9 Innings with Coach Gaspard
3/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
With the weather postponing our doubleheader on Tuesday, I had some free time to sit down and write. It's been a good first month to the season as we head into SEC play this weekend in Starkville. Our team has played some real quality opponents outside of our conference so far, and we are using those experiences to build a solid team with specific roles going into SEC action. We have a tough stretch ahead, but our team is headed in the right direction with the proper mindset.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we've had quite the experience so far in Hoover. Our staff and players could not be happier with all that the city, the workers and the fans have done for us. You can start with the stadium, which has been a first-class facility since we stepped inside it back in January. It's truly a great place to watch a baseball game. It feels like our home from the moment we first arrived back in January. The locker rooms are spacious and provide our players plenty of room to get comfortable. Once you head out to the field, you notice that the field is immaculate for every game. Everything about it is maintained to the highest standards, and we appreciate the effort that has been put in to keep the quality at Major-League levels.
Behind the scenes, the staff of the Hoover Met have been very accommodating to all our needs and have helped everything run smoothly. The staff from Alabama that travels up there for every game has also put in a tireless effort to ensure a good product for the fans. To our entire department, the Alabama staff and the Hoover Met staff, I want to personally thank you all for your dedication and effort in providing an excellent environment to our players and especially our fans!
In the second and third weeks of the first month of play, we headed to Houston for a weekend series and also hosted Louisiana-Lafayette for a three-game set. Both teams were very successful last season, and they are two really tough programs that provided us with some good experience going forward. It was a good test for our guys, and the coaches and team to see where we're at and what we need to work on moving into conference play.
Following our three road games and five matchups at home, we headed to a neutral, in-state site in Montgomery for our first of a many stops across Alabama. The Biscuits are a first-class organization and Riverwalk Stadium is a beautiful venue. The annual Capital City Classic with Auburn is a game we look forward to playing in each season. I appreciate all that the Biscuits do in creating a great atmosphere and buzz around that game every year. It definitely captures the best parts of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.
We then made our first trip down to Mobile in a long time. The BayBears and the Mobile Sports Authority did an excellent job of hosting us and Lipscomb for that three-game series. I want to send a special thank you to Danny Corte of the Mobile Sports Authority and Chris Morgan, general manager of the BayBears, for their efforts to make this past weekend a successful event. We had great weather and a great turnout for all three games. We took two of three from the Bisons, and I saw some marked improvement throughout the weekend.
The fans have been great everywhere we go, and the support we receive in each city means a lot to our players. I want to ask you, the fan, to keep coming out and supporting us this season. Alabama baseball is a big part of this state, and I want to take some of this state-wide momentum into the new stadium. But, before we get into the new Joe, let's get The Met packed out. I want to see all the Alabama fans we can at each game in Hoover. I want that place to be rocking, and to turn Hoover into place that other teams fear playing us in.
This year is not a transition year until we return to Tuscaloosa; it's a transformative year. We want to turn this program into one of the best in the nation, and we will continue to progress this team and these players into a championship-level squad that our fans be proud of. We will continue to fight and work here as we head into a tough stretch of conference play. As always, we appreciate all your support and Roll Tide!
