Breaking Away

This is another of those weekends when I am breaking away from the Astros to handle the national telecast of Big 12 Baseball. The Astros are in Atlanta. I am on my way to Stillwater, OK. The Astros will be trying to break a three game losing streak against an Atlanta team that has lost nine in a row. It seems like only yesterday the Astros and Braves were great post season rivals. Now, they are just trying to compete in their divisions.

Everything is cyclical. And that includes the weather. I bring that up because it appears my college game may be facing a weather problem--again. The forecast for Stillwater on Saturday calls for a 40% chance of rain. That is especially troubling since last weekend I made a trip to St. Louis followed by a drive to Columbia, Mo., a drive back to St. Louis (120 miles each way) and finally a flight back to Houston with no game played. Our scheduled Kansas State at Missouri game was washed away.

I've been doing college baseball games on this and preceding networks for more than 25 years. We have lost a game or two during that time. But we have never lost two in one season. That is a definite prospect this week.

In the early days the games involved Southwest Conference teams. So, unless the game was at Texas Tech or Arkansas it was possible to drive to and from. Having a game rained out was not so bad. However, flying to Missouri or even Oklahoma when there are no return flights until early Sunday morning makes for a long weekend with no game.

While away from the Astros I still keep tabs. Thanks to the wonders of MLB.com or Foxsports.com or CBSsportsline.com I can follow the play by play and update my score book from my hotel. Some things don't translate, however.

Last week when Lance Berkman's line smash richoceted off the skull of Pirate pitcher Jakubauskas there was no reference to it. The play by play just said, "Berkman singled up the middle." Then there was a long pause and a line, "Delay due to injury."

Naturally since Lance was involved and he had his knee problem I feared the worst. Only after the line showed up, "New pitcher for Pittsburgh" did I have an inkling the injury involved Jakubauskas. Thanks to Alyson Footer's Twitter update, however, I was able to find out what really happened.

Just think--even with it's lack of explanation-- the internet allows anyone to follow a game from anywhere in the world. And if you know the right Twitter connections-- get further detail, too. I like to think I provide the same through Twitter when I am on hand. I will be for about 150 of the Astros 162 games this year. Just not when I have a college baseball conflict--or am somewhere watching my game be rained out!

Oh, by the way, thanks to all who were part of our weekly Live Chat last Wednesday. It was the smoothest of the four or five we have conducted. Good baseball and good Astro fans out there. We will be back on with Live Chat next Wednesday. In the meantime or anytime don't forget the availability of email. You can find the address and/or one click access on the website http://foxsportshouston.com I check and respond to all of them. JD, Brownie and our primary producer, Wave Robinson, also keep tabs, too.