Roundup From BN Walk: Cole's Numbers, Lane's Recovery & Chow Note

Hey folks. My posting is going to be very sporadic this week. I had a prescheduled surgery yesterday morning that will slow me down a for bit. Although I have to say there was nothing better than another wonderful game by our baseball team to alleviate the soreness (it was better than percocet!).

I do have a funny story to share which I emailed to the frontpagers yesterday. So I am getting ready for surgery and getting hauled into the OR by a team of doctors and residents. As I am doing small talk with that crew, it turns out one of the residents (med students) was a Trojan graduate (she was pretty cool). As soon as I heard she was a Trojan graduate, I let out a "oh no." Within seconds the surgeon said "no need to worry here. Knowing you full well, I made sure there is also a UCLA graduate in the OR." I don't remember anything else afterwards after I woke up from sleep. Looks like so far so good!

So as for yesterday I have no idea how the Bruins won since Mike Patrick and the ESPN crew had us convinced TCU was on their way to becoming champions since they had beaten Texas and with the best catcher since Johnny Bench. Thankfully GC saved one of his best peformances in what has been a dream season. Blair Angulo has more on Cole's surreal numbers:

• 13 -- the number of strikeouts Cole recorded Monday night, the most in a CWS game since Cal State Fullerton's Jason Windsor fanned 14 in 2004.
• 13 -- the number of TCU batters that went down swinging.
• 97 -- the speed of Cole's fastball in the eighth inning.
• 1 -- the number of TCU hits through six frames.
• 2 -- the number of times Cole convinced head coach John Savage to keep him in the game.
• 9 -- consecutive batters Cole retired before Jason Coats singled to start a three-run rally in the seventh.
• 6 -- the number three-ball counts Cole got himself into.
• 151 -- the number of strikeouts Cole has this season, one shy of teammate Trevor Bauer's single-season program mark (set Saturday).

Nothing short of amazing.

One of the reasons this season has been specially satisfying is to see how GC and his team-mates have bounced back from last year's disappointing season when they failed to make the tourney. Perhaps our hoops team can learn a little something from the way the baseball counterparts responded with an epic season. One of the keys for next season will be the health of Brendan Lane. According to a report from Sacramento, the Rocklin native is having a productive summer and recovering well:

Lane suffered another sprain on Oct. 19 during the first week of practice at UCLA. He was sidelined for three weeks. He had two more sprains during the season, the latter on Feb. 23 caused him to miss a total of five games.

"He just got out of his ankle boot and should start running again sometime in the next couple of weeks," Taylor said. "They needed to tighten up the ligaments because of the numerous ankle injuries."

Although he isn't expected to play basketball for several more months, Taylor said Lane looks good, though his boyish features are changing.

"He's still able to lift weights," Taylor said. "He's up to 220 pounds. He looks so much more like a man."

Hopefully the coaches make sure Lane is completely healed before he get back on the court. I really believe before he is done, he will have a very productive career as a Bruin.

Lastly, interesting article on Norm Chow showed up in a paper in Hawaii. It is from a Hawaii perspective in which the writer hopes Chow will give the UH some pointers before their tussle against Southern Cal. It's kind of wishful thinking but the article is still amusing to read. That's what I have for now. As I said, I am going to take it slow this week. Patroclus, Ryan et al will keep the show running on BN. Of course it is all up to rest of you as well to step up and keep each other informed. Team effort - just like the baseball team representing the blue and gold.

GO BRUINS,