9/30/2011 10:57:32 AM
ROUND ROCK, Texas - The Travelblog has spent an inordinant amount of time and expended almost a full tank of gas tooling up and down I-35 the past two days while scouting out many of the high school fields at which games will be played at this weekend's PG WWBA South Qualifier. The fields are spread throughout Austin and Round Rock on both sides of the north-south running I-35, so there's been a lot of hopping on and hopping off.
The farthest south on I-35 I've had to travel is down to the U of Texas campus hear dowtown Austin, where Monday's semifinals and championship game will be played at the Longhorns' venerable old Disch-Falk Field. It's really a majestic sort of stadium and has served the prominent Longhorn program well for many years.
The South Qualifier finally gets started Saturday morning with full slates of games on Saturday and Sunday leading into Monday's championship. There are a lot of outstanding prospects dotting the teams' rosters, particularly on the Houston Banditos Black, Action Baseball Club and Texas Sun Devils. It promises to be an interesting weekend.
Speaking of interesting, when I went down to the UT campus yesterday, I made a point to stop at the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum, which sits on campus. The place is chock-full of historical information and relics that detail Lyndon Baines Johnson's life and times all the way through his presidency in the turbulant 1960s. It was well worth the stop and I could have spent more time there than the hour I allowed.
Heading back to Round Rock, I noticed dark clouds building in the west. As most of you probably know, the entire state of Texas is in the throes of a severe, devastating drought that some climatologists are predicting could last until 2020. Water supplies are disappearing. Crops and grazing land lie in ruins. Entire cattle herds are being sent to slaughter early because there is no water or feed.
I parked my older Ford Escape at my hotel, noticed it was 4:30 p.m. and walked across the street to the Blue Oak Grill for happy hour. The talk around the bar was about the possibility of rain, and almost on request it began to sprinkle lightly. Several of the patrons left their barstools and walked outside just to stand in the sprinkles. Someone said it was the first time it had rained there in seven months. Unfortunately, it didn't last long and wasn't even measurable. I want these people to get some rain and get it soon, but selfishly I hope it holds off another three days so we can get this tournament in without too many delays.
As a baseball fan, this is a nice time to be in Texas, with the Rangers getting ready to open the defense of their American League pennant this afternoon over in Dallas against the charging Tampa Bay Rays. In line with that, every morning since I've been here I've been able to drive down to a conveince store and pick up two of the country's great regional newspapers, at least in terms of their sports sections: The Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman.
Both papers are highly regarded and their sports coverage is second to none, especially when it comes to college and high school football. The Dallas Cowboys have a heavy presence in the Morning News, as you'd expect, but both papers have done an excellent job in their coverage of the Rangers in particular and Major League Baseball in general. The lead story on page 1A of the Morning News this morning was a Rangers preview piece with the headline "Here we go again."
After I do a little more scout work, I'm going to find a place to sit down and pore through those bad boys. Then it will be time to walk over to the Blue Oak, say about 4 p.m., just a few minutes before Rangers left-hander C.J. Wilson throws the first pitch presumably to Rays left-fielder Desmond Jennings while notable Perfect Game alum B.J. Upton waits on deck. It's time for playoff baseball and it's also time for the WWBA South Qualifier. That's a pretty good combo.