Jimmy Raviele just spent four years living in the pressure cooker of University of Houston baseball and its mad overseer, head coach Rayner Noble (pictured). Jimmy's dad, Vinny, is none too pleased about the treatment his son received over his tenure on the Cougars pitching staff. According to the large fonts in multiple colors, Jimmy was passed over in favor Noble's preferred golden boys, even though said golden boys were not as good as Jimmy. Jimmy only got to pitch out of the bullpen and Jimmy was never allowed on the hill for longer than an inning, because every time Jimmy walked a hitter or gave up a run, Jimmy got pulled, even as other pitchers who were not as good as Jimmy got to give up way more runs than Jimmy, but still somehow got more starts than Jimmy even though they really should have been more like Jimmy. JIMMY!

If you attempt to read the whole thing, be prepared to learn more about Houston baseball than anyone has any right to know. Even the guys at Fourth and Fifty couldn't get through it and they run a blog about Houston athletics. However, I did pull out a few parts that seemed exceptionally shouty. (They were easily to identify by their blue fonts and XXL text size.)

This story is about a University of Houston baseball player whose college baseball career (2006 - 2009) was destroyed by the head baseball coach (Rayner Noble) at the University of Houston. ...

Any player or parent who reads this and even has the slightest inclination about playing baseball for Rayner Noble at University of Houston or wherever he is coaching, should really rethink their options. Please don't make the same mistake that we did. Sadly, we were told this same thing, but we did not listen. ...

Jimmy was just simply not one of Noble's Showcase Players or "Special Favorite Players." PLEASE TAKE NOTE* That being one of Noble's favorites (SFP's) has nothing to do with a players skill level. If someone is fortunate enough to be one of Noble's SFP's you are all set. They will get numerous chances to fail and still feel secure because they know they will be right back in the line up and play again the very next game or right back in the pitching rotation. ...

I honestly love every pitcher on the team and no offense to any of them, but every single one of them including my son Jimmy has been shelled at one time or another this past year. Just like all pitchers, they have had times when they pitched lights out and they had times when they got shelled. All of them!! The pitchers that ended up doing better this past 2009 season were the ones that Noble pitched more. Look at the stats. Most of these guys started off awful but were continually used and naturally they got better! ...

Why is there a different set of rules for Jimmy? ...

Still to this day, I understand that Jimmy was one of the fastest players on the Cougars. I know in his freshman year at U of H, Jimmy broke a college record by 22 seconds for the mile and a half. ...

Jimmy was doomed from day one!...

Once again they said "when Jimmy was not pitching, he will be at 1st base." BIG LIE!! (Jimmy never even stepped on first base - let alone play it) The only time Jimmy ever stepped on first base was when they used him two times (his senior year only) to pinch run! ...

TRYING TO SET JIMMY UP FOR FAILURE

After reviewing all of Jimmy's appearances above, one would think that without a doubt Noble was trying to set Jimmy up for failure. It could not be a coincidence that out of 12 appearances Jimmy just happened to face the TOP or the MEAT of the order 7 times! Jimmy only pitched part of or only 1 inning at a time! It wasn't like Jimmy was pitching numerous innings. It seems really strange that this just happened to be this way! NOBLE DID THIS ON PURPOSE SO JIMMY WOULD FAIL . . . JUST LIKE NOBLE DID TO JIMMY AT LAST YEARS FINAL GAME IN COLLEGE STATION, but Jimmy DID NOT! This year (2009) Jimmy was allowed to pitch in only 3 Conference games . . . What is the reason for this? Jimmy's ERA in Conference is 0.00 ! WHY DIDN'T NOBLE PITCH JIMMY MORE? ...

Note* Jimmy asked Noble if he could get #8 for his Junior year and Noble told Jimmy "OK." ... Much to Jimmy's surprise on the first day of school, Jimmy noticed that #8 had been assigned to another new player. Jimmy went to Coach Noble and asked why he wasn't able to get #8? Noble said that Jimmy could have it but it would cost $100.00 (which Jimmy paid him in cash)! How could Noble do this to Jimmy and live with himself?

DOES NOBLE NEED MONEY THIS BAD? - - - HE IS A SNAKE! ...

NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO PUT THEIR FUTURE IN THE HANDS OF THIS MADMAN. IF NOBLE DECIDES NOT TO PITCH OR PLAY YOU, WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT? NOTHING AND NOBLE KNOWS THIS. THE SCOUTS TOLD JIMMY THAT THEY CANNOT DRAFT SOMEONE IF THEY NEVER SEE THEM PLAY MORE THAN A FEW INNINGS ALL YEAR.

RECRUITS: TAKE IT FROM US, YOU DO NOT WANT NOBLE CONTROLLING YOUR FUTURE.

I am not just ranting, these are facts, records and stats. Please check them out yourself.

Note* Remember it is not SLANDER if it's TRUE!

NO ONE ON THIS EARTH IS GOING TO DO WHAT NOBLE DID TO MY SON AND GET AWAY WITH IT!

Sincerely,

Vinny Raviele

Emphasis not added. (I just wish I could do the font changes justice.) Anyway, I have no idea whether JIMMY! was set up to fail or what kind of coach Rayner Noble is, but actually watching someone's angry brain melt via internet rant never gets old. Also, extorting money from players for jersey numbers is an awesome kind of evil.

WHY RAYNER NOBLE NEEDS TO BE FIRED! [Houston Cougar Baseball]
Rayner Noble is the Devil or Baseball Parents Gone Wild! [Fourth and Fifty]

Wood's performance against Boston College — 13 innings (in relief), 46 batters faced, two hits, and all this a day after throwing 30 pitches — has been justifiably praised, but it's also become something of a referendum on college baseball coaches' famously Neanderthal approach to their pitchers. Within hours of Texas' 25-inning victory, ESPN.com's Keith Law went all J'accuse on Longhorns coach Augie Garrido, calling his handling of Wood "reckless, selfish and incompetent" and a "firing offense." (He also ripped BC coach Mikio Aoki, who let a reliever, Mike Belfiore, go nine-and-two-thirds and throw 129 pitches.)

Nothing summons baseball's Angry Old Men from their golf carts like a debate about pitch counts, even though the matter is more or less settled in baseball's upper levels. Pitch counts are so de rigueur in the pros now that it was a minor controversy recently when Rangers President Nolan Ryan announced that the team was, if not abandoning them altogether, then at least questioning their value. Ryan's argument is that high pitch totals build up arm strength, thus preventing injuries. There's probably a sliver of truth to this, but Baseball Prospectus' research suggests that "high pitch count outings ... represent the greatest risk for both short-term, and long-term potential for injury."

So why has the college game, where pitchers are younger and more fragile, been so slow to come to its senses?

Consider this, from Boyd Nation's excellent site: At least two pitchers have cleared the 170-pitch mark this season (Texas-Pan American's Scott Wingo, with 179 against Northern Colorado, and Oral Roberts' Drew Bowen, with 177 against Arkansas), and Nation estimates that pitchers have thrown 150 pitches or more 25 times in all. (It's incredible to think that this probably represents an improvement over previous years. Nation's site measures something called Pitcher Abuse Points. In the aggregate, that number has dropped steadily since 2006.)

"Mostly," Boyd Nation says in an e-mail, "I think it's just a matter of numbers — there are 30 MLB teams with a lot of people watching as opposed to 300+ Division I teams, most of them playing in obscurity. There's also more job security for college coaches; that doesn't give them license to abuse pitchers, I don't think, but it does mean that turning over the coaching corps so that most of them are more educated on workload issues is taking longer."

Baseball Prospectus' injury guru, Will Carroll, also points to the tightly compacted schedule of the college baseball season, not to mention the fact that "coaches really only have four or five pitchers on the roster."

Nation makes an exception for what he calls "life moments." Two weeks before Wood's outing, a pitcher for Campbellsville of the NAIA, Bryan Fuller, tossed 21 shutout innings in a 26-hour period. He told coaches that he didn't care about his arm; he was going to be an accountant, anyway. "If you're not a prospect to play at a higher level," Nation says, "and you've got one chance to create the memory of a lifetime, it may be worth it to push a little harder than would be advisable as part of a career."

Austin Wood, however, is a middling pro prospect — a reliever, remember — who could find himself drafted in next week's amateur draft. His Boston College counterpart, Mike Belfiore (a reliever who threw 129 pitches), could go as high as the second round, according to Law. And now a red flag hangs over both their futures, the way it once did for Kirk Dressendorfer and Ben McDonald and Lane Mestepey; the way it probably should have for Mark Prior (who in his final year at USC had starts of 133 pitches, 129, 128, 125 and 120 twice). These are scary comparables. "It was abysmal even giving special circumstances points," Carroll writes of Wood. "He was dehydrated, puking ... and a reliever!"

And Belfiore? As a scout told Law, "He's probably damaged goods."

PHOTO: Texassports.com

Pitch Count Watch [Boyd's World]
UT's Wood proves his mettle [Houston Chronicle]
Did Texas, BC coaches put pitchers at risk? [ESPN.com]
Nolan Ryan, Austin Wood, and Media Outrage [Burnt Orange Nation]

Players from both teams spent the rain delay on Thursday trying to one up each other in the saddest dance competition since "You Got Served." There were Michael Jackson impersonators, Riverdancers, Soulja Boyz, and believe it or not ... the Macarena which I though had been banned by the Geneva Convention.

I actually feel sorry for the camera operator who had nothing better to do on a weekday afternoon then watch college kids dance around like monkeys, but he captured over 12 minutes of this nonsense, capped off by shirtless scholarship athletes sliding on the wet tarp. There is a reason why college baseball is inferior to its football and basketball counterparts and this is it. May it haunt your Memorial Day dreams for all time.

UConn-USF Dance Off [BIGEAST.TV]

Not only is this kid poised to become the most expensive draft pick in baseball history, he could very well fly through the farm system and be on the major league mound in September.

The biggest concern with Strasburg extends not from his talent, but his demands. His adviser, Scott Boras, already has hinted that the 6-foot-5, 220-pound 20-year-old will want a record-breaking salary — maybe six years and $50 million.

I put the over/under on this kid's mental breakdown at one season.

San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg is now 9-0 with a 1.54 ERA after a 14-strikeout, seven-inning 4-3 win over No. 16 Texas Christian Friday night. Projected to the the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, it seems his only drawback is the constant smell of sulphur whenever he's around (that would be Scott Boras).

From the gaggle of radar-touting scouts, to San Diego State president Stephen Weber, to former NFL MVP Brian Sipe, to basketball coach Steve Fisher, to national-TV announcers, to a trio of national sportswriters, everyone, it seems, was in the record crowd of 3,072 at Tony Gwynn Stadium to see Stephen Strasburg.

My favorite Strasburg fact is this: He chose to attend San Diego State, where both his parents went, even though he was recruited by Stanford, Yale and Harvard. Now that takes brains.

The Strasburg Watch: 9-0, 1.54 ERA [NBC Sports]
Strasburg Puts On A Show For Record Crowd [North County Times]

Beneath the dead carcasses was a copy of a recent Hillsdale Collegian editorial which called out the Div. II baseball team for its 8-14 record (1-9 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), leading one to assume that certain players were not amused. An excerpt from the editorial:

In the recent past Hillsdale managed to can its women's cheer team, the soccer team, men's swimming and men's golf. God knows what they did wrong. Even more disturbing, the rugby team (4-3) struggles to become a recognized club (despite field success) as the dean of men pushes to bring a Nerf-war club into fruition. What?

Maybe you're next?

Oh, and lose the swagger.

Most of you walk around campus with this chip-on-my-shoulder, badass tempo. How is this possible? It's not enough for you to simply lumber around like the other disappointing athletes? Lose the stride boys.

Hillsdale senior John Krudy, an editor at the paper, lives at the address festooned with the dead animals. A witness across the street, Nathan McClallen, said he saw "figures" placing the animals on the porch with a shovel. Seems like a rational response to an editorial. I would tell you more but no one over there is returning calls.

What little I know about their baseball team is this: It's coached by Paul Noce, who attended the same high school as I did (Sequoia in Redwood City, Calif.), and played briefly for the Cubs and Reds. As for Hillsdale, it produced one of the great all-time directors, Bob Clark (Porky's, A Christmas Story).

Anyway, you'll be happy to know that the newspaper is sticking to its guns. Another recent editorial:

An apology from the editors:

This past week's staff editorial about the baseball team was a mistake, and we can't stand by that expressed opinion. Maybe the right sentiment was there in the beginning, but what we published was poorly written, reported and edited. We now realize there are conditions the baseball team faces, for example a financial disadvantage other teams may not worry about. We kicked a guy when he was down; published an opinion rooted in gossip rather than reported fact.

Especially, we never should have attacked the character of the baseball team or the coaching staff. We understand you do your best to represent the college well. You are supported by the editorial board as one of our Charger teams and we hope you snag a win this weekend.

Off Campus House Decorated With Animal Carcasses [Hillsdale Collegian]
We Like Baseball, But Not This Kind [Hillsdale Collegian]
Lost In Left Field [Hillsdale Collegian]

Why does it look legit? Well, tiny Kentucky State (Division II) has several double digit losses on their schedule this season. (They are 2-15 on the year.) Their team ERA is 11.56—and that's not counting the runs allowed on their 61 errors in 17 games. The Thorobreds (they even spell their mascot name funny) are how do you say ... not good.

Pity poor freshman pitcher Jamal Duncan who gave up 25 runs (14 earned) in 2.1 IP. Or JamalKendall Wilson who gave up 13 while only getting one out. But kudos to EKU for dominating Kentucky's lower level baseball empires. John Calipari has his work cut out for him.

Eastern Kentucky University Baseball Schedule [EKU Sports]

All they have to do is raise $1.2 million in the next month and the program will survive for ever and ever! Well, that shouldn't be too much trouble in this economic climate. Those aren't American dollars, are they?

The team has about $100,000 in pledges so far, which is not bad, but still a long way off. Incredibly, Northern Iowa has had a "base-ball" team for over 100 years, so it would be a shame to let it die like this. If you're still employed (and assuming this is not another evil ponzi scheme) feel free to chip in. Maybe Kurtis The Stock Boy could help?

SupportUNIBaseball.com [Support UNI]

Austin Police Department spokesman James Mason confirmed Garrido’s arrest and charge and the University of Texas handed Garrido an indefinite suspension with pay.

“Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido has been placed on indefinite suspension following his arrest earlier today for alleged driving while intoxicated,” Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said in a press release.

“The suspension, with pay, is pending until further information can be gathered. This is a difficult and regrettable situation that we are taking very seriously. I spoke with Coach Garrido and he’s devastated and realizes he made a serious mistake.

BIG mistake, Augie. You didn't cross your arms while you held the steering wheel to reduce swerving? You didn't suck on pennies in your change bin to throw off the breathalyzer reading? Huge mistake, Augie. At least you were awake when you were pulled over. That puts you one up on Tony LaRussa already.

Texas' Garrido charged with DWI [Rivals]

Texas suspends baseball coach after DWI arrest [AP]

Shawn Rider blew off practice one day and then tried to fib about it to his coach, Ed Langham. Well, Coach Langham's out there to prepare these kids for a sport called life and you know what happens when you lie about where you've been in real life: your boss lines you up in front of the pitching machine in catcher's gear, cranks the machine to the "teach punkass kid a lesson" setting standard on most models, and fired away until Shawn was a bruised, battered mess that had to go to the hospital. Classy!

No charges have been filed yet because the paperwork hasn't been done correctly by Shawn. (You mean the kid that blows off practice might have focus issues under pressure? Not guilty, then!) Also, the school's athletic department would like us all to know that "... (Coach LessonTeacher)'s been here 10 years and nothing has ever come up with him. He runs a pretty clean-cut program."

You know, give-take a few book reports on The Last of the Mohicans. Seriously, eight pages on a falling leaf? Give us the pitching machine every time.

Bevill State player says coach fired baseballs at him as punishment [Birmingham News] [via SbB]

Yesterday during the NCAA Super Regional, UC Irvine got out of a base loaded jam in the 7th inning against LSU by pulling the Hidden Ball Trick, which is best known to people of my generation from the movie Rookie of the Year, which also taught us that pitchers got big butts. Except UC Irvine didn't really pull it off, because the runner was clearly safe.

Fark calls it one of the worst calls ever in college baseball and though I'm not qualified to make that determination, that seems a bit much. It's a bad one, all right, but worst ever? Sounds iffy.

LSU coach Paul Manieri doesn't think the umpire was watching the action, and though LSU ended up losing by six runs, it shouldn't be said the play didn't affect the outcome, especially considering the bases were loaded with a .300 hitter at the plate (at that point, LSU was down four).

WithLeather offers up one of those flying-diving-catch-while-throwing-yourself-over-a-wall-plays, if you're into that sort of thing. Isn't that wall kind of short? When you're a hater like myself, you need to discredit the achievements you couldn't possibly make. As another video of the same catch at Hot Clicks shows, the batter is from Maryland. We Terps just couldn't get any breaks this weekend. Brenda Frese hasn't even gotten her kid to rebound yet. Doesn't bode well.