Something else just occured to me that is slightly different than 20+ years ago. The schedule for the games was a Friday night, then a doubleheader on Saturday.
Conference series, since the first game on Saturday was 7 innings, the need for a closer was much less than today. You really only needed a reliever for the second game on Saturday. Especially when Swindell thew 15 complete games! That sounds way too high, I'm thinking, okay SMU didn't play baseball, that leaves 8 teams, 7 series, so he pitched a complete game every Friday night, + 8 more complete games against the nonconference teams. Whoa !
So, I guess I am saying is that it's absolutely vital to have a pitching coach who can inspire his troops(especially relievers) to perform at a high level.
Conference series, since the first game on Saturday was 7 innings, the need for a closer was much less than today. You really only needed a reliever for the second game on Saturday. Especially when Swindell thew 15 complete games! That sounds way too high, I'm thinking, okay SMU didn't play baseball, that leaves 8 teams, 7 series, so he pitched a complete game every Friday night, + 8 more complete games against the nonconference teams. Whoa !
So, I guess I am saying is that it's absolutely vital to have a pitching coach who can inspire his troops(especially relievers) to perform at a high level.
