Give 'em hell Bill!

phoenix491 said:

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Class of '91, and I definitely did this '89-90-ish …

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I was in the dugout in 88-89, 89-90, 90-91, 91-92 and I NEVER saw it until after I left.

I am so grateful to all y'all! Here is what I have now - sound right?

"Aggies have been doing this since at least the early 1990s, with some indications that individual fans got it started in the late 1980s."
https://www.aggienetwork.com/news/144844/bubbles-ball-5-mean-aandm-baseball-is-back/

It sounds like there were individuals trying out a lot of different heckles in the late '80s/early '90s and some of them stuck -- and this one built up to where the whole stands finally were doing it. That might cover why individuals elsewhere in the stands (or the dugout!) might not have heard it till it spread wider?

And, I'm basing this partly on my own memory of having participated in it before I graduated in '94. (BTW, I appreciate y'all's understanding and knowledge about the AggieNetwork.com emails -- I'll be losing my personal email address that I set up in 2006 way before I started at The Association... I used that account for like, everything, and have spent hours recently redoing/deleting all sorts of accounts and logins... Bless us all. It's just so unfortunate)

Back to baseball: Remember "TSO! TSO!" for when an ump needed better vision? I figured Texas State Optical went out of business long ago, but looks like they are still around -- maybe they just advertise less now

85AustinAg said:

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George was the best Aggie heckler ever. Always tried to sit near him just to laugh at his harassment!

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I agree, George as the best. He was a Grad student that was smart, witty, and fun as hell. His voice carried, and I saw more than a few opposing players laugh and smile

I attended almost every home game from '85-88 seasons.

Best one I remember was a mid-week game. Ags were throwing a no-no and finally gave up a hit. The batter was wearing different shoe's than the rest of the team. Someone caught it and the rest of the game was "It's the shoes" chant and taunts.

Many fond memories of "studying" at Olsen.

I was there for the 88-90 seasons. I seem to remember it low key starting in that 89 or maybe 90 season. But it was no more than a few of the louder Raggies (George, Jimmy etc). It didn't really catch on stadium wide until shortly after

Much more popular at the time was heckling batters……the aforementioned Kieschnick (ONE Elvis, TWO Elvis……) was a favorite. Arkansas had a guy named Bubba Carpenter. Oh boy the Raggies had a field day with him. BUUUUUUUUUBA the whole game…….one bubba, two bubba etc etc.. His brother was on the team as well…….sure enough, ONE Bubba's brother, TWO Bubba's brother……..

Was definitely less PC than today. DD Grubbs did a great job playing along. Great times.

Nope ... I went to many MANY games in the mid-late 80s and we did not do the Ball 5 chant. However, we did many other things that would just not be allowed now and/or were very politically incorrect. In fact, we did some things that might even get us arrested these days. All in fun and nobody was ever 'physically' hurt. I got thrown out of Olsen Field one day during a regional tournament -- we were there watching two other teams play -- and I starting having a back n forth with the 1st base umpire and eventually said the magic words. He get security to invite me to leave the stadium for the remainder of that particular game. Looking back, not exactly proud of some of things we yelled and did towards the opposing teams but ... damn it was fun. Proudest moment was when Dressendorfer flipped us off from the mound (student section) and he almost immediately gave up a HR. Gus was pissed at him and yanked him out.

Funny story about George and Jimmy. They both had very loud voices, and George was incredibly clever. George apparently wasn't very fond of Jimmy, and he called him Cuber. This was a play on the derogatory term "Rookie Ragger" (or r-squared). Jimmy was so bad he was r-cubed. He even called Jimmy Cuber when they spoke in person. George left after the 1990 season, iirc.

Jimmy went over ten years thinking the nickname was qbert (like the video game character). He had no idea why George called him this, but was just happy that the guy knew who he was. He even had qbert92 (or something very similar) registered here on TexAgs.

At some point around 2001 or 2002, Jimmy was posting here on the baseball board, being his usual combative/abrasive/abusive self, and someone finally had enough and posted the entire story (about how the nickname was Cuber and not Qbert). Jimmy had been all over the thread but didn't respond to the post. I don't believe he ever posted on TA again.

CowPieAndFries said:

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Graduated in 1986. I remember it. I do not remember touch his butt. I do remember stupid stupid stupid chant. I don't think we were the Raggies yet.

I do remember bringing empty pizza boxes and twinky's and ding dongs to the game. When the heaviest guy on the other team would get up to bat we would wave the pizza boxes and twinky's in the air and ask him if he was hungry. Probably wouldn't fly in today's world.

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I remember once we were playing some team that had a rather John Kruk-ish looking individual on the team. Somebody in first deck snuck in a small rod and reel and a (presumably empty) Twinkies box. And would cast the box over the opponent's dugout and hang it over the dugout ceiling when they were at bat. Yes, security was WAY more permissive back then

Also I notice these days nobody stands up and makes the "EEEEEEEE" symbol anymore for opponents errors. I kinda miss that.

I was lucky enough to have George as my Physics TA.
George was a huge Cubs and Bears fan and loved giving all the Cowboys fans as much crap as he gave opposing teams at Olsen. He was an amazing TA and
had the gift of being able to make the most murkiest crystal clear in relation to the physics class. Hopefully he went on to Academia. He truly cared about the student. Goofy as all but an incredible instructor.

203 was doing the rod and real thing with a pretty large boy from UT pan am. Don't remember what was on the line. Doughnut, Twinkie????

But he waved to them to lower it. They did. And he ate it.

He might have hit a home run after that and we all gave him a standing ovation. Memory is fuzzy. But he definitely at the bait.

src94 said:

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It used to be much slower, and needs slow again.

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This.

I graduated in '89 and I dinstinctly and without equivocation almost remember doing a ball chant in the 80s. Except it was ball 1 mofo and may have just been me while I was passed out in the bushes of Treehouse Village. But in my mind all credit and glory goes to me. Belch.

I do remember dollar pitchers at the Chicken.

I was one of the front row raggers who hardly ever missed a home game from 89 to 92.

I don't remember the ball 5 chant in its current form, but i do remember individuals ragging pitchers about the number of consecutive balls.

But we ragged them about pretty much anything and everything back then.

There actually was a team assistant who would sometimes come up in the stands before the game and talk to us on the front row, and give us dirt on particular pitchers. Nicknames. Old nicknames they hate. Personal history type stuff.

I seem to remember a pitcher from tcu, that the ga came up and told us an old nickname from high school that he hated.

So we started chanting it. And the tcu 3rd baseman had his face in his glove laughing his ass off during live play. You could just see that pitcher lose his focus almost immediately. Then we started shelling him. It was awesome!

I remember ball 5, touch his butt, leave him in/take him out, walk is cheaper, 6-4-3 from the late 80's/early 90's.

One of my favorite memories was of a regional at Olsen vs North Carolina with a player named cookie who was built like a football player. We thoroughly enjoyed the crowd yelling "one cookie, 2 cookies..." as he swung the bat and "let cookie pitch". He was such a great sport and when the raggies lowered a package of cookies down on a fishing pole he came out of the dug out and had some bites while waving at the crowd. He tipped his hat to the fans after they were eliminated and the crowd yelled "transfer, transfer" It was awesome!

One other fond memory was about a pitcher with the unfortunate last name of Massengill that got the whole Olsen crowd into the ragging with one side yelling "vinegar" and the other side yelling "water".

Good times.

Reminds me of the regional I went to against Long Beach State long ago. They had a huge burly dude named Jamie (exact spelling don't recall) who would really put a lot of effort into all of his swings. Olsen crowd quickly caught onto this and started yelling a deep moan of "uuuggghhh" for each and every bat swing he did. It should be noted that he did hit one towering massive solo shot homer during the game so I guess his swing was not without merit!

Long Beach State started to run out of quality bullpen pitching towards the later innings and the crowd knew this. Chants of "no more pitchers clap clap clap" morphed into "Let Jamie pitch clap clap clap". That eventually morphed into "Let Jaime pitch ugh Let Jaime pitch ugh".

I think Long Beach State appreciated it and Jaime found it hilarious because he came out at the end of the game and tipped his hat to the crowd.

It was hilarious and probably one of my top 5 Blue Bell / Olsen memories.

Great story!!! Glad college players can enjoy being ribbed!!'

greg.w.h said:

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Great story!!! Glad college players can enjoy being ribbed!!'

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Right. Always respect their strong and grounded character when they react like this.

Aston 91 said:

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AlwaysNextYear89 said:

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It certainly FEELS like something George would have done, but I attended almost every home game between 86-89, and I can't remember this. A lot of the stuff then was NOT very PC, "one taco, two tacos, three tacos" for the UH catcher who led the SWC in hitting I think one year...and of course counting 'Horn Kieschnick's swings followed by wiggle wiggle wiggle. I'm sure there were some much worse.

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There was definitely a lot of non-PC stuff back then. I remember an Asian player (maybe LSU?) getting the "one egg roll, two egg roll..." chant, and even comments about the weight of opposing team bat girls. Thank god there were no cell phones then.
Another funny anecdote I recall was when a Diamond Darling offered a lollipop in exchange for a foul ball and the entire crowd yelled "Sucker!"

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And the crowd pointing 50 different directions when the DD's came up looking for foul balls