Texas A&M vs TCU Baseball Q&A: A Super Weekend with Frogs O' War

It's been just over a year since the Ags fell to TCU in game three of the 2015 Fort Worth Super Regional, and nightmares of that weekend are beginning to creep out of the deep, dark holes everyone repressed them into. This weekend A&M finally gets that rematch they've wanted for the last 12 months, and the stakes are just as high. This time, however, we get to enjoy it at Olsen.

The Ags have been on fire for the better part of two weeks. The offense has scored an astonishing 80 runs in their most recent eight games, which have all come in the postseason (five in the SEC Tournament, three in the Regional). I'd have to check the arithmetic to confirm, but that seems pretty good. The pitching staff allowed six total runs during their sweep of the Regional last weekend, with one of those games coming against the top offensive team in the B1G and a Wake Forest team that featured one of the favorites for the Golden Spikes Award.

I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down this week with my expert counterpart over at the excellent SBNation TCU blog, Frogs O' War, Marshall Weber. As a fellow Game of Thrones enthusiast, I must ask ye of #AggieTwitter not to hold any of what you see from this point forward against Mr. Weber. He's got Bran-level warging abilities, and he's not afraid to use them.

Outside of the whole WEWANTBOOMER.JPEG, what is the general excitement level around Fort Worth for this weekend? For a program like TCU that has had its fair share of CWS appearances in recent years, has it become sort of old hat at this point to make it to the Supers?

I think to go to a third straight CWS, with this young of a team, would pretty much set the ceiling at National Championship within three years. Getting through College Station is undoubtedly a tough place to go through, but if you can get through there, that gives you a lot of momentum going into Nebraska.

And yeah, I think it's Supers or bust for TCU now.

Wunderkind Luken Baker has had himself quite the year. Many Aggies might be a bit surprised to learn that he's the son of an Aggie (smh Childress can't even recruit Aggie legacies rabble rabble #FireChildress). What has he meant to this team so far this season?

It's basically like if Kobe Bryant had to play at Villanova for three years. He'll probably end up being an offensive player in the pros, but to get a kid with that kind of talent until he's (at least) 21, is pretty special. It says a lot about Jim Schlossnagle, and the program as a whole--including the fans, culture, etc.

Aggie Traditions™ are a pretty big deal around Aggieland, but we have our own special sect of craziness at Olsen. Outside of the WOOs (we'll get to that in a second), what is your favorite TCU Baseball tradition?

I really liked the Tuesday games when I was in college. Especially in March when it's in the 60s at night. The Chicken-E sweet tea and TCU baseball is a nice combo.

Okay so about the WOOing..

a) How did it start?

That's kind of a funny question. Because I feel like Bran Stark in that I did something with good intentions and it had catastrophic results.

But yeah, it was more or less me and my buddy Jonathan [Last Name Redacted]

We'd both seen the movie Neighbors the week before, and there's that scene where they "hootie hoo" when they see cops like in the Outkast song "Slump."

So during that marathon 22-inning game against Sam Houston in 2014, a day when we'd been out in the sun all day--and we were both extremely delirious-- so in maybe about the 18th inning, not really sure anymore, we saw a cop and both started yelling "hootie hoo". A hero, who I still have no idea who they are, echoed it back. And we did it the rest of the game.

More and more people joined in throughout the game, and somehow it went on to the next day. That's the key with something like that, Day 2 is more important than Day 1. I still can't believe people are still doing it honestly.

If you know me or my friend Jonathan, TCU sporting events make us a little boisterous, so any chance we get to try and stir something non-violent up is a good time. So to have people still doing this means a lot, but it also hurts my soul a bit too because I go back-and-forth between finding it really annoying and really funny.

TLDR; It was me, my friend Jonathan, and a third, mysterious hero.

b) Does it travel well?

For this weekend, I'm leaning towards the former.

We've all heard the public story of Boomer's transfer, and obviously he's become beloved in Aggieland. What was the general feeling around Fort Worth once the news broke?

I think everyone's more or less happy for him. He's a grownup, he made a grownup decision. As humans, I think we understand. But as fans, we should, can, and do get to have fun with it. As long as you're not really attacking the guy on a personal level, I think it's fine.

He's obviously a tremendous player, and I think 95% of Frog fans have a lot of respect for him. Including myself. But yeah, we definitely get to have fun with it this week.

Have you ever been down to College Station for a game? If so, what did you think about Olsen? If not, do you know anyone that has? What were their thoughts?

I really liked it, honestly. I went down for the 2012 Regionals. Beating Ole Miss in College Station to go to a Super Regional in LA was both really fun and really weird.

I like CStat. Individually I find Aggies to be really nice, down to earth people. I respect the pride down there for sure.

What is the main key for the Frogs this weekend if they want to move on to the CWS?

I think they need a big weekend from the bullpen. In a three games series, you get a little more flexibility with your starters than you would in a Regional; but if the bullpen doesn't step up, we have very little chance honestly.

But if it does, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, hold on to your butts

Any predictions?

I only do baseball and football Q&As, and only since 2014--so my record is alright enough to say I'm going to pick the Frogs in a very very close three game series--Which really messes up my Game of Thrones viewing.

Thanks again to Marshall and the gang over at Frogs O' War. Head on over to the twotters and give my boy Marshall (@marshmau5) a follow if you don't already. We can all nerd out about Thrones together.