HOUSTON Rice University baseball may have the neatest lineup cards in their sport. Each is a work of art written by longtime manager and former draftsman Wayne Graham.
In Reckling Park, winning has a catch.
You don t survive if you don t win, said Rice baseball Coach Wayne Graham.
Graham owns 1,000 wins and enough championships to cover his right field wall.
He cares a lot about the little things, said Michael Aquino, an outfielder.
Still, his penmanship seems to leave deeper impressions on players.
It s perfect every day, Aquino said.
It s just very impressive that he takes so much time, said John Clay Reeves, a catcher. You see so many coaches come in and just write (a lineup card) real quick and make Xs and do things. But, coach definitely puts a lot of effort into it.
I just kinda got into the habit of doing that, and plus I had a fifth-grade teacher who said if your handwriting isn t legible, I m going to flunk you, Graham said.
Each lineup card is a work of art. All are slowly printed by hand, perfectly spaced and styled without tools. It s a craft decades old that Graham learned to survive.
In the world I played professional baseball in, the only people that didn t work in the off-season were the stars, Graham said. Even good major league players had to get a job because nobody made any money. It s hard to believe, but it was true. So, I had drafting skills.
Those skills resonate with players.
He likes to relate it to caring about the small things in baseball, Aquino said.
That sounds simple, but in practice, it s very difficult, Graham said.
His guys love it because, as long as Rice wins the right way, coach is happy.
