“The facilities are really nice, and they have a crowd every game,” Parker said in a telephone interview this afternoon. “I really like playing in front of fans.”

Parker hit .480 with 11 home runs for his summer team, the Elk City Travelers, last summer. He visited WSU last weekend, including the intrasquad scrimmage that drew about 1,000 fans for the baseball and a first look at new artificial turf.

“I liked it a lot,” Parker said of the turf. “It’s probably the best you can play on.”

Parker hit .505 last spring as a junior for Roff High, located in southern Oklahoma. The average was among the top 15 batters in Oklahoma small schools, according to The Daily Oklahoman.

May 16, 1989

The skinny: WSU catcher Eric Wedge is named MVC Player of the Year. Pitcher Greg Brummett is named Pitcher of the Year. Coach Gene Stephenson is named Coach of the Year.

The quote: “Last year, I was probably putting too much pressure on myself, trying to too hard to show everybody what I was made of. This year I tried not to put so much pressure on myself,” WSU pitcher Greg Brummett.

Big picture: Twelve Shockers are named to All-Valley teams.

• WSU volleyball goes 29-0 in the regular season and wins a first-round NCAA Tournament match.
• Clinton McKeever, once cut by Oklahoma State, hits a grand slam to win the Stillwater Regional over OSU and send the Shockers to a super regional. Most years, this story stands out as the lock of the year. It’s right up there with on the Wentworth-Winslow-Hall bookshelf of WSU baseball feel-good miracle stories. Is it better than 29-0? I don’t know. WSU’s Jason Ault reminded me that McKeever also drove in the tying run in that game.
• WSU pitcher Rob Musgrave. Academic All-American. All-American. The rock of another excellent Shocker pitching staff.
• Third baseman Conor Gillaspie. Zooms to the big leagues after one of the best hitting seasons at WSU.
• WSU women’s cross country wins its fourth straight MVC title despite being an underdog entering the race.

Around the MVC:

• Todd Golden of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star takes on a message-board poster in the never-ending Internet battleground. Most of the time, I think it’s wise to let message boards be what they are – a place for fans to be fans. The problem is putting words on a forum viewed worldwide can hurt feelings. Not everybody sees message-board banter as harmless, especially when they or someone they know is the target of discussion by anonymous fans. Stay tuned for more. This issue isn’t going to fade away.
• For the Sycamores, of more immediate importance is their 0-5 start. Indiana State is 0-5 for the sixth time and history says a winning record is a longshot. The schedule offers little relief with Louisville and Purdue coming up.
• P’Allen Stinnett is back for the Jays.
• SIU defeated Saint Louis.

• Reliever Logan Hoch had surgery on his torn labrum on Thursday, likely knocking him out 2009 plans. Hoch did not throw this fall as he tried to rehab his way out of the injury. He will be missed on an already young pitching staff. I thought Hoch had a better 2008 than his numbers (2-1, 5.16 ERA) reveal and his 2009 would have been better.
• Reliever Tyler Fleming had shoulder surgery in July and is doing well with his rehab. There is a slight possibility he will throw this spring. It is too early to get too excited, but it is not out of the question, acccording to pitching coach Brent Kemnitz.
• Redshirt freshman Cameron Maldonado, also battling shoulder problems, had bone chips removed. Kemnitz reports Maldonado reports no pain.

Basketball

• Aaron Ellis is practicing again. Mantas Griskenas is not. Expect Ellis to play some Sunday against Florida A&M. Griskenas is not likely to play.
• The Rattlers, who play at Kansas State tonight, are small and fast and they shoot from the outside. “It’s more of perimeter-oriented, and very fast, athletic team that shoots the three,” coach Gregg Marshall said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”
• FAMU freshman Dale Hughes came off the bench to score 30 in Tuesday’s exhibition win over NAIA Warner Southern. “He really shoots the ball well,” Marshall said.

Here’s some opening-day trivia, courtesy of WSU director of media relations Larry Rankin.

• Maurice Evans scored a career-high 38 in WSU’s previous meeting with the Rattlers, a 91-72 win in 1998.
• WSU is 0-3 when playing on Nov. 16. The Shockers lost to Houston 67-66 in the 1989-90 Preseason NIT (Mike Cohen made his debut and chased the timekeeper down the tunnel, believing WSU was cheated of a few seconds at the end). Delaware defeated WSU 62-47 in Alaska in 2001. Baylor defeated WSU 64-55 last season in the Virgin Islands.
• WSU is 83-18 in home openers and 59-8 when the season opener is at home.

The 14th-ranked Shockers play Northern Iowa – both are unbeaten in the MVC – in a showdown Friday at Koch Arena. Granville will be in her familiar role as defensive specialist. She is also one of WSU’s strongest servers, as evidenced by her 15 aces, second on the team.

Q. Describe Northern Iowa in one sentence.

A. UNI is competitive and physical.

Q. Who plays Chris Lamb in the movie about Shocker volleyball?

A. William Shatner. I don’t know – should I give him a good one – Brad Pitt.

Q. Who is the most overlooked player on WSU’s team?

A. Angela (Jakubov). She can do a lot of things and she always does. She plays a lot of positions. She’s had to battle throughout the years because we’ve had, obviously, some good lefts and she played left her first year. Then she was a passing middle, which you never find in college, it just doesn’t happen. She’s just battled throughout her career and I don’t think people give her credit for that.

Q. Obama or McCain?

A. Obama. I agree with his policies a lot more, and I absolutely hate (Sarah) Palin. Well, I don’t hate her, but I disagree with her policies pretty much. I try not to focus on her personality-wise.

Is this news? Does it matter, other than to prove too many people know how to work the Internet? Let’s just point out Shockers is short for Wheatshockers (the original nickname) and it is STALK of wheat not STOCK of wheat and move on. Wu can fairly be called weird, bizarre, even ugly to some tastes. There are reproduction issues when it is used in a small size. However, as a logo, it is unique and memorable (same thing goes for the Jayhawk).

• Mantas Griskenas and A.J. Hawkins are playing pickup games and participating in individual drills. Coach Gregg Marshall is pleased with how both are recovering from their injuries. It’s got to be great for him to be adding players instead of subtracting them. Griskenas, recovering from knee surgery, is bigger and stronger and still shooting the ball very well from outside. Marshall says he has improved his ball-handling in an effort to be less one-dimensional. Hawkins is a little behind in conditioning. His athletic ability seems intact – he converted a lob for a dunk in a pickup game recently.
• WSU may have a spot for a walk-on and is auditioning players during individual drills.
• Bradley picked up a commitment for a big man who might help the Braves this season. After the Orupke saga, I would not get too excited until he gets through the NCAA. However, he could be a big help for Bradley, which desperately needs big bodies.

The quest for a game in Texas became something close to an obsession under former coach Mark Turgeon, who recruited the state heavily. That desire to play in D-FW or Houston didn’t change under Gregg Marshall. With former Rice assistant Marty Gross on his staff, Marshall continues to hit Texas hard – WSU freshmen David Kyles and Toure Murry are from Texas.

Prince Couisnard (P.J.’s dad) tells stories about chatting up Gross at a Houston’s Starbuck’s for a game to bring the Shockers to town when Gross was at Rice. The Owls had no interest. Neither did Houston, SMU etc., etc.

TCU has a new coach, Jim Christian, and Prioleau is on his staff. Prioleau, who spent five years on Turgeon’s staff, helped make the match.

“He got the ball rolling,” WSU associate athletic director Brian Pracht said.

KGSO is reporting WSU’s scrimmage is against Kansas State, which makes a lot of sense for both sides. In the world of college athletics, it almost makes too much sense. WSU isn’t confirming anything about the scrimmage.

“We have not agreed to anything yet,” Pracht said.

So here is what we know about the non-conference schedule. Only dates are missing for a few games.

Nov. 16 - Florida A&M

Nov. 24 - Centenary

Nov. 27 - Georgetown at Old Spice Classic (ESPN2)

Nov. 28 - Tennessee or Siena at Old Spice Classic

Nov. 30 - Old Spice Classic

Dec. 3 - at Texas Tech

Dec. 8 - at TCU

Dec. 22 - North Dakota

That leaves dates for UMKC, Northern Arizona (both at CKA) and a Bracket Buster game in February. Drafts of the MVC schedule are in the hands of coaches and administrators at the schools. As soon as Creighton, Evansville and Bradley get their concerts, tractor pulls and swap meets arranged at their rental locations, it’s go time.