Steven M. Sipple: NU's Newman familiar with Bricktown Ballpark
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Perhaps it’s because there isn’t much foul territory, meaning fans can see the stubble on players’ faces. Or maybe it’s the wide concourse that wraps all around the stadium. Or maybe it’s all those good restaurants within walking distance of the downtown venue.
Or maybe it’s the stadium hot dog vendor with about six different kinds of dog.
Whatever the reason, the Big 12 baseball tournament has an absolutely magnificent home at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City. It’s one of my favorite sporting events. Maybe the favorite.
Nebraska obviously enjoys the place. The Huskers have captured four tournament crowns in Bricktown, the last in 2005.
First-year Nebraska pitching coach Eric Newman? Well, he likes the place, too, even though he experienced mixed results there as a former professional pitcher.
It was 2001. Anderson was a 27-year-old playing for the Iowa Cubs. He entered a game as a reliever against the Oklahoma RedHawks (Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers) in his first visit to Bricktown. It was a good performance. A couple months later, he started a game, but his showing wasn’t so good.
Make no mistake, most athletes have sharp recollections of past performances.
“In the game I started, I know I was winning 2-1 until Ruben Sierra hit a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh,” Newman said. “It was a 2-2 count and I left a two-seamer up in the zone. He hit it to left field. He was on the decline at that point of his career, but he could still hit a little bit.”
Is Nebraska’s season on the decline? The Huskers stumbled badly last weekend while getting swept at Missouri. It appeared Nebraska has a few pitchers who might be running out of gas. The Huskers might have played their way out of an NCAA Tournament top-eight seed. But maybe they can play themselves back into the top-eight picture by winning all of the marbles again in Bricktown.
If nothing else, Nebraska needs to regain momentum for the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskers may need a few young pitchers — Erik Anderson, Mike Mariot and Casey Hauptman, for instance — to step up their games quickly. Pitching depth becomes critical in tournament play.
Maybe Newman can impart some of his Bricktown wisdom on his pitchers.
“It’s a good park to hit in when the wind’s blowing from the South,” the coach said. “But if the wind is blowing in from the North, it can be a good park to pitch in. We try not to worry too much about which way the wind is blowing. We just go out and pitch.”
Tom Osborne understands he has a long battle to fight to increase the amount of money scholarship athletes receive.
Nevertheless, he’s at the annual Big 12 spring meetings in Colorado Springs this week trying to drum up support to add money — about $2,500 per student — for the true “cost of attendance” of going to college beyond books, tuition and room and board.
He feels NCAA football television deals, which run into the billions of dollars, could help cover costs.
How much money for athletes are we talking about? Osborne estimates that his plan would require about $750,000 per school.
“To put it in perspective, most football and basketball coaches make more money than that,” the Nebraska athletic director said. “The thing is, fans go to games to see players play. They don’t go to see coaches coach.”
Osborne understands this is a major issue that won’t change overnight. It could be years in the making, like initiatives to reform Medicare or Social Security. It’ll be interesting to gauge reaction from athletic administrators and coaches in Colorado Springs.
“I’m sure an awful lot of people in athletic administration at schools would be opposed because it’s an expense,” Osborne said. “There are enough schools out there losing money that won’t be real anxious to hear this.
“It just seems to me that if we’re going to pay coaches and athletic directors what we’re paying them, we ought to take into account what a student-athlete gets.”
Nice to see someone looking out for the people who sometimes get forgotten in the hoopla of big-time college sports — the athletes themselves.
Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach regards the Big 12 meetings as a chance “to do the face-to-face thing and cover new issues so everybody’s on the same page.”
It’s also a good chance for some guys to get in some golf.
But not Leach.
“Everybody who does golf out here loves it,” Leach said by cell phone from Colorado Springs. “But I happen to hate golf, period. After three holes, I’m ready to go do something else.”
I knew there was a reason I liked this guy.
“I used to have some second-hand clubs,” Leach continued. “But I gave them to a guy named Tank in Valdosta, Ga., when I left Valdosta State (in 1996). To the best of my knowledge, Tank still has those clubs.”
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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