renovated Eck Stadium Home of Tyler Field in March and went on to
win their 14th consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular-season
title, 11th Valley Conference Tournament title — yet this, for a program
as prominent as Shocker Baseball, was nonetheless considered a
“temperate“ season.
Sing in me, Muse, and through me sing the praises of that Shocker Baseball team skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderers, harried for years on end, after they won the College World Series on the flat field of Omaha.
Shakespeare borrowed from Homer on occasion; this season Pat Magness led the team in homers (18). Shall I compare thee to Shocker Baseball?
They are the winningest Division I baseball team since 1978 (1,268-381-3); they won their 14th consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title, 11th Valley Conference Tournament title and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the 14th straight year.
But even with those accolades, this year they were a little temperate, 44-21 compared to 59-14 last year.
And it was often hard to tell if they were to be or not to be, with a winning percentage that was only 67.7. Early in the year, the rough winds shook the Shockers up with three straight losses to Creighton and a loss to Kansas State. The season died too early in Minneapolis, where the Shockers were left in the shade when they lost to Nebraska in the NCAA regional title game.
But, they made it there, and we’ll wait ’til next year. Love and Baseball, they try the true believer.
There were some great players on the field who dimmed the sun’s gold complexion. Magness, a senior, finished a brilliant career at WSU, and goes in the canon second in career homers (64) and third in RBIs (309).
It was during a home game against Bradley that Magness scored his 300th RBI because too hot the eye of heaven sometimes shines; it looked like a routine fly to the outfield, but the left fielder lost the ball in the sun.
My father and I were at that game, and witnessed the culmination of Magness’ Shocker Odyssey. It seemed a rather anticlimactic way to reach one’s magnum opus of Shocker sports, and a disappointing metaphor to relate to life. Then I remembered that those other 299 RBIs were the glass of fashion.
In that same game the Shockers’ pitching staff put the finishing touches on a superb series against Bradley, in which they posted a 1.75 ERA, allowing the Shockers to sweep all four games. This gave a nice end to an unusual regular season, and left Bradley saying, “A run, a run, my kingdom for a run!”
Second baseman Blake Blasi, who left for the Cubs, was named MVC Player of the Year. Third baseman Koyie Hill, who left for the Dodgers, shared the team and conference hitting title with Blasi by batting .391. Hill and Blasi, both juniors, left before they had the chance to help the Shockers to another eternal summer in Omaha. We’ll wait ’til next year.
Now, let us look at the new Parnassus, the house that Gene built, Eck Stadium Home of Tyler Field. Gene Stephenson has helped to build one of the premiere palaces of college baseball. The newly revamped stadium that debuted in March is colossal.
The $7.7 million face-lift has given the stadium a glorious visage no one can deny. The stadium is an amazing and fitting monument to a program that was revived in 1977 and grew from nothing, to one of the best programs in the nation.
When the sands of time wash over Wichita, travelers from a distant land will look on the stadium and realize the respect it commands. They’ll see the sculptures, the catalog of names like mighty ships, and with awe they’ll read the line etched in time: “Through These Portals Pass College Baseball’s Greatest Fans.”
Oh, if Baseball be the food of Love, play on Shockers. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives Shocker Baseball.
