A Postcard From Lincoln
4/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 11, 2003
LINCOLN, Neb. - Greetings from Husker Land in Lincoln, Neb. The Missouri baseball team - make that the 20th-ranked Missouri baseball team - is about to finish batting practice at Haymarket Park, home of the eighth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. It's also the home of the minor-league Lincoln Saltdogs, but it's apparent that none of the 5,000-plus expected to turn out for one of the most highly anticipated matchups of Big 12 Northern schools in some time cares much about that at the moment.
Kyle Johnson has been looking forward to playing here in Lincoln for several years. He grew up just up the road in Omaha, will have between 20 and 25 family members in attendance this weekend. On top of that, up to half of his Burke High School classmates that now attend Nebraska will temporarily split their allegiances for the weekend as they cheer Johnson on from the right-field berm.
This weekend finds the Tigers in unfamiliar territory in a couple of ways. Mizzou jumped into the national rankings for the first time since 1996, due largely in part to its 12-game winning streak; with Rice's loss to Lamar on Wednesday, it's believed to be the longest winning streak in the country. In addition, the Tigers will be playing their first games in Haymarket Park, which opened last year. However, the Missouri players have had tremendous success against the Huskers recently - more success, in fact, than any other team in the Big 12.
Missouri is the only team with a winning record (9-8) against Nebraska since the league was formed in 1997. The Tigers have taken four of the six Big 12 series, including the last two times they've visited Lincoln.
Put another way, Mizzou is the only Big 12 program that has left Lincoln with a series win, and they've done it twice.
Yet, to twist an old phrase, history means nothing unless it is repeated.
