Cougar Baseball loses again, football picks up a commitment

Good morning. While we bask in the extended afterglow of what appears to be a shrewd hire of a basketball coach (press conference on Monday), and long for someone to help fill the void that is spring football coverage, there is some WSU news out there. Unfortunately, not all of it is particularly good, and that’s where we’ll start.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, which is highly likely, the WSU baseball team is pretty bad. Make that really bad. Make that 11 losses in a row bad. The eleventh loss in that run arrived like many other WSU losses have this season as the Cougs jumped out to a lead, only to give it up. This time, WSU led 5-2 after just three innings and then sacked the bats, going scoreless the rest of the way. The Stanford Cardinal scored the game’s final six runs and picked up an 8-5 decision.

One has to wonder what Pat Chun thinks about the state of the baseball program. In his fourth season, Marty Lees has compiled an overall record of 63-110-1 and a Pac-12 record of 28-63-1. For a once-proud program, that’s pretty disappointing. In his defense, as with nearly every other WSU coach, he doesn’t exactly have much to work with facilities and budget-wise. That is slated to change in the near future with the construction of a badly-needed clubhouse, but Chun has shown that he isn’t afraid to make a move - finances be damned - if he believes that the situation is in a Top Gun-like flat spin.

Hopefully Lees is able to make some headway in recruiting and turn things around. I just wonder how much longer Pat Chun is willing to put up with the on-field ineptitude.

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Despite the chronically disappointing news from the baseball part of the house, there was some good football recruiting news as three-star running back Jyden King gave WSU a verbal commitment. King reported offers from Arizona, ASU and Utah, and seems like a pretty good pickup.

247’s recruiting guru Greg Biggins broke down King’s commitment, and here’s his final analysis:

King missed much of his junior season due to a transfer late in the summer. He was only able to play a 3-4 games so we’re excited to see more of him in game action this fall. He has looked good in the off-season and is one of the most complete backs out West. He runs with an attitude and has more burst and explosiveness than given credit for. We think there’s a chance he’ll still take some official visits but his commitment to the Cougars does look solid. He’s a great fit in the Air Raid, one-back offense and is talented enough to play and contribute early in his college career.

You can read Biggins’ entire breakdown here.

Football

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Spring college football bowl projections for 2019
As you've probably noticed with our way-too-early Pac-12 tie-in picks, Washington State and Stanford won't be at the top of the league in terms of bowl placement.

This Week in Parenting

For the first time since probably mid-October, last weekend featured sunny skies and temps in the low 60s here in our part of Germany. What ensued was something akin to an ant colony whose pile had just received a good kick. There were people everywhere, including a few just laying out in the sun (fully-clothed because Germany, but still).

With the weather improving and baseball practice just around the corner, this week was partially spent getting the boys new shoes, cheap batting gloves and a new mitt for the youngest. Once that was done, we broke out the gloves and searched for a place to play some catch. You won’t believe this, but Germany doesn’t have a multitude of baseball diamonds among its many villages.

We settled on a large grassy expanse about a 10-minute walk from the house. One issue - the ground was, well let’s just say it wasn’t exactly smooth. This resulted is several brutal hops and misjudgments, to include one grounder that bounced up and hit the 10 year-old in the face. They kept asking me to let them hit, but since I’m a terrible father I told them they need to work on fielding for a while. They were not happy, but whatever.

The next day, we worked on some pitching in the back yard. Even though the seven year-old isn’t in kid pitch yet, he wanted to get some tosses in. He did pretty well at first, but suddenly his pitches got wildly off. After about the fourth one, I asked him what was going on. “I’m throwing a slider!” was the response. It took everything I had to stifle the laughter.

tl;dr: Football will always be my favorite sport to watch, but no sport will ever outdo baseball when it comes to fathers and sons playing together.

Beer

Best beer I had this week: Mikkeller’s beer mail service continues to be the greatest decision I’ve made in a long time. Not only do they have a huge selection of their own stuff, they also sell other brands. That’s how The Bruery’s Share This: Mint Chip ended up in my fridge. Gonna put another order in soon.

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Beer and Parenting

I like to keep a semi-record of the beers I drink in case they’re good enough to merit further consumption. So when we were at a food fair Saturday evening, I decided to snap a pic of what turned out to be a lousy IPA. As I was lining up the photo, somebody decided to jump in.

Man, that barber did not do him any favors last weekend.

Non-Sports

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