NCAA softball bracket…

It’s hard to wrap your head around the idiocy of the recent softball selection committee.   The committee chaired by a farmer from North Dakota made glaring errors in its creation of this year’s college softball bracket.  These are mistakes that will prevent one of the top teams in America from making the WCWS.   

Granted we got the #1 seed in the tournament and we should be happy about that, but from there it went downhill in a hurry.  The selection committee paired the fifth ranked Washington Huskies in the same super regional with the Sooners.  Suspicious move to say the least.    

The committee also selected twelve (12) of sixteen (16) SEC teams to play in the tournament with six (6) of the top nine (9) seeds going to SEC teams.  We also have Oregon going to Texas, Clemson to Alabama and Michigan to Washington in the first round. Again, don’t bother trying to figure these moves out…there is no rhyme or reason.

In this day of conspiracy theories, this bracket certainly qualifies.  After winning their regional this weekend the Sooners must get past Gabbie Plain and Washington to punch their ticket to OKC.   Again, it’s a shame that both teams could not be in the WCWS. 

For a preview of what to expect from Gabbie consider this.  Gabbie Plain is a four-year starter for the Huskies who this year was .400 as a hitter and struck out over 300 batters as a pitcher.  Over her four-year career, Plain struck out over 800 opposing hitters.  Those are mind blowing statistics.  That’s right, this girl is crazy good…

Making matters worse, the Huskies will come into Norman as angry as a hornet.   Instead of the Sooners playing a Duke in the Super Regionals and cruising into the world series, the Sooners will now have to deal with a pack of rabid Huskies. 

Hopefully, I’m overreacting, and everything will turn out okay for the Sooners, but seriously the NCAA selection committee had one thing to do and they couldn’t get that right.  I am really worried about the NCAA…they can’t seem to get out of their own way these days…

Boomer Sooner…

Say it ain’t so Joe…

This was the chant of Chicago kids back in the 20’s after it was learned that their hero “Shoeless Joe Jackson” had thrown the 2019 World Series.  I suggest that these words would fit today’s Joe Castiglione as well. 

Sports radio confirmed on Friday that Joe Castiglione had indeed moved the entire Bedlam softball series to Stillwater over the objections of Patty Gasso.  Why Joe would do such a thing is unknown, but fortunately for Sooner fans only part of his plan worked to fruition.    

OSU did beat OU on Friday night thereby snapping the OU winning streak over OSU at 24 games.  That streak had extended back to 2011 which was pretty darn cool.  The bad news for Joe is that the Sooner softballers roared back to take games two and three in the weekend series.  For the record, don’t blame Covid for Joe’s move.  There were obviously no Covid 19 protocols in place in Stillwater for those games so “that dog won’t hunt”. 

Now that the story is out and Joe’s true stripes have been revealed to the world, possibly I can finally let this thing go and focus on other things.  The OU softball team is one of those things.  The Sooners showed character and toughness this past weekend in the Bedlam series.  The Pokes were lucky to win that one game.  Now they can focus on beating OSU in the Big 12 tournament.  Then they can roar into their regional and super regional stretch run prior to the World Series.  

While Giselle Juarez is obviously not going to be the force we had hoped for at the beginning of the season, she can still help the team down the road.  On the other side of the coin, it appears that Patty may have found her ace for this year in freshman pitcher Nicole May. 

For future reference, this team is going to be exceptionally good moving forward.  We have a solid nucleus of returning players for next year that will team up with the top recruiting class in the country.  As for pitching we will have a lethal combination in the circle next year in the form of Nicole May and Jordyn Bahl.  Bahl was the top player in America in the Class of 2021 that will enroll in the fall.     

If we can keep Joe from meddling in Patty’s affairs OU softball should be unbelievable over the next few years.  Just like our football team, this team is loading up for legitimate National Championship runs.  I know Joe will do everything he can to hold us back against little brother, but even Joe can’t stop the Sooner women.    

Boomer Sooner…

Maurice Prescott

Growing up in the dark ages my family was not blessed with television.  This was a real problem for an OU fan.  As it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise.    

My transistor radio provided a game day experience that few Sooner fans have today.  On Saturday afternoons I experienced the game as if I were in the stadium.  In actuality I probably had a better understanding of what was happening on the field than most fans because guys like Bob Barry and Jack Ogle filled in the blanks. 

Speaking of Bob Barry, he was hired by Bud Wilkinson to do just that.  Bud wanted Sooner fans everywhere to become infected with Sooner football, and Bob Barry did that extremely well.  His play by play would have made Maurice Prescott proud. 

Speaking of Maurice Prescott, Prescott was the guy that masterminded the first Sooner broadcast back in 1922.  It was that year that he and his electrical engineering professor stretched a phone line from his basement to Owen Field.  On October 24, 1922 Prescott and friends broadcast the first Sooner game as OU beat Central Teachers College.  And as they say, the rest was history.

Between Maurice Prescott and today’s Toby Rowland, we have had a slew of announcers that include Walter Cronkite, Kurt Gowdy and of course Bob Barry.  Walter Cronkite went on to become the CBS anchor who announced to the world the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Kurt Gowdy became famous for hosting the baseball game of the week with Dizzy Dean.  

Even today, I find myself tuning into Toby Rowland’s broadcasts.  Not only does it take me back to the good old days, it also creates a much better understanding of what is happening on the field. 

Boomer Sooner…