Sunday in the sun

Sitting in Section C at Lindsey Nelson Stadium this afternoon (right behind home plate!), I began to hum an old Beatles tune.

"Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun. And I say, it's alright!"

Yes, our heat source from 93 million miles away showed up today, giving off enough rays to make me forget all about Friday afternoon's bone-chilling outing. But, better than that, the Tennessee Volunteers remembered what the big aluminum bat resting on their shoulders are for and put away Eastern Michigan 5-1 to take the series.

Starting pitcher Lance McClain, from South-Doyle, turned in eight innings of fine work, allowing one run on seven hits to earn the win.

McClain looked shaky in the first, giving up the run and three hits. A longtime observer of the young pitcher from South Knoxville leaned up midway through the first to say that McClain has trouble when he finds himself in a hole.

But the Vols (2-4) took care of that early, scoring three in the lower half of the inning to go up for good. From there, McClain put it on cruise control. No, that's not quite right. He pitched his guts out.

The game is more fun when you aren't catching hypothermia. Today's outing was tailor-made for a sunny Sunday afternoon. I discarded my gloves, unbuttoned the Tigers jacket and stretched out. This was more like it.

A fan tells me that coach Rod Delmonico lit into the team after yesterday's embarassing 6-3 loss. He was quoted in the Sentinel saying "This isn't Tennessee baseball." Whatever he said worked.

Maybe there is a better game than baseball. Football is fun. Basketball is bombastic. Lefty and Tiger can often make golf worth looking into.

You do what you want. Give me this laid-back kids game.

Hey, it could be worse. At least I've never heard a voice telling me to plow under my corn...