Greetings from HokieCentral, where I've decided that even though the last episode of Seinfeld was incredible boring and not funny at all, it was a fitting end to the series...

What a difference a year makes.  Last year, the Hokie baseball team woke up a sleepy Spring by storming through the Atlantic 10 tournament, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA's, and then stealing a game from traditional baseball power USC in the NCAA regionals.  The late season success sent the message board into a frenzy and forced this lazy webmaster to get out of his TV-watching chair and provide some coverage.

This year, after a so-so season that saw them qualify for the A-10 tournament late in the year, the baseball team went out quietly.  The Hokies fell to Fordham in the championship game of the A-10 tournament very late Tuesday night in Philadelphia, 3-1.

It was hard, if not impossible, to get excited about the A-10 tournament this year.   Do you want living proof that the Atlantic 10 is a weak baseball league?  Then try this:  the league lost its automatic bid to the NCAA's this year because it was rated one of the four worst conferences in the country.  League coaches, including Tech's own Chuck Hartman, blamed that bad rating on the poor scheduling tactics of most A-10 teams, who schedule weak teams and 1-AA teams  in an effort to build their records.

The strategy obviously didn't work.  The A-10's reward for being at the bottom of the barrel is that the league champion has to participate in a play-in series with a champion from one of the other equally inept leagues.  In the A-10's case, the opponent would be Howard, which I believe is from the MEAC, but don't quote me on that (during my senior year, in the Spring of 1987, I attended a baseball game in which the Hokies thrashed Howard, 30-0, so the thought of the play-in against the Howard Beefalos didn't exactly have me quaking in my boots).

The A-10 doesn't even have a real tournament.  Instead of all of the league's teams participating, the league only invites the top two teams from each division, which results in a cozy little double-elimination party for four instead of a big-time event.

As if all that wasn't enough, Mother Nature didn't have any respect for the A-10, either.  The tournament was supposed to be held in Boyertown, PA, starting last Friday, but it was rained out.  Not just Friday, but Saturday, as well, prompting league officials to revamp the format to single-elimination, which meant that only three games would be required, and all three would be played on Sunday.

Sorry, no cigar.  It rained Sunday, too, so the tournament was moved to Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia, scheduled for Tuesday.

Guess what happened Tuesday?  Yep.  Rain.  (Go to the back of the class if you didn't know what the answer was.)

This time, though, the rain let up, and the games were actually played.  The Hokies dropped UMass 7-6 in the first game, and then sat through Fordham's 14-5 whipping of George Washington.  Tech and Fordham locked horns (and beaks, I guess) late Tuesday night in a pitching duel, with the Hokies giving up one run in the 8th and two in the 9th to lose, 3-1.  By the time the game was over, it was well past 1:00 a.m. Wednesday, and I'm sure that the Tech players, coaches, and everyone else associated with the hellish trip just wanted to go home.

The Hokies finish with a 28-22-2 record, and lots of hope for the future.  Tech only graduated three seniors, and since they do play in one of the four worst conferences in the country, the Hokies will hopefully be able to carry out a more successful campaign next year.  Congrats to Chuck Hartman, who notched his 1200th win with the semifinal victory over UMass.

HokieCentral member "Hokie Jeff" tells me that there is finally a full-size Virginia Tech football helmet available for Hokie fans! ... but be prepared to dish out major bucks.

The authentic Virginia Tech helmet is available from Schutt Sports, and it will be arriving at the Tech Bookstore in about one month.  You can order the helmet now from the Schutt Web Site, www.schuttsports.com, and it'll only cost you a whopping $229.95.  Go to the web site and click on the "Authentic Helmets" button.  Once you worm your way around the disgusting UVa helmet depicted prominently at the top of the page, you can select the Tech helmet from the list box at the bottom of the page.

Why so expensive?  Simple - they're authentic helmets, not replica helmets.  Typically, there are three types of helmets you can buy:  mini (about $30), replica (about $100), and authentic (heart-attack money, or about $230).  For reasons unbeknownst to me, the Tech Licensing Department would not license the replica helmets, just the mini and authentic.  I'll try to contact the Licensing Dept. and ask why they nixed the replica helmet, and I'll let you know later.

Hokie Jeff has been assured by a Schutt representative that the helmets will be the new, all-maroon design, not the old, orange-stripe-and-white-face-mask design.  The price will be the same $229.95, whether you order it from the Schutt web site now or wait until they are carried by the Tech Bookstore.

Thanks a lot to Hokie Jeff for keeping me up to date on this.  Jeff has been dogging the helmet story for a couple of months now, and his efforts are appreciated.   Thanks again, Jeff!

HokieCentral message board regular and member "Technically" has put together a very nice multimedia page that is now listed under "Hokie Links" on HokieCentral's links page.  Be sure to take a look at JavaHokie's Page, which features an exclusive on-line column by a certain feline who has been lying low for a long time, ever since he fed a famous local sports reporter some bad information about a recruit named Isabelle.  JavaHokie has brought the cat out of hiding, and the results are ours to enjoy.

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