THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1979
Page 15
wig
Little fills big shoes at shortstop
By SEAN PETTY
Battalion Sports Staff
ebster’s Dictionary defines twig
Ismail shoot or branch. Texas
baseball coach Tom Chandler
|es Twig as a hustling shortstop
[Charlotte, North Carolina. So
right?
jm’t worry, you can still count
[ebster’s to have the proper def-
|n and you can also count on
i A&M’s Bryan “Twig” Little to
l[iaue coming through on the
pall field for the Aggies this sea-
ig, as he has been called since
a mere shoot, is doing a good
lling the big hole left by former
e All-America shortstop,
rt Bonner.
knew I had some big shoes to
hen I came here,” Little said,
what I’ve heard, he (Bonner)
must be some kind of hero down
here
came to A&M by way of
Loulsburg Junior College in North
Carolina where he played baseball
and believe it or not, starred on the
bash ball team at Louisburg.
j; Chandler and the Aggies can
thank Mr. and Mrs. Bill Little for
^Bklition of their son to the Aggie
lineup. It was a case of Twig not
wanting to stray too far from his
loots
y parents moved here from
North Carolina and I just wanted to
lech er to home,” Little said in his
dovviSouthern drawl. “I was drafted
by the Los Angeles Dodgers last
. yearland Coach Chandler had heard
“I would love to play basketball
here but the seasons conflict with
each other. I really believe I could
play basketball at A&M. But I know
baseball’s my game.”
Both the Dodgers and Coach
Chandler believe the baseball
diamond is the place for Little who
has the tough job of being the
leadoff batter for the Aggies. So far,
Little is hitting .268 and has a .920
fielding percentage.
“I’ve just been tryin’ to do my
duty on the field,” he said. “I’ve
been tryin’ to be a leader ever since
Musta
jrces usl
Homai 1
travel It
'exasTf
Texas
be on.
e Roy Usi of nn so he asked me if I wanted to
playlhere. I knew Texas A&M had a
good baseball team and that I would
be close to home so I came on down.
Bryan Little
I got here. I’m the leadoff batter and
I should get on base and make
things happen.”
The right-handed switch hitter
acquired his nickname from his
brothers when he was eight-years-
old.
“They knew I wasn’t gonna ever
be very big so they called me
‘Twig’,” he said. “And then I had
“Twig” on the back of my basketball
warmups at Louisburg. So I guess
I’ve just grown up with the name.”
Now that Little is transplanted in
the Brazos Valley and firmly planted
at shortstop for the Aggies, he sees
nothing but happy days ahead.
“I love it here,” he said. “I just
knew the weather would be so good
I United Press International
CINCINNATI — The National
League season opens today when
the [Cincinnati Reds, minus a
quarter-century of experience with
out Pete Rose and Sparky Ander
son! entertain the San Francisco
Giants, an improving club that some
pick to win the NL West this year.
I j The 1:30 p.m. (CST) opener is the
only National League game
scheduled Wednesday. The Ameri-
S i ca §League also has only one contest
)allasC May, a night game between
! tCalifornia and Seattle.
I
Ml
tt
For the Reds, the opener means
the D (
ig'
attk;
Oiler*
he SupetP e y[ w iN begin learning if they are a
5teeW bettpr or worse ballclub without
Rose and Anderson.
, , t For the Giants, the new year is a
| as an( |«chan< v to turn a surprisingly strong
^H v j e !t|l978 season into something even
better — maybe a Western Division
Jtitle.
i ; I L Cincinnati, the oldest profes-
0 , sional baseball team, is the tra
ditional host of the NL opener.
U|mpires figured to boycott the
game if there was no last-minute
lU g settlement in their contract dispute
a ™ e ' |with (he leagues.
Tprhe National League has made
provisions to have some kind of um
pires at the opener,” a Reds official
said! “Where they’re doming from,
we just don’t know. ”
Umpires from local amateur
leagues figured to be called in.
The game’s pitching matchup will
be a dandy — San Francisco send
ing Vida Blue (18-10 last year)
against Cincy’s Tom Seaver (16-14).
The Giants also have a lineup
change for opening day — 26-year-
old Mike Ivie has beaten out 41-
year-old Willie McCovey for the
starting first base job.
Manager Joe Altobelli said the
decision really wasn’t difficult.
“It had to be Ivie,” he said. “He’s
a potential superstar.” Still,
McCovey, who says he’s willing to
accept any role on the team, figures
to do a lot of pinch-hitting and some
starting on a spot basis.
A UPI preseason survey of 36
baseball experts predicted a tight
Giants-Dodgers battle for the NL
West title, with the Reds a distant
third.
As for Opening Day hoopla, the
59th annual noontime parade
through downtown streets is
scheduled. And, in a wacky pro
motional stunt, the baseball that will
be used for the ceremonial first
pitch is being brought 200 miles by
canoe up the Licking River from
Morehead, Ky.
The game also will be the first
played on new Astroturf at the
stadium. i
here and now the rain is wipin’ us
out. It’s really gonna be great next
year because I have a buddy coming
down from North Carolina. I’m hav-
, ing a good time right now though.
“I feel good at shortstop. We re
all still gettin’ used to each other on
the field and the guys are learning
how I play and what I can do.
The Aggies haven’t had too much
time to get used to each other on the
field because of the wonderful
spring weather in Aggieland.
we could just play more we’d
be in good shape,” Little said. “But
the rain has really hurt us. We
played a lot of ball in Miami and our
bats and pitching we re really com
ing around. And now we’ve had all
these layoffs where we ll play one
game a week and then play three on
the weekend. It’s just hard on
everyone.”
While Coach Chandler has been
trying to somehow appease the sun
god and get the grass of Olsen Field
dried up, the Texas Longhorns have
been playing games as often as they
can on the artificial turf of Disch-
Faulk field.
“I like natural turf better than ar
tificial turf and if we just had a tarp
for the infield we could play every
day,” Little said. “You can play with
a wet outfield but not with a wet
infield because that’s where most of
the plays are made. When we’ve
played here they’ve put extra dirt on
the base paths and it’s a lot softer
and just makes things awfully dif
ficult out there.”
The Aggies have been limited to
practicing under the stands at Olsen
Field yet Little feels they will still
be right in the Southwest Confer
ence race at the end of the season.
“I think we re gonna do a good
job,” he said. “If we can just get
everyone hitting at the same time
we ll be great. We’ve had games
where everyone was hitting and
other games where we couldn’t buy
a hit.
“If we get some good weather and
games at home we ll be O.K. We
just need to go up and take three
from TCU this weekend and finish
the rest of the season strong. ”
If everyone has as much optimism
as the Twig who wears number one
for the Aggies, they probably will be
right in the thick of the SWC race in
late April. But for now, the Aggies
must concentrate on the TCU
Horned Frogs this weekend in Fort
Worth.
eds and Giants
pen ’79 season
Wednesday Night
TEXAS HALL OF FAM
presents
“The Debonaires”
AND
BEER BUST NIGHT
(FREE DRAFT BEER ALL NIGHT)
Admission Gals $2 Guys $4
Open 7-12
— SATURDAY NIGHT — 8-1
DOTTSY
Advanced Tickets $3.50. Sold at Texas Hall of Fame, WTAW, Tip Top
Records.
Bryan Little puts the tag on Bayor shortstop Matt Schaper
Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture Club
PLANT SALE
Saturday April 7th
10 a.m. till 2 p.m.
m c *°ci/s
Floriculture Greenhouses
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