ALLOW US TO INTRODUCE OURSELVES
You start to put some rings round your trunk and notice that the gray hairs are winning the battle with your natural color a little more and – like it or not – you figure out that sometimes dreams take a while to come true. But dang if dreams deferred aren’t just as satisfying as the ones that arrive a lot sooner.
Since you are reading this and are on this site, the assumption is that you are a college baseball fan and, more precisely, a Texas Tech Baseball fan. And that means you are witness to a dream deferred finally coming to fruition, and I can’t tell you how excited I am that you’re along for the ride.
This site is the fruit of an idea hatched in Baton Rouge, La., while I was covering the LSU Baseball program. It came really close to getting off the drawing board there before fate threw a detour in my path that brought me back to Lubbock in 2018.
Turned out that the dream was transferable – more on that in a minute – and once I reconnected with the right people and met another kindred baseball spirit, the embers of the original dream were stoked back into a flame that just wouldn’t go away.
Which is where we have arrived with RedRaiderDugout.com, an information-loaded landing place for Tech Baseball fans. This is a site for all your news, notes and entertainment from three guys who have been around the college baseball block quite a few times and a younger cat with the savvy and modern skills to pull it all together.
Some of you know me from a previous stint at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal from 1997-2003, where I worked with another member of our team, George Watson. A friendship was born back then that has endured the years like the ivy on the walls at Wrigley Field, and I’m excited to collaborate again with the big fella.
I also got to know another one of my new teammates, Mike Gustafson, back then through a mutual friendship with his former Monterey and Red Raider teammate, Jimmy Webster. Even as down-to-earth as the Doc is, it’s hard not to be a little starstruck when he starts talking about the college baseball people he knows and the things he has seen over the years.
The fourth member of our quartet – you might think of him as the cleanup hitter – is Keith Patrick, the brains behind this whole operation. He shares the same kind of dedication and work ethic that I take a lot of pride in as my foundation … plus he has those velvety pipes to anchor the podcast element of the site.
Others may have gotten familiar with me since I launched another dream project, HubCityPreps.com, a site that shines a light on high school sports (which, by the way, ain’t going anywhere!). If you know me from that realm, you know that anything I do, it’s done with passion. Those just getting to know me, I trust that will be apparent very quickly.
It’s that shared passion with my RedRaiderDugout.com mates and you, the audience/fans, that makes this new venture so enticing. We want to jump quickly into the top spot as your go-to source for Texas Tech Baseball info with a blend of the historical knowledge that Gus and George bring, the connections Keith has established through Dinger Derby, and my humble skills as a writer who has covered college baseball at the highest level from 2008-17 (LSU and the SEC) and is champing at the bit to get back in the game.
That LSU connection is something that is at the core of my excitement and anticipation of this site. While I covered the Tigers, one of the coolest parts of that journey was the chance to dive into their tradition and what it took to for them to ascend into one of the best programs in the country.
Some things to consider and see if you don’t detect a similar plot line here: When Skip Bertman got to LSU in 1984, the Tigers had never been to the College World Series. They got to Omaha by his third season and went back three more times and came home empty-handed until they won the first of five national championships on his watch.
The rest is college baseball history – a wonderful legacy that has played a major part role in where and how the sport stands today. And right now is when Texas Tech, in its 9th season under Tim Tadlock, is on the precipice of the delivering the same level of successful impact LSU has had.
- Five seasons with 45 or more wins.
- Four trips to the CWS in six tries, each one ending a little later.
- Top-five rankings as the norm.
Safe to say, the Red Raiders have arrived as a national power with just one thing left to add to their resume. And here’s a hunch that once the first trophy is secured, there will be more to follow.
Which is why now is the absolute perfect time for this site. The hunger is there from a passionate and loyal fanbase and we want to be the cooks in the kitchen who concoct the perfect menu for you to choose from.
We will have game/series previews, easy-to-identify graphics with nuts & bolts info, in-game updates, game recaps, feature stories, recruiting information, stories and information with connections to the past and, of course, the popular podcast hosted by Keith. We feel like we have a perfect blend of institutional knowledge with Gus and George blended with a passion for storytelling from somebody who has done it for most of my adult life and who just happens to love the game as much as all of you.
So, follow along as we get this project up and running. We’re thrilled to be here and hope our passion can match that of the wonderful Texas Tech fan base that has been along for the ride so far.
You can follow us on a variety of social media platforms (see below), and if you are interested in sponsorship or know someone who might be, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, our contact information is right HERE or click the Masthead up top anytime.
