My Christmas Gift for you Stitch-Heads, via ESPN

It’s not about being naughty or nice to get Christmas gifts. I mean it’s good to be a *little* naughty, just as much as it’s good to be a LOT of nice. But since you guys have been so good to me this past year, I got myself into the giving mood and decided to [...]

A Stitch In Time: The Rise of the SEC

Yep, here we are in the middle of SEC nation domination. Everywhere we look, the southern superconference is winning championships, getting showered in confetti and filling chat rooms full of southern-fried bombast. Hell, Mark Etheridge is our God now. It’s been that way forever, right? Sixty-some-odd years or so?

Not so fast my tailgating and barbecuing friend. Believe it or not, there actually was a time when the SEC was on the breadline of college baseball. I ain’t lyin’, it’s actually true. Here, I try my best to explain it because the rise of the SEC in our sport is one of the more interesting stories of the last 30 years. Okay, maybe that’s hyperbole, but it IS kinda a cool tale. Check it out…

The latest Fall Notebook on ESPN.com

Okay stitch-heads, enough of this football crap. I’ve had an assfull of LSU-Bama talk, the-season-IS-a-playoff talk and – God help us – the BCS talk. I just saw that the Worldwide Leader has posted my latest fall Notebook on their College Sports landing page. So let’s get to things that are MUCH more important; college baseball off-season stuff.

(Sorry, I'm sure you guys getting sick of seeing this artwork once again. I've run out of better ideas.)

Here’s where you can check out the column, just click here and get your off-season game face on.

Back with more stuff, schlock and junk sometime in the near future.

Talkin’ pigskin with the best college football minds in the biz

It’s a busy world out there. Finding 45 minutes to watch four guys sit on their ass and just blabber on about college football isn’t easy to do. But I got lucky enough to talk college football at its mid-season with ESPN media gods Ivan Maisel, Pat Forde and Mark Schlabach. I couldn’t pass up this chance to talk to the Mt. Rushmore-level experts of college football. (Special thanks to Chris Webb for allowing me to use that phrase)

Not only am I in esteemed company here, but I'm also the best-tanned of the bunch.

I also couldn’t help but post it here for you guys to check out too. Hope you dig it. Click here, sit back and have fun listening to the best in the business talk about the state of the game for 2011.

And don’t worry, I’ll get back to baseball stuff soon enough. Promise.

Some Lagniappe

Okay StitchHeads. We’re deep into the football season (i.e.: Fall Ball for our sport of college baseball) and October is already slappin’ us in the face. There are a couple of things that I’ve been meaning to get to and provide some explanations for. Some of it you may know already. But just like Blutarsky, don’t stop me, I’m rolling here.

A screen-grab from my webcast with Jake Trotter of SoonerNation and Carter Strickland of HornsNation... Wait. Why is my name without capital letters?

The First Fall Notebook for ESPN

Some non-college football reading for you guys and dolls out there. Click here to see the first fall Notebook I did for ESPN.com Or just copy and paste this address into your browser: http://espn.go.com/ncaa/notebook/_/page/offseasoncheckup1/1

No time to elaborate right now. More later on. In the meantime, check out my college football twitter page that ESPN is letting me hijack during the season: @ESPNCFB

In Praise of the Draft Dodgers

Texas flinger Sam Stafford is a great hero of college baseball, turning down 2nd round money to play another season for the Longhorns.

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First off, a slight mea culpa on my part. I meant to get this little ditty out a week ago, but laziness, a football assignment or two and getting into touch with the coaches involved here made this a little late in coming out. Try to forgive me boys and girls. That’s how things roll in this off-season.

But again, the draftee signing deadline is one of my favorite days of the off-season because it marks the one day that numerous high school, J.C. and college players end up turning down money and turning up their noses to the pro teams that have drafted them.

Area Code Games – Breaking the Code

The 2011 Area Code Games came to an end today as three games put a cap on the six-day showcase of the best high schoolers in the country – and hopefully future college stars of tomorrow, of course.

The final twist - Ryan Borucki uncorks another confounding sinkerball in the White Sox win over the Athletics.

With their 7-5 win over the Northern California-based Athletic on ESPN3 yesterday, the Northwest-based Royals had already wrapped up at least a tie for the Area Codes Championship by way of their perfect 5-0 record.

The Texas-based Rangers had a chance to tie for the title today, as they entered the day’s final set of games with a 4-0 mark. But the best the Rangers could do was forge a final-inning 4-4 tie with the SoCal-based Brewers to finish in 2nd place at 4-0-1. Damn ties.

Area Code Games- The Week Gets Longer

As the Area Code Games drag on, we’re starting to see more road-weary, tired bodies. A point of discussion among the players is how this is whole summer has been a grind and they’re starting to feel some fatigue in both their bodies and their psyche.

Then again, these dudes are freakin’ teenagers. They can suck it up and keep hustling, who are we kidding here? I wish I still had the energy of a 17-year old to carry me through the day so fuggedaboutit.

These guys look tired to you? The week-long Area Code Games can be a mental challenge too.

More Area Code Magic

Day two of the Area Code Games got me thinking about the amount of talent that we saw on the field today. I mean, in a big-picture kind of way.

Some great young players have graced Blair Field these last few days. The kind of talent that makes coaches and scouts do that proverbial salivating thing and could also really infuse our college game with some high-quality baseball over the next few years. I could totally see some of these guys lifting national championship trophies and National Player of the Year plaques in the years to come.

Notice how the scout section of Blair Field is so chock-full? Yep, there's a lot of attention being paid to these soon-to-be senior high schoolers.