Sun Devil Suspension Tops Recent News…

The big news of the week is the NCAA’s decision to uphold penalties against the Arizona State baseball program. The long and short of it is, the Division I Infractions Appeals Committee has upheld a one year NCAA postseason ban for the Sun Devils, meaning ASU will not be allowed to participate in the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

The decision stems from violations of “lack of institutional control” when Pat Murphy was still the head coach in Tempe.

The NCAA handed down its initial decision earlier this year and before the 2011 NCAA Tournament. A lot of college baseball fans were miffed that ASU was still allowed to participate in this year’s tournament. However, the Sun Devils were allowed to do so, because they appealed the NCAA’s ruling.

That appeals process that allowed them to participate in this year’s tournament is really no different than the appeals process for professional sports. If an MLB player receives a 10-game suspension for a fight he is allowed to appeal that suspension and he is still allowed to play during the appeals process. If he loses he sits. If he wins he plays.

ASU lost, and now Tim Esmay’s Sun Devils must sit during the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

No Holding The Tigers…

Missouri baseball coach Tim Jamieson

The SEC and Missouri formally announced one of the worst kept secrets in college sports over the weekend. The Tigers are leaving the Big 12 after a 104 year affiliation with the conference (most of it as the Big 8).

Mizzou baseball coach, Tim Jamieson, has led the Tigers to great success during his 17 seasons in Columbia, with eight NCAA Regional berths in that span. He has also sent players like Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer and Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler to the big leagues.

Things will get tougher for the Tigers in the SEC though. Missouri will compete in the SEC’s Eastern division, along with two-time defending national champion South Carolina (which calls the “other” Columbia home). Other schools in the division are Florida (two straight CWS appearances), Vanderbilt (2011 CWS), Georgia (national runner-up in ’09), Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Texas A&M is joining the SEC along with Missouri for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Aggies will be in the SEC West with LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss.

The Will of A Bulldog…

Former Fresno State baseball player, Dan Gladden, was recently inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame. Gladden was undrafted by any Major League team after his last year at FSU in 1979, but he convinced the San Francisco Giants to give him a tryout and went on to an 11-year MLB career with the Giants, Twins and Tigers. He helped Minnesota win the World Series in 1987 and 1991 and is currently a Twins broadcaster.

Sunny Shines On Giese…

It didn’t take Oklahoma long to fill the vacancy filled by the departure of Tim Tadlock. Sunny Golloway has hired Jack Giese as pitching coach to fill the void that was created when Tadlock left recently to become the Associate Head Coach at his alma mater, Texas Tech.

Giese has been a pitching coach for the last two years in the Tampa Bay Rays minor league organization. His previous collegiate coaching experience was at Howard College in Big Spring, Texas, which won the 2009 NJCAA national championship. He recruited six Sooners who played for Howard.

Brian Wilson in LSU gear before going on the Gameday set Saturday. He tweeted this pic @BrianWilson38

The Beard Lives On…

Did you catch San Francisco Giants closer, Brian Wilson, Saturday on ESPN’s College Gameday in Tuscaloosa? Wilson made a guest appearance on the set to make predictions for Saturday’s game. No surprise, the former LSU pitcher picked his team to beat Alabama. Taking a page from Lee Corso, Wilson donned a tiger head with a beard to make his pick known.

Holland Going Bluegrass…

Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland will hit the banquet circuit this winter. The quirky left, who did Harry Caray and Arnold Schwarzenager impersonations for FOX during the World Series, will be the keynote speaker at the Eastern Kentucky University Diamond dinner on Jan. 29. Holland played junior college ball at Wallace State in Alabama.

Swishalicious…

Ohio State alum, Nick Swisher, just donated $500,000 to his alma mater to help the school install field turf at Bill Davis Stadium. The New York Yankee outfielder was recognized over the weekend at halftime of the Ohio State-Indiana football game.

Swisher was the 2000 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. He was the 16th overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft and was featured prominently in the book Moneyball, which spawned the current Brad Pitt movie.

Speaking of Stadiums…

We mentioned in our last Notebook installment that UC Irvine head coach, Mike Gillespie, has a cameo as an Oakland A’s coach in Moneyball. Long Beach State’s Blair Field had a cameo as well. The field was used to double as Oakland’s spring training facility in the movie.

Speaking of Stadiums II…

Texas A&M – Corpus Christi is getting a face lift to both its baseball and softball facilities. Chapman Field will have the surfaces of both the softball and baseball fields will be completely rebuilt, with new dirt and sod being brought in to replace the current surface along with new irrigation systems. The bullpens for softball and baseball will also be rebuilt, with baseball’s to be enclosed within the field. Both fields will also get new windscreens around the perimeter of the fence.

The baseball facility will also add an eight-pole lighting system to allow the Islanders to play home night games on campus. In conjunction with this, new seating will be brought in to expand baseball’s bleacher seating capacity to nearly 700 at Chapman Field (not including available berm seating), with the existing baseball bleacher seating being moved over to softball.