MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Another week and the Pioneers are back on the road.
This one is a little different in that the team will play at Middle Tennessee
and North Texas, which means a flight between games, instead of a short bus
ride.
The team arrived in
Nashville last night around 7:30 p.m., went straight to the hotel and enjoyed a
chicken sandwich in the hotel restaurant before heading to the rooms.
This is the first time
most of these players have been to Murfreesboro, since we did not play here
last year. The ones that had been here before realized that this hotel is a
nice upgrade from the previous one, which was not bad but did seem to be going
through some sort of renovations every time we stayed there.
Murfreesboro is one of
those towns that tends to prompt people to question how hard it is to get to
these places in the Sun Belt Conference. However, the 'Boro is just 36.1 miles
down the highway from Nashville. By comparison, the Ritchie Center is 34.4
miles from DIA.
Civil War historians might
recognize Murfreesboro as the site of Stones River National Battlefield, which
is about a mile from the team hotel.
As for the school, the
sign out front says Middle Tennessee State University (or MTSU), but the fine
people here prefer if it's referred to as just Middle Tennessee. According to
the media guide, "Middle Tennessee is a destination school of undergraduates
from the state of Tennessee." It being so close to Music City, MTSU includes a
Department of Recording Industry, which is the university's most popular
program.
Some of the more notable
alumni include former U.S. Senator Al Gore Sr., Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee
and Ultimate Fighting Champion Shane Primm. Vice President Al Gore was a
visiting professor at MTSU.
Baseball fans in Denver
might also recognize MTSU baseball standout Claude "Jayhawk" Owens, who was
drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft and was a
member of the inaugural Rockies team.
The Gateway:
As the team bus rolled into DIA yesterday afternoon, it pulled up to the gate
for commercial vehicles. The driver's card did not work, so the driver threw
the bus in reverse, backed up about 20-30 feet and cut hard to the left to head
to the upper level.
The reason this was
notable was because it sparked a discussion about whether or not the team had
made it through that gate yet this year. For at least four-straight road trips,
the bus has had to perform that exact routine each time we arrive at DIA. Most
of us could not remember a time this year when it worked, as planned.
Needless to say, it's not
a problem for anyone on the team, especially since getting dropped off right
outside the ticket counter is actually easier.
It did result in more than
a couple smiles on the bus, nonetheless.
Update: In the
last blog, we discussed a bus that caught fire on the way from Jonesboro, Ark.,
to Memphis, Tenn. As helpful reader (and assistant coach riding the bus at the
time) Todd Rinehart pointed out, that memorable ride occurred in 2001, not 2004
as reported. It followed a 90-75 Denver victory.
According to Rinehart,
everything else in the story was completely accurate, including Hyder grabbing
the slab of ribs, while everyone else reached for their personal effects.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights
- 14
Total Mileage
Flown - 10,340
Total Bus Miles
- 1,403
Total Number of
Hotels - 10
Total Number of
Different Airports - 12
Total Number of
Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of
Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of
Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times
the Team Bus Made It Through the DIA Gate This Season (estimated) - 0
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