on Farmer, Woody, DeLoach, Chase Veazey, Johnathan Taylor, and "Colin" Davidson.
I love Frank Sinatra. My wife does too... it's one of the seemingly unusual things we have in common (we are both 35 years old). I listen to Sinatra, I can close my eyes and I'm right back in my favorite city in the world, Las Vegas. I can smell that casino floor, I can see that blackjack table, I can hear that craps game.... I can taste that ribeye, see those lights and feel that excitement. I almost can't listen to him too much as it makes me "homesick" for the place. I've said before that I imagine Heaven will have in it a dark room with a low top round table for me and Mrs. RedRain, dark carpeting, a full straight up gin martini, and Sinatra on stage.... that'd be perfect for me. When things start getting sideways for me, I can always picture that place to relax...
Anyway, the first Sinatra song that I really remember liking a lot was "Summer Wind".... For whatever reason, I used to listen to that a lot during the 2012 season. I thought it was fitting, really, for that year. When that season started, I really thought that we were destined to play in Omaha. Maybe we'd be a national seed and maybe not, but I was so confident that we'd get there. And when it was over, we'd lose so many guys.... Kyle Farmer, Levi Hyams, Jonathan Hester, Peter Verdin, Michael Pallazzone, Alex Wood, Tyler Maloof, Curt Powell, Brett DeLoach, Colby May.... all those guys I figured would be moving on to pro baseball and/ or graduation. In February and March, I used to think about that group and think they'd be "lost to the summer wind" as silly as that may sound. But before that there'd be a banner season, one that goes on the OF wall. We'd have that glory, we'd lose all those guys, and rebuild in 2013 with a "reset" season.
We all know what happened in 2012. I won't expand on that, mainly because I'll be writing about that an hour from now if I do try to go in depth.
Reading that article stirred up a lot of things inside me today. Namely, as I've said before here and one of the biggest things I had to learn myself, is that life isn't a fairy tale. There isn't always a happy ending for someone who deserves it. The 2012 season taught me that. Kyle, Alex, Levi, Curt, and Chance should have gone into pro ball together after '12. And when the injuries happened for Chance and Johnathan Taylor, the 2012 team should have gone to Omaha... But it didn't happen that way. This isn't Hollywood.
Instead Alex went pro after his junior year and reached the big leagues in 13 months. I've always wondered if Kyle regretted coming back in 2013. I'd like to think not, but honestly, that was an awful season pretty much from the start. I hated that those seniors had to end it that way (although Brett DeLoach hitting that bomb in his final AB against Florida was really neat). Curt Powell kept his head down that year and wound up quietly having one of the best offensive seasons in the program's history.... He was always one of the best SS in the SEC despite never starting a game there in league play. David Perno is coaching high school football now. The program has sunk to the worst in the conference. Levi is out of baseball now and so is Curt. Kyle reached the big leagues in just over four years, not bad for a guy changing positions, and he always hit when he was healthy.
I don't much think any more that there's an overarching lesson in everything that happens. I don't say that because of 2012, I think it's just the knowledge that comes from getting older. It never felt like anyone would wait on Kyle, given how good he's always been. But in some ways, him making the big leagues feels like the end of a story, the close of a chapter.
There are no championship rings or outfield banners, no Disney movies.
But for me, all those guys... Wood, Farmer, Veazey, Taylor, DeLoach, Powell, Hyams, and Perno..... they all did the best they could with the cards they were dealt. And they did it with honor and class and dignity that always made me proud to be a Bulldog and made me proud to have crossed paths with them once upon a time.
I love Frank Sinatra. My wife does too... it's one of the seemingly unusual things we have in common (we are both 35 years old). I listen to Sinatra, I can close my eyes and I'm right back in my favorite city in the world, Las Vegas. I can smell that casino floor, I can see that blackjack table, I can hear that craps game.... I can taste that ribeye, see those lights and feel that excitement. I almost can't listen to him too much as it makes me "homesick" for the place. I've said before that I imagine Heaven will have in it a dark room with a low top round table for me and Mrs. RedRain, dark carpeting, a full straight up gin martini, and Sinatra on stage.... that'd be perfect for me. When things start getting sideways for me, I can always picture that place to relax...
Anyway, the first Sinatra song that I really remember liking a lot was "Summer Wind".... For whatever reason, I used to listen to that a lot during the 2012 season. I thought it was fitting, really, for that year. When that season started, I really thought that we were destined to play in Omaha. Maybe we'd be a national seed and maybe not, but I was so confident that we'd get there. And when it was over, we'd lose so many guys.... Kyle Farmer, Levi Hyams, Jonathan Hester, Peter Verdin, Michael Pallazzone, Alex Wood, Tyler Maloof, Curt Powell, Brett DeLoach, Colby May.... all those guys I figured would be moving on to pro baseball and/ or graduation. In February and March, I used to think about that group and think they'd be "lost to the summer wind" as silly as that may sound. But before that there'd be a banner season, one that goes on the OF wall. We'd have that glory, we'd lose all those guys, and rebuild in 2013 with a "reset" season.
We all know what happened in 2012. I won't expand on that, mainly because I'll be writing about that an hour from now if I do try to go in depth.
Reading that article stirred up a lot of things inside me today. Namely, as I've said before here and one of the biggest things I had to learn myself, is that life isn't a fairy tale. There isn't always a happy ending for someone who deserves it. The 2012 season taught me that. Kyle, Alex, Levi, Curt, and Chance should have gone into pro ball together after '12. And when the injuries happened for Chance and Johnathan Taylor, the 2012 team should have gone to Omaha... But it didn't happen that way. This isn't Hollywood.
Instead Alex went pro after his junior year and reached the big leagues in 13 months. I've always wondered if Kyle regretted coming back in 2013. I'd like to think not, but honestly, that was an awful season pretty much from the start. I hated that those seniors had to end it that way (although Brett DeLoach hitting that bomb in his final AB against Florida was really neat). Curt Powell kept his head down that year and wound up quietly having one of the best offensive seasons in the program's history.... He was always one of the best SS in the SEC despite never starting a game there in league play. David Perno is coaching high school football now. The program has sunk to the worst in the conference. Levi is out of baseball now and so is Curt. Kyle reached the big leagues in just over four years, not bad for a guy changing positions, and he always hit when he was healthy.
I don't much think any more that there's an overarching lesson in everything that happens. I don't say that because of 2012, I think it's just the knowledge that comes from getting older. It never felt like anyone would wait on Kyle, given how good he's always been. But in some ways, him making the big leagues feels like the end of a story, the close of a chapter.
There are no championship rings or outfield banners, no Disney movies.
But for me, all those guys... Wood, Farmer, Veazey, Taylor, DeLoach, Powell, Hyams, and Perno..... they all did the best they could with the cards they were dealt. And they did it with honor and class and dignity that always made me proud to be a Bulldog and made me proud to have crossed paths with them once upon a time.
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