Didn't see this posted.

From today's Houston Chronicle:
Lance Berkman, a former All-American at Rice, has enjoyed taking jabs at Texas A&M's baseball team in recent years. But after the Aggies eliminated the defending College World Series champion Owls from the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, Berkman put his disappointment aside to say he will root for A&M to beat LSU in the super regional.

"I'm pulling for A&M," said Berkman, who settled for Rice after A&M and Texas refused to give him a scholarship out of high school. "Obviously, I wanted Rice to win, but it's good to see Texas teams succeed."


This guy only put up some of the most amazing hitting statistics in all of college baseball history. Would have been nice to have him go here. He seems to have wanted to.

i'm a huge Lance Berkman fan and would have loved for him to come to A&M. his old man wen to texas. Through my dad and a buddy of his, I hear that Berkman is a great guy.

poor guy still runs like a girl.

I've done a few benefit auctions where Lance has donated some memorabilia.....very nice guy.

Runs like a girl? That dude is FAST for his size. He played on our flag football team at church just before he got in the majors...dude has wheels, very deceptive speed.

plus he's cute

I keep a Berko-meter in my classroom.

have you ever seen him jog in from left field? never ceases to get a laugh out of me or my dad.

and when did the definition of "cute" change to goofy?

jealousy
jealousy
jealousy

umm...wow. you poor thing...

Cute? You think Jay Leno Jr. is cute?

mmmmmm.....Lance......

i gotta go with cute...definitely

You've gotta be kidding me... The season before last i was watching a stros' game with my dad and remember making the comment "hes a hell of a ball player, but the dude is just so damned ugly!" cute... give me a break...

Apparently the more $$$$ they have, the cuter they get.

I remember the 1998 game at Reckling. Berkman was a senior, it was like their 18th game of the year and Lance had 16 HRs in their first 17 games. We were scared to death to face them, especially since we were throwing a true fish named Chris Fulbright. Lance got 5 plate appearances, a K on the first trip I believe. On the second trip they had runners at the corners and two outs and he hit a smoking grounder through the hole between 2B and 1B that hit Bubba Crosby running from first, 3rd out, inning over. His third trip was a pop fly that Tyner caught with his back against the CF fence (whew). His last two appearances we walked him. That may have been the last time we beat them before Sunday as the Ags won that game 2-1.

I was at that game, too, Loyal. I was sweating that pop-up. Thank God the wind was blowing in.

97. 98 was in cs, we get down by a bunch to nothing, and the vulture comes in and it looks bleak. We shut them down, score 10 runs, and win the game, which you have to come from behind when the vulture is on the mound. A great win, shame on y'all for forgetting it.

Yeah, that 2-1 game was in 97. I was there, but I seem to recall that is was Berkman that got hit with the grounder. Damn, my memory is shot!

Lance was cute when he played for Rice.

Now, he was no Josh Bard...but pretty cute for an opposing player.

I've sat with Lance at football games at Kyle.

Not only did he want to go to A&M but so did his brothers-in-law - Jake and Josh Baker. Both ended up having pretty nice careers at Rice.

Cynic

I started to type 1997, then I changed it. You're right, Fulbright was a fish that year.

Showstopper

I recall that 1998 game as well. It was 8-0 when Russ came in. At that time he was a true fish and we thought MJ was throwing in the towel. Suddenly we rally with Russ giving up only a solo shot. At 10-9 MJ brings in Fossum to close the game and Russ becomes a hero.

[This message has been edited by Aggiebowman (edited 6/9/2004 10:53a).]

He's not the first great player we missed out on because we didn't pursue him.

Of course, it's difficult to predict who's going to be a great ballplayer at that age, so I don't fault anyone.

Kevin Hodge (Bryan HS, Rice) wanted to play for A&M. I think Johnson thought he would come anyway, so we didn't offer.

There was also a young player from Alvin who shall remain nameless. He reportedly wanted to play at A&M. Tom Chandler told him to go to a juco for a couple of years first, so he went pro. Mets, Angels, Astros, Rangers... Had a no-hitter--maybe several. Anyone heard of this guy?

Pedro Astacio....yeah, that would have been nice.

So Rice was his safety school?