NEW YEAR NUPTIALS: Riley Gates is marrying Madison Siddoway from BYU’s soccer team in St. George, Utah before honeymooning in Hawai’i, the first of two trips to the islands in 2018 for BYU’s left-handed pitcher. The Cougars have a four-game series at Hawai’i in February.
NOVEMBER NEWBORNS: Assistant baseball coach Brent Haring’s wife delivered their baby son, Nikolai, their second son. Director of operations Tuckett Slade’s wife delivered son Tuckett, Jr., their second child.
BRYCE HARPER AND BYU PART DEAUX: BYU junior outfielder Jarrett Perns is a friend of Bryce Harper’s wife’s brother, are you following this chain? Perns plans to attend the Jan. 6 wedding for this friend in the Las Vegas Temple. So it could mark the second year in a row for a Cougar baseball player to be at a wedding reception with Harper, since Tanner Chauncey was at Harper’s wedding last December.
ALL-AMERICAN FOES: BYU could potentially face six pre-season All-American opponents recently-released Collegiate Baseball: Utility player Kevin Milam of St. Mary’s was named to the first team; LHP Nick Sprengel of San Diego and RHP Casey Mize of Auburn were named to the second team; 1B Andrew Vaughn of California, along with LHP Kris Bubic and SS Nico Hoerner of Stanford were named to the third team.
JOYNER PREVIEW: In his December interview on BYUtv, Wally Joyner tipped his hand that he will be speaking about “Nobody has an idea what the future is…” Joyner will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual First Pitch Dinner on Jan. 26.
COOPERSTOWN HERE I COME: Former BYU baseball coach Glen Tuckett will be making his second trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., this July 29 when he flies in for the induction of former Cougar pitcher Jack Morris into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Tuckett was the head coach of Morris when he pitched at BYU from 1975-76. Tuckett’s first trip to Cooperstown was for the 1984 induction of the late Harmon Killebrew, also of the Minnesota Twins. Killebrew’s son, Cam, played for BYU from 1975-78.
MORE ON MORRIS: Reminiscing on Jack Morris, one of his college catchers, Jeff Bills, says, “He was one fierce competitor. Once we were doing practice drills where pitchers were running the bases as outfielders were trying to hit the cutoff man. Coach Tuckett hit the ball to the wall on the team drill and Jack started running from second base and slid into me at the plate and knocked me down.”
LIKE PULLING TEETH: Allie Hancock (@alliejo27) of BYU’s softball team tweeted on Dec. 14 about her long-time boyfriend Daniel Schneemann, now a junior shortstop: “Daniel got his wisdom teeth out today and the first thing he says when he came out was "I am a champion!! I feel like I can go 4 for 4 right now" Also for the record, Schneemann went 3-for-5 in five games last season, 3-for-4 in another game and 4-for-6 in the WCC Championship game against Gonzaga. There’s more than your dentist pullin’ for you this season.
YES, VIRGINIA: Senior Nate Favero is going home to Virginia for Christmas, but he had never heard of the famous century-old newspaper editorial that is reprinted each Christmas-time to answer the question of a little girl named Virginia. While it doesn’t have anything to do with Favero’s home state of Virginia, here is the link to that famous editorial.