A&M’s Birk has baseball in his blood from birth
COLLEGE STATION — Twenty-two years ago, Angie Birk asked her husband, Tony, a Chicago Cubs fan, for a favorite name when they found out they were having a boy.
“Ernie,” a hopeful Tony replied.
“What else?” Angie countered. “Ryne?” Twenty-one years later, former Seven Lakes High star Ryne Birk is a firstteam All-Southeastern Conference baseball player at Texas A&M and, like former Cubs star Ryne Sandberg, a smooth-fielding second baseman. Begging the question: Would Birk have played shortstop or perhaps first base had he been named for Ernie Banks?
In any case, Birk’s Aggies, ranked No. 1 in the final Baseball America regular-season poll, take on No. 12 Vanderbilt at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala., with a national seed (top eight) already all but locked up in the coming NCAA Tournament.
“My dad still had to convince my mom to name me Ryne, because she knew how tough a name it would be for people to say who don’t watch baseball,” Ryne Birk said with a chuckle. “I’ve heard it said about 10 different ways.”
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“My mom and dad are both huge baseball fans,” he said. “As soon as I could walk, my dad had a bat and glove in my hands. I just fell in love with the sport.”
The family has visited every major league baseball park, save for the new Yankees, Marlins and Mets stadiums. But the Birks did make the old stadiums in those cities.
Birk’s favorite park these days is tucked along the railroad tracks on the A&M campus. The Aggies will return to Blue Bell Park to play host to an NCAA regional in early June and likely a super regional should they advance.
But first, A&M tries to keep its momentum going in the SEC tourney. Seven of the league’s teams finished in the top 12 of the last Baseball America poll. In another nod to the conference’s competitiveness, the Aggies enter the postseason No. 1 but only as the SEC’s third-seeded team behind Mississippi State and South Carolina.
“This will be the best tournament that we’re going to play in moving forward, as far as the talent goes,” A&M coach Rob Childress said.
The Aggies are led by SEC Player of the Year Boomer White, Birk and pitchers Kyle Simonds and Mark Ecker.
Birk, a 5-10 junior who earned All-Greater Houston honors in each of his four seasons at Seven Lakes, is batting .321 with seven home runs. He also has made a scant two errors in 202 chances this season.
The Birk family moved to Katy from out of state when he was 5.
“With all of my buddies being UT or A&M fans, I would just root for the other team they were playing, just so I could mess with them,” Kirk said.
Then A&M and Childress came calling on the recruiting front, and Birk paid a visit to College Station.
“A&M is so close to home, and I wanted my family to be able to attend games,” Birk said. “That was a big deal to me.” He has had no regrets. “I just fell in love with the place, and this has been the best three years of my life,” Birk said.