May 30, 2002

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

We arrived in Tuscaloosa yesterday at about 3:30 our time. We are now in the Central time zone, so the flight from Atlanta to Tuscaloosa only took five minutes.

Anytime we are on the road I like to have our guys get some local flavor for meals. We always eat as a team rather than give each player their meal money. This way the team spends more time together, and the guys don't gamble away their meal money.

Everyone here told me that the one place that was a must stop for barbeque was Dreamland. So we packed up the bus and headed out yesterday to a destination where the only food served is ribs and white bread. We pulled into the parking lot of a little old shack off the beaten path. I immediately realized that our dress code was a little off, but we forged ahead.

The waiter said he would start us off with six slabs of ribs and add on from there. The walls were covered with old license plates, sports memorabilia (heavy emphasis on Bear Bryant), and CBS Sports banners. They had some potato salad left over from a catering job, so we had an expanded menu.

There was a lot of conversational noise as we waited for our food, but once the ribs arrived things got pretty quiet. The only sounds were lips smacking and sighs of culinary pleasure. Some more slabs were delivered and everyone was gorged by the end of dinner. It was a little spicier than I usually like, but delicious nonetheless.

I never thought that I would eat again. Andrea, Dawn and I went down to the little mall after dinner. Not to shop. We needed to walk for awhile. I stayed up reading in the lobby until midnight, in an effort to stave off the impending case of heartburn. To my amazement, the local pizza guy was in three different times to feed our boys. How do they do it?

Today we got a chance to work out on the Alabama field. It's a real nice surface and a nice ballpark. Our guys seem ready to go. The local media is really focusing on the possible Alabama - Auburn matchup. I hope that we can make that happen in an elimination game. There was a press conference before practice. Gabe and Travis did a good job with the press.

I made a decision back home to start Travis NeSmith in the first game. This is not being done because I don't respect Auburn. It's just that the idea of these regionals is to win them. I really believe that this will give us the best chance to do that. After talking it over with some seniors, this is the route we are going to follow.

Everyone says that the first game is the most important. But in a four team regional, that second game is critical. If you win the first game, you don't want to lose the second and have to immediately play again against a team coming off a win from that morning. If you lose the first game, you would have your number one or two ready to keep you alive and get you to the championship day. In this scenario, you also could make your one and two available in relief to nail down a win. Sounds good, let's see if it works! If it doesn't it's a bad decision.

Our guys stopped at Toys Are Us on the way home from dinner to buy a wiffle ball and bat. The last team I had do that in a regional wound up in the World Series and credited wiffle ball for the loose and aggressive way they played. Whatever works. KC