the guys who helped get us to this point. Really you can look at every guy in the history of the program and I think every one of them has left it in a better spot when leaving the program.”
Illinois State impresses
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn praised Illinois State’s play multiple times throughout the Razorbacks' 2-1 series win.
After falling 3-2 in the series opener Friday, Arkansas won 5-1 on Saturday and 4-2 on Sunday.
On Saturday, Van Horn called the Redbirds “a real good test.” Illinois State was predicted to finish third this season in the Missouri Valley Conference, which routinely receives multiple NCAA Tournament bids.
Van Horn said he wanted to play the Redbirds because he knew they would challenge his team.
“They are very scrappy in the field and their pitching staff throws strikes for the most part." Van Horn said. "They’re bringing a lot of different looks at us.”
When asked Sunday if he was surprised the Redbirds played so well in their first time outside this year, Van Horn replied, “not really.”
Illinois State had not practiced outdoors prior to its trip to Arkansas due to weather. The Redbirds are scheduled to play their first 13 games away from home.
“What do you do when you’re inside? You work on defense,” Van Horn said. “Defensively, they were solid. They can set up a diamond and play and turn double plays and field bunts and those types of things. When I coached up north (at Nebraska), we came out of the chute pretty well, defensively. A lot of times the bats struggled a little bit, but their hitters did a nice job and they’re veterans. They’ve got some guys that swing it pretty well.
“I kind of know how they’re coached and they would be a big challenge for us.”
Slavens agreed with a reporter when asked if Illinois State reminded him of early-season challenges against Southeast Missouri State and Murray State last season. The Razorbacks beat SEMO and Murray State — both of the Ohio Valley Conference — seven times at home last season, but had to rally to win three of those games.
“SEMO, Murray State, Illinois State — they’re all really good programs,” Slavens said. “They all had older guys on it — very veteran club. They know what they’re good at. They definitely pushed us both years, last year and this year.
“It really helps out us, especially the younger guys who get to compete for the first time here. It’s good for us in the long run.”
Arkansas pitcher Kole Ramage, whose four-inning save Sunday was his second outing against the Redbirds, said Illinois State did not get easily rattled.
“They’re very stable in everything they do,” Ramage said. “I think to be able to play close games early in the year really helps us when we get into conference play. There’s no easy weekend ever in the SEC, so I think just being able to play some really good competition early in the year and get used to playing to where it’s a one or two-run game, I think it’s just a big-time confidence builder for us.”
Tough time for Elson
In a series of tweets Saturday, Arkansas radio play-by-play announcer Phil Elson said Friday’s game became difficult for him to call when Illinois State pitcher Jordan Lussier was hit in the head by a line drive in the second inning.
Elson, who is in his eighth season calling Arkansas’ games, was previously the play-by-play announcer for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. Elson was on the call July 22, 2007, when Tulsa Drillers first-base coach Mike Coolbaugh died after being hit in the head by a batted ball during a game against the Travelers in North Little Rock.
“Turned into a really difficult few minutes for me on the air,” Elson wrote. “Some of you know I was broadcasting the game when Mike Coolbaugh was killed by a line drive at Dickey-Stephens Park in 2007. Speaking on the radio was very difficult for a few minutes. Seeing anyone hit on the head by a baseball brings a heaviness upon my soul and an overpowering chill down my spine. Any listener would have noticed. It took all I had to keep it together and not melt into a puddle of tears.”
Elson added that he was thankful for his color analyst, Bubba Carpenter, for helping him get through the broadcast. Carpenter was a roommate of Coolbaugh’s as a minor leaguer.
Lussier passed concussion testing at the stadium during Friday’s game.
Backup radio man
Elson missed Sunday’s game while calling Arkansas’ women’s basketball game against Kentucky.
He was replaced in the booth by Nicholas Badders, who is the play-by-play voice for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, a Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals in Springdale.
Badders will call at least five of Arkansas’ games due to conflicts between the Razorbacks’ women’s basketball and baseball schedules. He will be on the call for all three of Arkansas’ games at the Round Rock Classic in Texas next weekend.
No radar gun
Fans in attendance at Baum-Walker Stadium or watching on SEC Network-Plus likely noticed the absence of a radar gun for all three games against Illinois State.
A team spokesman said a technical difficulty kept the radar gun from being operational for the series. The same radar gun is used for the stadium scoreboard and the TV broadcasts.
A radar gun is expected to be operational for the Razorbacks’ next home game against Nebraska-Omaha on March 2.
Pitch velocities were available for starters via Arkansas’ communications department, which had access to data collected by the in-stadium TrackMan unit.
Hagen Smith's fastball was clocked at 92-94 mph on Saturday and Jaxon Wiggins' was 93-95 mph on Sunday.
Up next
Arkansas will travel to Round Rock, Texas, on Wednesday ahead of a slate of games against Indiana, Stanford and Louisiana-Lafayette at the Round Rock Classic.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play Indiana on Friday at 7 p.m., fifth-ranked Stanford on Saturday at 6 p.m. and Louisiana-Lafayette next Sunday at 6 p.m.
All three games will be played at Dell Diamond, home to the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. All three games will be televised on the subscription streaming platform FloSports.