Friday, April 27, 2007

Yawn…

Well, it’s almost that time again: Time for the NFL draft. Like the Stanley Cup playoffs and “Meet The Press,“ it’s one of those things I always think will be interesting before actually tuning in and realizing I’m bored out of my mind.

Fortunately, the last two years I haven’t had to worry about watching the draft, since Auburn baseball has played an important series each weekend. In 2005, AU played Florida, the first meeting between Tom Slater and Florida’s Pat McMahon, Slater’s former boss. I spent most of that Saturday in the Auburn football offices waiting for conference calls with Carnell Williams, Ronnie Brown, Carlos Rogers and Jason Campbell before hurrying back to Plainsman Park for the end of the baseball game.

Last year, I spent draft weekend in Tuscaloosa, covering the Alabama-Auburn series—including an epic six-hour rain delay that Sunday that remains one of the most boring days of my life.

This year, I’ll be back at Plainsman Park, occasionally looking over my shoulder at the ESPN broadcast and mostly following it on my computer. I’ll also be live-blogging the draft with a mixture of actual analysis and flip jokes. Regular readers know that flip jokes will predominate.

Meanwhile, here at Plainsman Park, it’s 4-1, Arkansas, in the bottom of the second inning. No. 7 Arkansas touched up Auburn starter Evan Crawford for four runs in the top of the first, including a two-run home run by Danny Hamblin. Hamblin has 15 homers this year and bats SIXTH in Arkansas’ lineup. That should give you an idea of how good the Hogs’ hitters are. Auburn just got another run on an RBI single by freshman Ross Smith, who has struggled quite a bit this season.

Without Paul Burnside—and with a bullpen that had to put in quite a bit of work in Wednesday’s 16-inning monstrosity at Troy—Auburn could be in trouble this series. I’ll add more baseball thoughts later today.