If you’re like me, and you regard the upcoming Capital One Bowl against Michigan State as representing the difference between the 2008 football season being a mitigated disaster and an absolute one, you’re already looking forward to the defending national runner-up Diamond Dogs’ opening date with Youngstown State at Foley Field on February 20.
Accordingly, a little baseball news is in order; to wit: Bryce Massanari and Rich Poythress have been named to the College Baseball Foundation’s 2009 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year watch list. Hey, it’s December; I’m doing the best I can.
Last year, Georgia’s Gordon Beckham was a finalist for the Wallace Award.
Steve Detwiler would applaud Beckham’s achievement, if only he had a thumb. (Photograph by Dave Weaver/Associated Press.)
In 2008, Poythress had the Bulldogs’ second-highest batting average (.374) and was an all-conference defensive player, earning just the second Rawlings Gold Glove ever awarded to a Red and Black player. The honor distinguished Poythress as college baseball’s top defensive first baseman.
Massanari hit .325 last year and was named to the Athens Regional all-tournament team following a 10-for-20, six-R.B.I. postseason performance. Bryce is most famous, of course, for being married to Lauren Massanari, of whom Quinton McDawg famously said: "The more shots of Lauren Massanari, the better."
Here’s hoping for a great Georgia baseball season in an odd-numbered year. Hey, it could happen . . . and, after this football season, we’re owed one, anyway.
Go ‘Dawgs!