… a Noble Tree.

That’s what Louisiana Tech calls its on-campus trees. Noble Trees. Because…

In the University’s alma mater is this line: “Thy pleasant walks, thy noble trees…”

See what we did there? And as an alum, I must admit, we have some killer trees. We also have some trees that are at the end of life. Those will be departing.

The University is in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign to plant 1,000 new trees; right now we’ve planted more than 250-ish trees as part of the overall campus beautification program. In the Noble Trees campaign, the cost of Phase 1 — $75,000 — has been exceeded, even before the goal date of Friday, which is Arbor Day, another reason for today’s timely DW effort.

Oak and maple and more are being planted, but we’ll have more on that later; there will be a release at latech.edu Friday if you want to know more.

Gonna be pretty pretty pretty…

At my home, we are in Wedding Throes right now, but this summer, my family will scrape up some donation money because it is an entirely sweet project. When the master plan is complete … great day in the morning.

But the point of this short essay is this: you can go out and buy a tree for your alma mater or for your yard, but if you plan to PLANT the tree, and the tree has passed baby tree stage, bring a lunch. And a supper. And a back surgeon.

Pictured is what was happening Wednesday in Keeny Circle on campus. These studs were in the middle of planting several large Shumard Oaks. Each planting involved a fork lift, a couple of ropes, shovels and wheelbarrows, sweat, and people who could bring it.

There have been a lot of improvements at Augusta National the past couple of years, and much of that has involved planting new but mature trees. A guy who lives close to the Georgia course told me he woke one morning to the sounds of diesels idling, and looked outside to see a line of 18-wheelers with BIG trees on their trailers. I just always wondered how they got them in the ground.

Now I know. And it ain’t easy. But the payoff? Beautiful.

-30-

When I was coaching Little League baseball, the fouled-off third strike by the opposing team was cruel and unusual punishment for my psyche. It was hard enough to get a 10-year to throw three strikes, but now they had to throw another to get through the opposing at bat.

Sometimes, they had to throw strike five. Or (insert shocked-faced emoji here) even more.

Jamie Barria of the Angels had to throw strike 18 Sunday against Brandon Belt.

The San Francisco first baseman is getting a lot of credit for his 21-pitch at bat Sunday, as well he should. It’s a “record” if you believe that baseball didn’t start until 1988. Nobody cared about pitch counts before the late 1980s, so there’s really no telling if it really is.

Belt fouled off 16 two-strike pitches during his 12-minute at bat — both of those facts are amazing — before lining out to right field. but don’t forget about Barria. And it wasn’t like Belt was fouling off pitches that were out of the strike zone. The pitch chart I saw showed 18 pitches in the zone, plus the three called balls.

I know it was the first inning of an April game, so it wasn’t like Barria was pitching the Game 7 of the World Series. But that is getting it done. Naturally, his elevated pitch total had him out of there by the third inning.

I think I had entire games when my Little Leaguers didn’t throw 18 strikes, much less in one at bat.

Good from Brandon Belt … that’s impressive, no matter what kind of record it is or isn’t. But don’t forget about my man Jamie Barria (who I had never heard of before Sunday.)