Thursday, 04/12/07
Hop on the Bus, Gus
Having spent the better part of the last couple of years covering college and minor league baseball, an aura surrounding long bus rides has developed in my mind. I knew they were far from glamorous, but I also knew they were an integral part of the pre-major league baseball experience.
Like the Rebels of Ole Miss, we were in Hattiesburg, Miss. last night and scheduled to be in Baton Rouge on Friday with a travel day in between. So when Ole Miss baseball coach Mike Bianco opened up the doors of his team's coach to Going Yard, I knew I wanted to see what it was all about.
I wasn't alone in my desire to examine team bus dynamics, so Evan and I flipped a coin to see who would ride with the Rebels. I won the toss and my cohort graciously trailed the team bus in the rental car down I-59 and across I-12.
Most of my bus experience was tainted by the fights my sister and I had riding the New York City public bus home from school and I try to suppress those, so I hopped on board with Ole Miss with an open mind. I was a little worried that the team might be down after falling to in-state rival Southern Miss on Wednesday night, but I was assured by sports information director Bill Bunting that these guys had already shaken off the loss. In the small-world department, we encountered Bunting's sister Jane at Jacksonville last week. Jane was one of the Florida alums who was quite vocal in our video about her school pride in the wake of the Gators second straight basketball title.
Any fears I might have had were assuaged instantly when I was introduced to JoJo Tann and his crew at the back of the bus. The quartet of Tann, captain Justin Henry, first baseman Peyton Farr and shortstop Zack Cozart is the typical bunch of jokesters one would expect sitting in the back of the bus, and they were more than willing to crack wise with me. Ace righthander Will Kline shares their sensibility and chimed in from time to time, but he chooses to sit up front because that is where he has always sat on the team bus going back to high school.
"In class, I am a back of the room kind of guy," he joked. "But on the bus I stay up front."
They seem like your typical bunch of college boys, but they are far more mature than I would have guessed. For all his jokes (and trust me, he has plenty), Tann has a 4.0 GPA at Ole Miss. Both Farr and Henry are engaged and will be married within the year. As a 27-year-old who has never come close to even living with a woman, I have to say I was impressed.
Though most of the team put on a good show for me, it seems as though the typical bus ride consists of a lot of movie watching and talking about nothing. Today they were watching "Along Came Polly," which is in line with "Dumb and Dumber" and "Happy Gilmore," a couple of other favorites they mentioned.
"Along Came Polly" was about as interesting as the players' faces make it look.
In a surprising development they also admitted that they that have a tradition of watching "Footloose" on the way to the SEC tournament each year. Farr went out of his way to insist that it is only because they watched the film before the SEC tournament a few years ago and since they played well that year they feel obligated to repeat the tradition. There was no explanation as to why they were watching it in the first place, but as someone who recognizes the greatness of the Kevin Bacon/Chris Penn dance montage, I chose not to question it.
I asked if they ever talked about the previous or next game while on the bus, and that doesn't seem to be a topic that comes up often. Sophomore Jesse Simpson says that they have enough meetings before and after the game, so there is no need to talk about the games on the bus. Simpson is a Baton Rouge native so he was particularly excited to be playing in his hometown, and he was not alone. Not only did Bianco play at Louisiana State, but he was assistant on three College World Series winning teams. His dream was always to be a head coach in the SEC, so he says he had no problems switching allegiances in a major rivalry.
Cozart actually informed me that it has not been much of a rivalry of late with Ole Miss having not won a series in Baton Rouge since 1984, though the bleached-blond All-American insists that is going to change this weekend. It's hard not to notice Cozart with his Eminem hair-coloring, but amid much ribbing from his rear-bus bedfellows he says that he only reason he colors it like that is because after he did it as a freshman, "the kids" insisted he keep the color. Cozart is one of the most decorated players in college baseball, so he could probably get away with dying his hair pink.
He was a little camera-shy, but Cozart's hair is not the only thing making people take notice.
With the exception of Bianco almost falling off the bus while doing his SEC teleconference when the driver partially hit the button to open the door, the highlight of the trip was the discovery that Going Yard is gaining traction in the college-player community. I had to do a double-take when Ole Miss sophomore Evan Button asked me if I knew Owen Reid. As readers might remember, Reid is our mulleted friend from Winthrop, and he and Button played summer ball together in high school. After his appearance on our page, Reid told Button to check out his photo on Going Yard. If you didn't know already, it's the place to be.
