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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2009 > November > 22
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Why oh why am I in Wyoming?
SOMEWHERE IN WYOMING — The chartered bus rumbles across I-80 at 75 miles an hour, the speed limit in Wyoming, and as I gaze out the window I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles - north, south, east, west.
Not a tree. Not one tree. Elizabeth Browning clearly was never here. On last year’s trip, former baseball writer Gerry Fraley said, “I’m as lonely as a woodpecker in Wyoming.”
Why am I in Wyoming - and for the first time ever, I might add? I am a rookie, the Guest of Honor, on Wyomania VII. It’s an annual event put together by Hall of Fame baseball writer Tracy Ringolsby, a staunch supporter of the University of Wyoming football program.
THIS IS THE seventh year he has invited a bunch of mostly veteran and aging sports writers, plus a few scouts and other baseball people, to a weekend gathering that ends with attendance at the University of Wyoming’s final home football game.
What Ringolsby hopes is that there will be 10 inches of snow and howling winds at 20 mph so we all can suffer in the great outdoors. Chicago writer Phil Rogers calls this event, “A hunting trip without guns.”
This year’s Wyoming opponent was undefeated TCU, the No. 4 team in the country, and the Wyoming coaches hoped for a blizzard and gale winds, “Because those Texas boys won’t want to play in that.”
TCU was favored by 32½ points - but the game comes later. First we all gathered in Denver and our first night we had dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange - established in 1893 by a guy who rode with William Wild Bill Cody and the owner of Colorado liquor license No. 1.
THE MENU, uh, a bit different. Rattlesnake and Rocky Mountain oysters are appetizer choices. For the uninitiated, Rocky Mountain oysters are buffalo testicles. I try one after I’m told they are heavily breaded and if you dip them in enough sauce they aren’t bad.
With one bite I knew they were not breaded nearly heavily enough nor was there enough sauce.
The main menu? Tibetan yak. Or elk. Or Buffalo. Or quail. When the waitress mentioned the Tibetan yak, Texas Rangers media relations director John Blake asked, “Is the Tibetan yak fresh?”
I opted for the buffalo steak, which was tasty but a bit dry until I covered in with A-1 sauce.
As guest of honor, I was presented an official University of Wyoming brown and gold football game jersey ( No. 37 for my 37 years of covering the Reds) with my name on the back - Prince Hal. We all have nicknames and I was dubbed Prince Hal years ago by Toronto baseball writer Bob Elliott.
Did you know only three Division I football programs have brown in their colors - Brown University, Bowling Green and Wyoming.
The next morning the Wyomaniacs, 22 strong, took a bus to Ringolsby’s ranch near Cheyenne for lunch. He has four show horses that his wife, Jane, rides in shows. But talk about the lone prairie.
AFTER WE LEFT the interstate, we drove a few miles on a two-lane asphalt road. Suddenly, a sign appeared that said, “Pavement ends.” New York Mets scout Bryan Lambe, who lives on Long Island, wanted to stop the bus and take the sign home.
He asked Ringolsby how big Cheyenne is and he said, “It’s the biggest city in the state, about 50,000 people. Said Lambe, “We have that many people in two square blocks in Nassau County.”
As we traveled over a dirt road for a couple of miles, we were up close and personal with herds of antlered antelope, so close to the bus you could almost reach out and touch them, if you desired to touch antelope. And there was jackelope, too (very large rabbits).
That night we checked into a Marriott in Laramie, the state’s third largest burg (27,000) and home to not only the Wyoming Cowboys, but the tallest building in that state - a student residence hall that is eight stories tall.
After dinner at the university, we went to the Altitudes bar to await the Wyoming pep band. Every Friday night before a home game the pep band visits every bar in Laramie, marches through, and plays the fight song, which is “Cowboy Joe.”
THE MORNING of the game was a balmy 35, with no wind, much to TCU’s delight. And the Horned Frogs didn’t seem intimidated by the sign in front of War Memorial Stadium that said, “Welcome to 7,200 feet (two thousand feet higher than mile-high Denver and we crossed a pass between Denver and Laramie that was 8,760 feet).”
We all knew TCU would win and win big - and not just because they are much better than the ‘Pokes (Wyoming). If TCU wins out and goes to a BCS bowl, it means $800,000 to $1 million to each school in the Mountain West conference. If TCU lost to Wyoming, that would be out the window.
Just to make sure, well, this was the first college football game I ever saw where one team (visiting TCU) did not have a single flag thrown against it. And Wyoming was penalized 30 yards on one play - 15 for roughing the passer and another 15-yarder dead ball penalty after the play for unsportsmanlike conduct.
For the game, Wyoming had five first downs and 175 yards of offense. The score was 45-10 and it could have been much worse but TCU called off the horses after three quarters.
Delightfully, there was a McCoy on both teams. Wyoming’s very busy punter was a McCoy and he kicked side-saddle rugby-style, twice covering more than 60 yards in the thin air.
And TCU has a kick returner named McCoy who took one back about 80 yards for a touchdown, the first play after Wyoming tied the game, 10-10, early in the second quarter.
I’m not sure TCU is the No. 4 team in the country, but I am sure I had a great time in Wyoming and look forward to next year’s Wyomania VIII, when I won’t be a Wyomaniac rookie and I’ll know not to order the Rocky Mountain oysters.
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