Thursday, July 26, 2012

SxSE: Texas A&M Aggie Baseball 1894-2012

The Aggies are currently an NCAA Regional program (meaning the program can be expected to at least reach the NCAA Regionals each year, possibly farther).  The Aggies average season record over the past 10 years has been 40-21.

The Aggies have been playing baseball since 1894.

Seventeen different head coaches led A&M baseball from 1904 to 1958, with up and down results.  Prior to 1958 A&M claimed seven Southwest Conference titles, and made their first trip to the College World Series in 1951.

Tom Chandler was the head coach from 1959 to 1984, leading the Aggies to 5 Southwest Conference championships.  He compiled a record of 660-329-10 in 26 years.  Olsen Field was built during his tenure, opening in 1978.

Chandler led the Aggies to the College World Series in 1964 (Mizzou was the runner-up that year).

Mark Johnson coached the Aggies from 1985 to 2005.  He led the Aggies to the College World Series in 1993 and 1999

Rob Childress has been the head coach since 2006.  Childress has led the Aggies to 2 Big 12 championships and to the College World Series in 2011.

Notable Aggie Baseball ballplayers
Aggie Flashback: Reflections from A&M Legend Wally Moon (TexAgs.com)
Moon, who has long resided in Bryan with his wife, didn’t really consider himself as a power hitter. Yet, he blasted legendary, transfixing homers that captured fans’ imaginations and have never been forgotten.

Playing against TCU in 1950, for example, Moon strolled to the plate in the rickety old baseball stadium that once backed up to Kyle Field and launched the most monstrous hit in Aggie memoirs. The ball cleared the outfield fence and kept rising. It cleared the top of the first deck—the only deck of the football stadium at that time—and continued traveling over the seats, crossing the older cinder track.

When it finally came to a rest, former A&M track coach Andy Anderson picked the ball up near midfield of the football playing surface. Not even Moon is sure about the total distance it traveled, and witnesses of the colossal crunch seem leery about estimating, fearing a guess would fail to do it justice. Anderson’s conservative estimate was that it landed at least 470 feet from home plate. Others claim it traveled was at least 500 before “touchdown.”
The 2012 Aggies

Texas A&M posted a 43-18 record, 16-8 in the Big 12.  They hosted a Regional in 2012, which they lost, going 1-2, eliminated by thier Big 12 "replacement", TCU.

Early end to A&M's season is sad for many reasons (TexAgs.com)
Two weeks ago, Texas A&M sat on the edge of the discussion to host a super regional. That seemed like a faraway dream on Sunday afternoon, after it completed a rapid fall from its own regional with a 10-2 loss to TCU, ending the year at 43-18.
. . .
At some point, this Aggie lineup just got broken. There was no danger, no swagger, no threat of coming back from a real deficit. It's a fact made all the more shocking by the way A&M swept Oklahoma State, coming back twice in the ninth inning and scoring a total of 18 runs in three games. It's easy to point to the Missouri game in the Big 12 Tournament, when a mediocre starter named Blake Holovach figured out how to shut the Aggies down with a changeup and a bit of location.
♦ From AgTimes.com message board, June 3, 2012:
Rob's boys deliver the coup de grace . . .on a singularly forgettable year in Aggie sports.

All of the signs of implosion were there for months, and Rob's boys finally put all of the pieces together, in a manner of speaking. They got kicked in the mouth and didn't even bother to look up from the mat.

I know that Aggie sports is known for underachievement and disappointment, but guys, you have to give Big Mike (preseason top 10), Billy K (preseason top 25), and Rob (preaseason top 10) some credit. They delivered the absolute worst year in Aggie men's sports that I can remember in a LONG time.

Not exactly headed to the SEC in a position of strength, that is for sure.

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