Texas Tech University Athletics
Red Raiders End Red-Black Series
October 10, 1999 | Baseball
Oct. 10, 1999
LUBBOCK, Texas - By Scott Cody, Texas Tech Athletic Media Relations Department
The annual Red-Black Intrasquad series got underway Monday. The event marks the last week of fall practice for the Red Raider baseball team and is a time when coaches can evaluate talent and see just what needs to be worked on in the offseason. However, the players have a slightly different view of the seven-game series.
As anyone who has ever played the game can attest, a baseball locker room differs from most others. No one is safe from a prank. Freshmen, upperclassmen, pitchers, and fielders are all fair game. Just ask junior pitcher Clancy Fossum.
"Kevin Tracey put my shoes on the left-field fence," Fossum said.
But just as expected, every prank has its repercussions.
"It already came back to haunt me," Tracey, a senior pitcher from Oregon, said. "The worst smelling fish bait you ever smelled?in the brim of my hat." According to Tracey, there is no doubt who was behind the fish bait, "I know Clancy was all about it."
Some Raiders know the drill and choose, so they say, to avoid it all together.
"I don't want to get my fingers dirty. If you're going to pull something, that means something's going to happen to you," said senior outfielder Marco Cunningham.
Chad Reynolds, a senior pitcher from Wolfforth, is in his fifth Red-Black series and is considered by many in the locker room as the expert on pranks.
"Oh, there's Vaseline in hats, Icy Hot in jocks, a little bit of everything," Reynolds said.
Pranks aren't the only thing these players use this series for. Bragging rights are just as important. Winning or losing the series decides who is the taunted or the taunting.
Senior Mark Austry hadn't lost a game in his two previous Red-Black series. Until Wednesday, that is.
"The sun shines on a dog's (rear end) once in a while," Austry said. "It won't happen again though. I guarantee it."
--TTU--
