Almost 40,000 spectators watched the Stros return home from a lousy road trip and beat the Colorado Rockies on Friday night at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. However, a ticket to the Stros-Rockies series is not close to being the toughest ticket for baseball in Houston this weekend.
That distinction belongs to the college baseball series taking place in the shadow of Houston’s Texas Medical Center at Rice University’s Reckling Park between the no. 1-rated Rice Owls and their cross-town rival, the 14th-ranked Houston Cougars. The Coogs — who are in second-place in the Conference USA standings behind the Owls — broke Rice’s 17-game winning streak before an overflow crowd of 5,000 in the first game of the series Friday night behind star pitcher Brad Lincoln, and games 2 and 3 of the series will take place this afternoon and Sunday afternoon at Reckling Park. The Cougars are now 35-17 (18-4 in CUSA) on the season and the Owls are 40-10 (17-2 in CUSA). UH Sports blogger Ronnie Turner’s report on the game is here.
The Rice-UH series holds special interest for me for a couple of reasons. Longtime UH baseball coach, Rayner Noble — who represents eveything that a college coach should be — is an old friend and golfing buddy. Moreover, for several years in youth baseball here in The Woodlands, I had the privilege of coaching Rice LF Jordan Dodson and Owls catcher Danny Lehmann, both of whom went on to become star players at the currently no. 1-ranked high school baseball program at The Woodlands High School before enrolling at Rice. The only credit that I can take for those two excellent players is that I somehow was able to avoid messing up their development into outstanding players and fine young men.
Meanwhile, in other Houston baseball news, Tory Gattis passes along this hilarious Onion article entitled “Roger Clemens’ Family Offers Him One-Year, $10 Million Contract.”