Lobos spring game draws healthy crowd
to Facebook last week, offering a one-minute tutorial on how coaches can rescue their dry-erase white boards if someone accidentally scribbles on them with permanent marker.
He demonstrated by drawing three X’s on his white board using a black Sharpie. The trick, he said, was to take a regular dry-erase marker and scribble over the top of the marks, then wipe it off with one of those felt erasers.
Just like that, problem solved. Thing is, he posted the video on April Fool’s Day. It had to be a prank, right?
We here in The New Mexican sports department tested it and, shockingly, it worked. No joke, give it a shot. ◆◆◆
New UNM men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino said he spoke with UCLA’s Mick Cronin and Gonzaga’s Mark Few before taking the Lobos’ post. He was curious about their thoughts on the UNM job.
Pitino counts Cronin as one of his best friends in the coaching industry and said Few is someone he turns to on occasion to compare notes.
“He [Few] knows, you know, the potential of New Mexico,” Pitino said. “If you’re trying to do great things, you look at a Gonzaga, and everybody wants to be Gonzaga. Well, Gonzaga’s got a lot of people that are in alignment to go win championships and that doesn’t happen overnight. A lot of hard work goes into that, but the one thing Mark Few told me is he feels like New Mexico could be special.”
Pitino said he got a call from Few when Pitino’s name surfaced as a candidate for the Lobos’ top job.
“He said that is a place you’ve got to seriously consider,” Pitino said. “I look at the West Coast, there’s three really [good] places. Certainly San Diego State you’ve got to give them their due as well, but Arizona, Gonzaga, New Mexico have a basketball-crazed fan base and you can do a lot of special things there. I spoke with Mark about that, I spoke with Mick about that.” ◆◆◆
Former Lobo point guard Drue Drinnon posted on Instagram on Saturday night saying he has committed to Texas State. A part-time starter during his freshman year at UNM in 2019-20, he transferred to Navarro (Texas) College last year.
The comings and goings are getting more and more difficult to keep up with. At last count on Sunday morning, there were 1,191 names in the NCAA transfer portal. That included five players on UNM’s 2020-21 roster; Nolan Dorsey (already signed with Holy Cross) along with uncommitted players Isaiah Marin, Bayron Matos, Keith McGee and Logan Padgett.
It’s entirely likely none of those players will wear a Lobo uniform again. Pitino said last week he had not spoken to Matos or McGee.
Then again, the new coach may be out there doing a little window shopping himself. Seven of his players from Minnesota are currently in the portal. ◆◆◆
New Mexico State has finalized its 12-game football schedule for the 2021 season. Among the highlights: Only five home games, a home-andhome with Hawaii and two dates with teams from the SEC. That includes a Nov. 13 road game at (gulp) Alabama.
The Aggies will open and close the season at Aggie Memorial Stadium, marking the first on-campus games since 2019. Thanks for that, COVID-19. In between they’ll play a brutal 10-game stretch with seven road dates in six states and four time zones. ◆◆◆
Let’s talk baseball. Opening day was last Thursday and there were 23 players and coaches on big league rosters who once wore an Albuquerque Isotopes uniform. Among them are the familiar names of Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon, German Marquez, Raimel Tapia and Jon Gray. ◆◆◆
The Pecos League finalized the teams in this year’s Pacific Division. Or so it says.
As anyone who follows the Pecos League can attest, the only certainty with plans in the Pecos League is they should always be written in pencil, not chiseled in marble slabs.
The league announced on its Facebook page Friday that six teams will make up the California-only division. Excluded from that list was former league champion High Desert as well as Lancaster. Both had been in the league’s plans for months before getting dropped.
The league went so far as to schedule High Desert home games for the middle of the week. ◆◆◆
Now let’s try some MLB and Pecos League together.
The big news during the first two days of the big league season has been the otherworldly hot start by Yermin Mercedes, a 28-year-old journeyman who went 8-for-8 to open the season with the Chicago White Sox. It’s the most consecutive hits to start a season in the modern era, which dates to 1900.
Turns out, Mercedes spent some time in the Pecos League. Drafted by the Washington Nationals, he spent three years in their farm system before finding his way to the Douglas Diablos of the Pecos League in 2014. He played 18 games there, then joined the White Sands (Alamogordo) Pupfish that same season.
In 37 games with the ’Fish he batted .417 with 15 home runs and 56 RBI. His OPS was 1.259. Not once was he intentionally walked.
An interesting tidbit? That was the same season the Santa Fe Fuego won the league title, although the Fort Marcy boys never actually played a single game against Douglas or White Sands that year.