In the old days of the SWC, the Aggies and Razorbacks played many terrific games, but few can compare to the thrilling 3 games at Olsen in 1989 to decide the SWC championship. I was on an Army ROTC FTX at Easterwood for the 89 Texas series, so the 89 Arkansas series is the one I was able to attend and thus remember the best from that year.

It started with the amazing 16-inning Friday night game, where the Ags rallied from behind to tie the game in the 9th inning and then again in the 14th inning to stay alive. The Razorbacks' clean-up hitter dropped a bloop single in RF that scored 2 runs in the 16th that won the game, 11-9. John Byington came up as the tying run in the bottom of the 16th, but the Ags couldn't quite pull it out. The Hogs clinched a share of the SWC title that night.

The following day in Game 1 (7 innings) of the doubleheader, the Ags trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the 6th, when #8 hitter Jim Neumann hit a 2-RBI double just beyond the glove of the Arkansas LF (Troy Eklund) that tied the game. Then a pinch-hitter drove in Neumann for the 3-2 aggie victory.

The Ags cruised in game 2 to a 9-0 win behind the pitching of Ronnie Allen and a big 3-run homer from Terry Taylor. A&M and Arkansas finished tied for 1st place. Texas finished 3rd.

Arkansas did not do well in the SWC tournament that year, so the 2 teams did not play again. I remember Arkansas' DH who was named Bubba Carpenter, the Raggies had a lot of fun with him. It was truly a classic series.

I remember the Hogs Kevin McReynolds cranking a couple of LONG HR's in that Friday game.

As for Carpenter, Raggies chanted ONE BUBBA...TWO BUBBA....THREE BUBBA, etc, on every one of his practice/timing swings before each pitch. It caught on, and before long,almost the entire crowd was chanting it. Classic stuff.

The best part about Neumann's double was that he nearly got tossed for arguing balls and strikes with Jon Bible just before that pitch. MJ even came out and got into it pretty good with Bible.

So bible sucked as a baseball umpire 15 years ago, and now he sucks at both a baseball umpire and a football referee.

Why have they not imported the SWC rule that alumns of a school cannot officiate games that school is playing in? Did that rule apply to baseball as well as football?

I thought having "horn" in my name necessarily made me gay. -skihorn, posted 3:27p, 02/16/04



[This message has been edited by sipAGonizer (edited 2/27/2004 9:25a).]

Bible is actually an alumnus of Southwest Texas State (now Texas State University at San Marcos.) He's an economics or accounting professor at Texas State. Of course, being a SWT graduate means 100% of his loyalty goes straight to Austin. I don't think they allow you to graduate from that ridiculous university unless you do so. Anyway, although not a UT alum, it's not that hard to see that he was without a doubt Cliff Gustaffson's BOY.

You will notice that he's not in the Big XII baseball rotation of umpires and has not been since the first year of the new conference (1997). He does a few mid-week and non-conference games for UT here and there, but I'm pretty sure you won't find him working any Big XII series later in the season.

Not sure about baseball, but I do know that Bible was taught and supervised as a football official by an Aggie.
The tihng about Bible in football is that he is really big on the make-up call.

I remember the 16 inning game against Arkansas well, unfortunately.

Let's just say that I missed out on some "relations" because the game went forever into the night, and the girl I was supposed to have hooked up with after the game didn't beleive the 16 innning story I told.

Clearly not as much was at stake this weekend compared to 1989, but this was a fantastic 3-game series with all 3 games going down to the wire. It was great to play the Hogs again.

The double by Scheidt reminded me a lot of Neumann's game-winning hit in '89. Great at bat, and lots of drama considering the low stakes.

It may have been 15 years ago but it still hurts thinking about that '89 season. One of the best college teams ever..Arkansas and Texas both advanced to the CWS that year, Ags took 6 of 8 games from the Hogs and Horns during the season.
BTW,it was Blake Pyle who drove in Neumann for the winning run in game 2.


[This message has been edited by Aggie (edited 2/29/2004 4:42p).]

You're right, how could I forget Blake.

I don't remember a whole lot about individual games during the '89 season. However, I do remember falling asleep on top of the dugout for the Friday game then being told by my parents we lost in 16 innings. That was a sweet season with some really cool guys on the team.

quote:

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Bible is actually an alumnus of Southwest Texas State (now Texas State University at San Marcos.) He's an economics or accounting professor at Texas State.

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Actually, he's an alumnus of t.u. law school (he may or may not have gone to SWT for undergrad) and is currently a business law professor at SWT, or whatever its called this weekend.

If I recall correctly, he was SWC umpiring supervisor and eventually the first NCAA umpiring coordinator. He's no longer in that capacity, but does work as a referee on a B12 football crew (he did the Va Tech/A&M game this year). He's not listed in any capacity on the Big 12 site, but I think Big 12 umpires aren't assigned by a conference but rather by a sectional division. Its different than basketball (where Dale Kelley assigns 4-5 conferences) and MUCH different than football (where the officials basically only work Big 12).

Back to the topic at hand, I know t.u. made the CWS that year, losing in the championship game. But didn't the pigs make it as well? I'm convinced we would have easily won the CWS had we gotten past LSU.

58-5 going into what would be the final day of the season - just amazing. Aggies did not go to the CWS but still finished 2nd in both post-season polls - a sign of respect that has not been done since...