Pedro goes 2-for-four against the Mets with a double and his 13th homer of the season. His long one was a rocket shot that left the park in about two seconds and landed deep in the right field seats. It had to be 415-420 feet. Just launched it. El Toro now hitting .241 with 13 homers and 42 RBIs. His average has just kept climbing over the past month and a half. Would love to see Pedro hitting close to .300 by the end of the season. Pirates moved to 42-40 on the season. They’ve been playing excellent ball lately. Bucs eight back of the Brewers. Off today, then host ‘Zona for three before the Phillies come to town. Love where El Toro is right now. Watched a video last Thursday of Corbs talking about his recruitment of Pedro. It was incredible. Pedro’s dad is a cab driver, but his parents firmly believed in their son getting a top rate education. They did an incredible job. Pedro’s dad had a batting cage in the basement of their apartment complex and would throw to his son every night when Pedro was growing up. They lived in a dangerous part of NYC, but they held firm to their commitment to excellence for their son and it has paid off. Amazing what parents can do. If you get a chance, go to www.vandysports.com and watch Corbs’ videoed speech talking about Pedro, Sonny and David. It’s incredible stuff. Corbs made the speech in 2013. I’ll try to find the link and put it up. It’s worth a watch.

In a word: everything. I’m sorry I’m posting so late on this special title. It’s late on a Saturday Night and I was in bed and thought about going to sleep, but couldn’t. Wanted to write about our special team.

I’ve just gotten back from Florida today with my daughters. I didn’t take my computer down because it’s kind of a special trip for us. I’m divorced and my daughters live with my ex-wife, so this weekly trip to the beach is sacred to me. Having them under my roof for a week means everything. It’s always special. My older daughter just finished up her freshman year at W&L, and my younger onc just finished eighth grade in middle school. We’ve done this every year for the last six years. The dynamic has changed somewhat since they’ve gotten older. While my older daughter and I are having some awesome conversations now that she’s in college, there were still friends of hers down at the beach and she wanted to see them some and not hang out with me the whole time. I totally got that. My younger daughter had a friend with her and they did their own thing for the most part, but we had some great dinners and some nice quality team. But that was part of what was important; just having them there with me, just knowing  that I went to sleep at night they were upstairs . My wife, whom I’ve been married to now for seven and half years and who is a fantastic person, likes for just the three of us to go down there and get as much quality time in as possible. It works well. It creates memories I’ll never forget. I hope it does for Isabelle and Fairbanks too.

And it was memorable. Part of the Florida ’14 memory that will be forever be etched in my mind is Monday, Tuesday and especially Wednesday night as the amazing VandyBoys captured the first major sport national championship in incredibly epic fashion. Was there anything more dramatic ever in Vanderbilt sports history than John Norwood’s eighth inning homer to put us ahead 3-2 in the clinching game of the College World Series? It was really a thing of beauty. Just such a powerful moment. John, you ARE the man! Then the bottom of the ninth. My wife and I had been texting all three games and we were doing some serious texting in game three. Every second or third batter we were texting each other seeing what needed to be done (according to me, and that’s not always a good thing!). But then came the ninth inning. Such pressure, such excitement. It was an amazingly powerful and historic inning in Vanderbilt history. Adam Ravanelle’s  strikeout of the last UVA batter was so powerful, so amazing, so emotional, so surreal. I watched the highlight of it the next day about 10 to 15 times with the incredible voice of the Commodores, Joe Fisher, calling it. When Ravanelle struck the guy out, Joe said, “Dreams do come true!” I hear ya Joe. I hear ya. Joe’s epic. I also loved Adam’s reaction to his national championship clinching strikeout as he sprinted to catcher Karl Ellison and threw his glove up in total elation. It was beautiful. I’m actually going to watch it again before hitting the sack. I might do that every night for a while.

There have been some great moments in Vandy sports. Jay Cutler to Earl Bennett to beat UT in Knoxville in 2005 was epic. The Shan Foster-Derrick Byars-led 2006-07 team that reached the Sweet 16 and were a Georgetown walk away from going to the Elite Eight  was magical. My wife and I were dating. We really enjoyed that together along with many other things including the first five seasons of 24 on discs, VU football games live (michigan at the Big House and Arkansas at home), and a vu basketball victory over Alabama at Memorial during the magical ’06-’07 season. We had a blast while dating and we still are.

The last three years in football, particularly the last two, have been electric and exciting, not only with the play on the field but also with the recruiting. I expect that to continue under DMase.

But nothing compares to this. I tweeted Dansby Swanson after the game two win over Cal-Irvine two weeks ago  and just told him how much the Vandy nation appreciated him and his teammates. I did the same after we won it all. Dansby, an amazing kid and player, favorited my tweet, so I imagine that’s a good thing. I emailed Corbs right after the game and told him what an awesome coach he is and thanked him from the bottom of my heart for what he and his team had just done for the Vandy nation. All the heartache and disappointments we’ve experienced through the years were suddenly and completely erased. It meant so much to so many people who’ve been completely faithful to our teams for many decades, despite the disappointments. Honestly, I was shedding tears some that night and the next day. Pure tears of joy. I have a feeling I wasn’t alone. My sister is a VU grad and is a passionate fan VU sports. She loves it! We texted along with my brother in law after the game. It was just such elation for the three of us. I texted her Friday to see if she was still on a high (I know I was), and she said she and my brother in law were re-watching game three. Loved that. My wife and I said when I got home today we had to find the replay of the game somewhere on ESPN. It’s on duh U tomorrow night at 8 PM ET/7 CT (ESPNU) and we will be glued. I watched Ravanelle’s  pitch and Norwood’s homer repeatedly on Thursday. As Joe said, it was a dream come true.

I know everyone is ecstatic right now. And you should be. Enjoy this. We deserve it. One more thing: We might be better next year. Dansby-back, Carson-back, Walker-back, Weismann-back, Norwood, can’t ever forget John for sure,-back, Reynolds and his huge bat and glove-back, Zander-back, , Hayden-back. Not sure about Vinnie, may go pro. Ravanelle will be interesting. He was a fourth round pick. Adam can do whatever he wants in my book. He has earned his place in Vanderbilt sports history, and if he’s ready to make a living playing baseball, he has every Vandy nation member behind him.  But we’ll have some young guys like Ro Coleman playing more. Brian Miller should be back and hopefully regain that form he had a couple of years ago when he was unhittable. Brian was lights out two years ago and for a lot of 2013. Ready to see Brian be Brian again. Tyler will go to the Giants organization as their first round pick, the 14th pick of the draft. That’s pretty heady stuff. That’s what the pros think of Tyler Beede as a pitcher. Hopefully, he’s going on to an amazing career like David, Mike and Sonny have established for themselves, and as Pedro is trying to carve out  at Pittsburgh. Pedro playing well right now and settling in as a professional. Ryan Flaherty is still a key member of the Orioles. All of our guys who are pros are grinding it out in the minors to get that shot at the Show. So Tyler will be starting pro baseball this week along with possibly Adam and Vinnie. They will be missed. So will T.J. Pecoraro, our only senior. T.J. had incredible talent and was on his way to a stellar career for us until he blew his elbow out three years ago. But he hung in there and never gave up. He was a big part of this magical group. He should never be forgotten and he’s getting his degree and maybe playing somewhere-you never know what might happen. He was special to hang in there like he did through some tough times. I’m telling you, if T.J. had not hurt his arm, he may have been a Friday guy for us in the last three years.

Those guys will always be a part of this history making team forever. And David Price, Mike Minor, Pedro Alvarez and Sonny Gray are part of this national championship for laying the foundation for this to happen. All the former players are.

We’re going to be very good next year, but who knows with baseball. It’s pretty unpredictable. I thought LSU had the best team in the country this season after the regular season and the conference tournaments because they were knocking the cover off the ball and pitching very well. They looked dominant like our ’07, Price-team looked; but they lost in the regionals, much like our ’07 team did. It was very surprising for LSU and us in ’07 but as they say, “that’s baseball.” The game has no memory. Every day is a new one, a new challenge, a new dynamic. Just very unpredictable. That’s what makes the game so magical. It’s really unpredictable in these double elimination regional series and best of three super regional series. But I listened to Corbs talk about what our guys did this postseason: We beat an Omaha-team in Oregon in the regional, we beat an Omaha-team in the super regional in Stanford, and came up with tremendous wins over a Louisville team that looked like they could win it all going in, and  a red-hot Cal-Irvine team on a Monday night. We beat Texas in the bottom of the 10th on a total hustle play by Tyler Campbell beating a throw from short down to first with two outs that allowed our awesome right fielder, Rhett Weismann, to score the game clinching run from third to win and  move to the championship series against UVA in an electrically exciting game. Then game one we won, game two we didn’t, but all of it, all of our history, all of our dreams and aspirations for Vanderbilt sports, came down to that epic game three.

And it was unforgettable. I’ll never forget John’s go-ahead homer. I’ll never forget Adam’s final strikeout pitch to clinch the national championship. Those moments will be indelibly etched in my mind for the rest of my life. They were that special. And I know I’m not alone in those memories. I’m vividly picturing those two moments right now.

Just so proud of Coach Corbin, his staff, and these amazing players. I really feel this: with this dramatic moment in our history, there are so many more magical moments to come. Love Derek and his staff. They’re special. We’ll have a good team next year, potentially a special one if our qb position comes through whether it’s Johnny, Patton or Stephen Rivers. Kevin has had some tough times the last couple of years, but he’s got an excellent freshmen class coming in to go along with Damian Jones, Luke Kornet and some of the other guys we have returning. So we’ll be better, possibly tourney bound, but with two studs in the ’15 class already committed, some stud young coaches coming aboard with Kevin, we’ve got tournaments and possibly some deep runs coming up in our future. Will it be next year? We’ll be good next year. Not sure where Dai-Jon and Kedren stand, but if they don’t make it back, we’ll need to work hard to make it. It’s doable though and the future is very, very bright. Love these incoming freshmen.

Baseball winning the national championship helps football and basketball. It helps Derek recruit. It helps Kevin recruit. It helps out Corbs even more, though Corbs’ recruiting has been second to none. It helps our other sports which are also important like our women’s basketball team, our men’s and women’s golf and tennis teams, our bowling team, our women’s lacrosse team, our track team. Helps them all. It’s just such a special moment for Vanderbilt University. And, as importantly, it helps the University. Makes our brand even more attractive to the best and the brightest.

So with all of that said, I just go back to what this means: It means everything. Thank you Tim Corbin, pitching Coach Scott Brown, assistant coach Travis Jewett,  volunteer assistant Drew Hedman, and all the other people who make our baseball program so special. And just as importantly, thank you players. Without your commitment to excellence both on and off the field, your relentless enthusiasm for the game and your insatiable work ethic, and, most importantly, your high moral and spiritual character, this would not  have been possible. Enjoy it fellas. You have earned it!  Heck, let’s all enjoy, I don’t know, for as long as humanely possible; years decades, generations. Maybe now we should just enjoy it is every day this summer and see how we keep feeling and carry that feeling as long as we want to. Tomorrow will be a great day. It’s great to be a Vanderbilt Commodore. Will be back next week to talk about Dave, Sonny, Mike and Pedro and anything else that pops up in the hopper. Enjoy your weekend and keep savoring this! That’s what it’s there for! It’s unforgettable. This team is unforgettable. As Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said to Coach and the team at the celebration party at the new indoor facility, “You’re as good as it gets…you’re as good as it gets…” And it’s just a start of something extremely special ahead of us in Vanderbilt athletics. Corbs and his players made it possible. A special thanks also to Chancellor Zeppos and Vice Chancellor and Athletic Director David Williams for also making this happen. They are tremendous advocates and leaders of this great university and our athletic programs. They are special.

Sophomore right hander Tyler Ferguson on the hill for the Dores vs. Texas senior right hander Nathan Thornhill. Tyler is 8-3 with a 2.51 ERA, with 28 walks and 61 K’s in 75 innings pitched. He’s pitched in 15 games, starting 14. In his last four contests, Tyler pitched 3.2 innings against Missouri giving up one run on two hits with three walks and five K’s. He pitched five against Florida with no runs, two hits, three walks and three K’s. Against South Carolina, Tyler went 5, gave up one run, six hits with 1 K and three walks. Against Stanford in relief in an 11-6 victory in the first game of the Super Regional, Tyler went 2.2, gave up 0 runs on two hits with three walks and five K’s. Tyler has excellent stuff; he brings it at 95 with his fastball and has a pretty good curve and change up. When he gets into trouble, it’s due to losing his control sometimes. If he can keep it over the plate and let his defense–which has been stellar lately– make plays, we’ll be in good shape if we can hit some too.

Thornhill is 8-3 with a 1.63 ERA. He’s started 15 games for the Longhorns, and has 36 walks and 63 K’s in 105 innings. He’s 2-2 in his last four starts. Against Houston in the Super Regional, he went seven, gave up two hits, two runs, one earned, with one walk and three K’s. Houston was a pretty good team. They beat Louisville in the American Athletic Conference Championship game. Against UC Irivine in the first game of the CWS last Saturday, he took the loss going six, giving up two hits, two runs, one earned, with one walk and four K’s. Texas beat Irvine, 1-0, Wednesday night to advance  to today after defeating Louisville on Monday night, 4-1. Thornhill brings it in the low to mid 90’s and is a pretty crafty with his slower stuff. He’s a veteran, so we will be tested.

Their fielding at a .975 clip this season. They have committed 63 errors. Their leading hitter is Madison Carter @ .336, but he’s only started 31 games. Not sure if he’s hurt or been hurt. Mark Payton is hitting .323 with two homers and 38 RBIs. C.J. Hinojosa is hitting .298 with two long ones and 34 RBIs. They are hitting .264 as a team with 22 homers, but they do have 95 doubles. They have struck out 346 times. Texas is 45-20.

Our leading hitters are Dansby Swanson and Bryan Reynolds who are both hitting .341. Vinnie Conde is hitting .297 and Xavier Turner is hitting .281. John Norwood is also @ .281, Rhett Wiseman, who’s really come on lately, is hitting .279, and Zander Wiel is hitting .277. We’re hitting .283 as a team with 21 homers and 141 doubles. We were third in the country in doubles last I checked. We have struck out 426 times and walked 249 times in 67 games. We are now 48-19. We are fielding at a .975 clip and have committed 63 errors, same as Texas. Our defense has been tremendous with Zander, Dansby, Vinnie and X playing awesome in the infield from first to third. And our outfield has been stellar. Norwood in center, Wiseman in right and Reynolds in left have made every play and made some gems out there; Reynolds particularly. This team has hit its stride in every aspect of the game.

I like Corbs going with Ferguson. If Tyler can get it done today, maybe with some help from the bullpen, and of course the bats and defense, we will be playing Monday night for the championship in the best two out of three games series. We will play the winner of Virginia-Ole Miss. If we don’t win today, we will play Texas tomorrow in a must win situation. This team has been incredible in the postseason. So proud of’ ’em. We can get it done today. Just need to play Vanderbilt baseball. Game at 3 PM ET/2 PM CT on ESPNU.

Excellent news on the football recruiting front. Just got a commitment yesterday from Tight end/H back Sam Dobbs out of Fairburn, Georgia. Sam is 6’4″, 219 and is rated an 87 composite three-star by 247 Sports. Rivals doesn’t rate him as highly as he is a two-star by them, but I trust 247 more on this one and I trust my own eyes. I watched three minutes of film on Sam on the Hudl website, which is an excellent site for watching recruits’ highlights, and loved what I saw out of Sam. He’s an excellent receiver, who catches everything on film, runs well after the catch, is physical and a very good blocker. That would be interesting  to put Sam in an Hback position much like Dallas Clark was for the Indy Colts with Peyton. Sam will be a very good player for us. The last clip I saw, he caught a 15 yard pass over the middle, broke a tackle, and ran 30 more yards into the end zone. Really like this addition to our class.

Thinking some on next year. I really like the group we have coming back. Our secondary lost everybody, but honestly, we can be better in the secondary this year. Torren McGaster, Paris Head, Tre Bell and Darrius Sims are excellent football players at corner and safety. Andrew Williamson is a very good safety and Jahmel McIntosh can fill in well at safety. We have a ton of talent back there. And there is history with this group. Our whole secondary was hurt in the second half against Tennessee in Knoxville last year and these guys came in and shut the Vols passing attack down. The Vols didn’t have a prolific passing game, but I was highly impressed with how the guys played. Feel very good about that group. Linebacker and the d line are in good shape. Derek and Coach Kotulski are going to have a good nucleus to work with, and I can’t wait to see what they do with guys like Caleb Azubike, who is a superstar in the making at d end, and Kyle Woestmann and Stephen Weatherly at d ends. Up the middle with Vince Taylor, Adam Butler and Jay Woods we should be strong and tough, and Darreon Herring will lead a talented, physical, playmaking linebacker group. The offensive line should be stellar and deep led by Andrew Jelks at tackle, and Joe Townshend at center. Really like this group. Physical and dominating potentially. We’ll have young, but talented wide receivers led by four-star Jordan Cunningham (2013), who caught 16 passes for us last year, and has incredible upside. Other guys like Latevius Rayford, Gerald Perry, C.J. Duncan and DeAndre Woods are game changers along with some size. Woods and Cunningham are tall and strong and Rayford, Perry and Duncan are game breakers. Tight end should be terrific. Derek loves tight ends from his Stanford experience and we have major talent at that position. Like what Brian Kimbrow, Jerron Seymour and Ralph Webb can do at running back, and incoming freshman Dallas Rivers was a highly rated three-star by Rivals and 247 and a four-star by ESPN. Dallas could help immediately and he has good size at 6’1″, 210. Quarterback should have excellent competition in the summer between Patton Robinette, Johnny McCrary and LSU transfer Stephen Rivers. The two freshmen will most likely redshirt. Whomever emerges from those three should be ready to go. And we’ll have highly capable backups. The area I am most concerned about is the kicking game. We really need to focus on that this summer, both placekicking and punting. That should be a major point of emphasis. Need to get better there in August. But the return games should be strong. Love Sims returning kickoffs. He can take it to the house any time, and Kimbrow, if he’s the guy, could be explosive returning punts.

Temple on Thursday, August 28th, @ home @ 9:15 PM ET/8:15 PM CT on the new SEC Network. If you have Charter or DirecTV, I would highly recommend going to the SECsports.com website and then going to their SEC Network tab at the top of the page and tweeting or calling those two providers, demanding that they get the SEC Network. It’s  critical. We play Ole Miss the following Saturday, Sept. 6th, @ 4:30 PM ET/3:30 PM CT on ESPN in a huge game at LP Field in Nashville. Should be an electric atmosphere.

Hopefully we can talk about a W tomorrow. If we play like we have been playing, we will. Have a great weekend and I’ll be in touch.

Dansby stellar last night

I’m so pumped about our baseball team. 6-4 tonight over Cal-Irvine. Dansby Swanson with a huge night going three-for-four and making excellent plays at second base. Bryan Reynolds had two hits and Zander Wiel with two hits and two RBIs, including a double to deep left that just missed going out–just like Dansby, who also doubled and missed going yard by about five feet; the ball hit the wall at the 335 mark. We’re going to get one or two out soon, once this wind stops howling in from the outfield. Just shows how strong Dans and Z are. The wind was blowing in 20-25 MPH.

Defense was phenomenal and Walker Buehler just keeps getting it done on the mound. Walker pitched superbly in relief of Tyler, who only lasted 3.2 innings. Walker pitched 5.1 innings, threw 90  pitches with 58 strikes and 32 balls, he walked two and struck out seven. He just had complete command out there. The team just rallied once Walker got in there and started getting the Irvine pitchers out. He was sensational. I hope we can use him in a starting role before the CWS ends. He’s clutch and the team rallies around him.

We play the winner of Irvine and Texas on Friday @3 PM ET/2 PM CT on Duh U (ESPNU). Corbs has an interesting decision on whom will pitch. I say we go with Carson and nail this thing down so we/ll be playing for the title in the best of two out of three series starting Monday. If we win Friday, I’d go with Walker Monday and then, and this may sound a little radical, Adam Ravanelle or Hayden Stone on Tuesday. Then if we have to play a third game pitch Stoney or Ravanelle, whichever one doesn’t pitch Tuesday. To me that gives us the best chance to win it all. It’s Corbs call, so we’ll see what happens. We’re getting closer and closer to winning the national championship, but we just need to take it one game at a time and be ready to go Friday if it’s Texas or Irvine. We can get a lot of good quality practice time in this week. Not sure if we’ll go back to Nashville, but imagine we’ll stay out there and keep working towards Friday. Excellent work by the guys tonight. John Norwood also had a clutch single. Our outfield is starting to play lights out. Reynolds doing a stellar job in left and Rhett Wiseman getting better and better every time out in right. Like the way both the infield and outfield are playing. All three guys are first year outfielders and they have jelled into an excellent threesome. Infield play was excellent tonight. If we can keep this up Friday, we’ve got a good chance to get to Monday and start playing for a national title. But not going look ahead. Corbs strategy is a day at a time. So we just need to get better tomorrow with our work and keep getting better all week. Just so proud of’em!

Playing UC Irvine in game two of CWS tonight at 8 PM ET/7 CT on ESPN2. Tyler on the hill against lefty Eliot Surrey of UC Irvine. He’s 8-4 with a 1.59 ERA. Tyler 8-7 with a 3.59 ERA. Didn’t have a great start against Stanford, but I love Corbs move of starting Carson on Saturday night and saving Tyler for tonight  to take the pressure off Carson and let him relax and just be himself tonight. Won 6-4 over Louisville. Huge win. Dansby Swanson with a huge two run double and Bryan Reynolds with an RBI triple and an amazing catch in left, as he jumped, crashed against the wall and saved at least one run from scoring early in the game. Reynolds, the freshman, is hitting .340. He’s incredible as are all these players. Corbs coached an amazing game Saturday. He made all the right moves that allowed us to win the game. Carson was very good for most of the time and Adam Ravanelle was tremendous closing out the game for us. This Surrey doesn’t throw it hard, but has good stuff, good curve and off speed. Not a flame thrower, but kind of a tricky pitcher, who we’ll have to be ready for. Would be huge to get it done tonight. Weather looks a little shaky with a 40% chance of strong storms at game time, but that was the same forecast for Saturday night and the weather held off. It will be windy, with winds at 25, so there won’t be a lot of long balls. Playing great defense and we can really hit. Just need good pitching and we could do this, but just have to worry about tonight.