TERRE HAUTE — The words “indoor baseball practice” and “snow postponement” are still new to the vocabulary of Indiana State baseball coach Lindsay Meggs.
Sunday’s game was originally to be a doubleheader but the Saturday night snow made Sycamore Field tough for groundskeepers to have ready for two games. ISU will try to play two today instead.
Meggs’ former team, Chico State, was a Division II national power playing in Chico, Calif., which gets pretty heavy rain during February — similar to Indiana in late April. Like ISU traveling south to start the season, Chico State avoided that wet winter weather by taking off across the Pacific Ocean to open the 2007 season in Honolulu.
ISU opened its season Feb. 23 at Georgia State in 60-degree weather, but Sunday’s home opener at Sycamore Field featured temperatures at or below freezing. The new ISU skipper credited his players for not complaining about the weather as the Sycamores opened the home schedule with a 6-2 win against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
The sub 30-degree temperatures are new to the lifelong California resident.
“How old am I, 44? It’s been 44 years since I’ve done [coached in freezing weather]. This is a first for me,” Meggs said after suggesting the interview continue in what was left of the sunlight.
Unpredictable spring weather in Indiana will be sure to impede ISU’s routine as the season goes along. In Meggs’ past, there’s hardly been a need for weathermen as spring progresses in California. Getting to know Kevin Orpurt will be a must.
A standout player at UCLA in the early 1980s, Meggs’ has full support of ISU director of athletics Ron Prettyman.
The ISU program had been competitive but not competitive enough in recent years. Bob Warn brought quality baseball players to Terre Haute throughout his long career, but a Missouri Valley Conference championship has been lacking since 1995. Even the Chicago Cubs have been to the playoffs twice since then.
A team full of Midwestern guys is adapting well to their new coach from the West coast. Sunday’s winning pitcher Ryan Hayes said it’s great to have a new guy come in and have a fresh start from the recent seasons’ struggles.
“We’re not expected to do a whole lot this year, but coach Meggs has kind of changed the attitude around here a little bit,” Hayes said. “Everybody’s having a lot more fun.
“It’s like a new life breathed into the program. It’s not necessarily that it was so down last year or anything, it’s just a different routine. Everybody’s getting into a different swing of things.”
One big change at Sycamore Field is the players have a lockerroom right next to the field rather than having to drive back to campus after practice or a game. New ISU facilities director Tim Troville helped turn the old concession stand into a small makeshift clubhouse.
The Sycamores are sporting new uniforms with a retro feel. The new lockerroom means the team is using the first-base dugout.
For 31 years, you could count on seeing Warn down the third-base line when the Sycamores were at the plate. Meggs prefers to be in the dugout.
Meggs made his first excursion from the dugout to argue a call on a bang-bang play at first base that had Chris Schmidt out on a sacrifice bunt.
“Everything for us is such a first time thing,” Meggs said. “New coaching staff ... first game at home for these guys, a lot of these guys .... first at-bat at home for a lot of these guys. It will be nice to get all that stuff out of the way and concentrate on the games.”
With all the recent trials and travails of the ISU men’s team sports, a championship-caliber baseball team would be a welcome respite.
Craig Pearson can be reached by email at craig.pearson@tribstar.com or by phone after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4356.
Given to Fly
March 4, 2007
Given to Fly: Baseball in winter new for ISU’s new coach
- Given to Fly
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GIVEN TO FLY: Come to expect new standards of excellence
Records are definitely meant to be broken; athletes today are faster and stronger than those in the past in many endeavors in athletics.
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GIVEN TO FLY: ISU women have solid recruiting class
The caliber of athletes that the Indiana State women’s basketball coaching staff is bringing in is on an upswing.
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GIVEN TO FLY: Major leaguers John, Dorsett meet up at tonight’s game
Terre Haute’s only two big leaguers of the last 50 years — Tommy John and Brian Dorsett — will catch up with one another today.
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FOOT NOTES: Valley natives perform well on national stage
Several Wabash Valley natives continue to shine on the national track and field scene.
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'Til It's Over: Sycamores ‘in a good place,’ but searching for more in MVC
Can Teri Moren lift Indiana State, last year’s seventh-place team in the Missouri Valley Conference, to one of the league’s contenders in her first year on campus?
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'Til It's Over: Two sets of identical twins should keep North Central baseball a contender
The last high school baseball team standing in the Wabash Valley was the North Central, the Thunderbirds falling short 4-3 in the Class A Semistate on Saturday just one game shy of Victory Field.
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'Til It's Over: Jarvis, Anderson confident Olney, hard work leads to Division I dream
Olney, Ill., population 8,000-plus and known for its population of white squirrels, might not be the dream destination for high school basketball players in Indiana.
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'Til It's Over: Robinson 7-footer more focused in postseason; 6-foot Jones keeps producing
Robinson 7-footer Meyers Leonard is not going to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA some day, but his odds of reaching the league are pretty solid if his game continues to evolve as it has during high school.
- 'Til It's Over: ‘Stepping stone’ game points Sycamores in right direction Whether the win comes against a top-25 team or a conference pushover, ending a four-game losing streak is always a relief.
- 'Til It's Over: Indianapolis ISU recruit rolling along in senior season As Indiana State recruit Anna Munn approached Christmas with the Decatur Central basketball team, the senior guard didn’t seem to need much of a wishlist.
- 'Til It's Over: Magic’s still there for '79 Sycamores For the former Indiana State players who visited the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in late November, the weekend was a chance to relive memories with teammates and see Larry Bird’s career with the Sycamores celebrated again.
- CRAIG PEARSON: North has strong history in cross country state finals Vigo County is home to just four IHSAA state championships in team sports. Most recently, Terre Haute South won girls titles in basketball (2002) and tennis (2001).
- 'Till It's Over: It’s been rough year but no need to break up Cubs' core Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is only in the first year of a three-year contract, and aren’t back-to-back division championships enough to keep him around despite this year’s season filled with bad luck?
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You might have heard of the Indiana Pacers’ 2009 first-round draft pick. He was on the television once in a while during his four-year career at North Carolina.
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- ‘Walking wounded’: ISU seniors return to provide spark All three ISU seniors will graduate in May, and all three will be in uniform today as Indiana State battles Bradley in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament quarterfinals.
- Given to Fly: Northview standout runner Thacker coming to ISU Doc Brown told an old-timer in a saloon in “Back to the Future III” that despite having automobiles in the future people run for recreation.
- Given to Fly: Schilli’s Rodman-like performance aids ISU With Indiana State’s women’s basketball team ranking eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference in field-goal percentage (36.5), the Sycamores need as many shot attempts as possible to maintain their standing on top of the league.
- Given to Fly: A classic in every sense of the word What tournament director and co-founder Gary Fears had in mind when creating the tournament came to fruition Tuesday. Marshall, with an enrollment of 438 students, became the smallest school to win the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic in the ninth season of the tourney.
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Given to Fly: ISU women should build confidence off strong outing
Indiana State did not pull off the monumental upset Saturday against No. 23 Kansas State, but the Wildcats are —aside from Connecticut in 2005 — the best team the Sycamores have played in the Jim Wiedie era.
- Given to Fly: ISU women's hoops team slides onto commercial radio Coach Jim Wiedie expects the Indiana State women’s basketball team to have a bit of a retro feel this season, meaning the Sycamores have the potential to get back to creating havoc with their full-court press.
- Given to Fly: ISU vets hope to prove pundits wrong Indiana State’s only two seniors were surprised to see they were picked ahead of just three Missouri Valley Conference women’s basketball teams Tuesday morning.
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Footnotes: In first marathon, former Sycamore comes out a winner
Indiana State graduate Dani Prince made her debut in the event with a victory in the Columbus Marathon on Sunday.
Prince’s goal was a time under 2 hours and 50 minutes, and she ran a 2:48.56. -
Given To Fly: ISU volleyball turning things around
It was an extremely busy weekend for Indiana State athletics this weekend.
- Footnotes: Here’s hoping perfect weather is still around for Nationals in November The weather made for a perfect fall afternoon Saturday at LaVern Gibson Championship Course. For what it’s worth, the Farmer’s Almanac calls for more sunny conditions from Nov. 20-24, with the NCAA Championships falling on the 24th this year.
- Terre Haute natives cherish memories of ‘House that Ruth Built’ Yankee Stadium was packed as usual on Easter Sunday in 1979. George Steinbrenner’s Yankees were one loss away from being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers to start the season. That was no way for the two-time defending World Series champions to perform, so the boss had a conversation with his new veteran left-handed starting pitcher prior to the game.
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Footnotes: Oregon men and women have strangehold on preseason NCAA cross countryrankings
The Oregon men and women were almost both unanimous picks as the No. 1 teams in the nation in the preseason cross country national rankings released recently.
- Given to Fly: Bronze medalist has strong ISU ties One of the remarkable American medalists of this 2008 Olympics thus far also provided one of the most sparkling stories in the brief history of the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course here in Terre Haute.
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