May 4, 2008

When pitcher Wandy Rodriguez of the Houston Astros left his start on April 19 with a strained groin, it set the stage for another milestone in Rice baseball history.

To replace Rodriguez on the roster, the Astros summoned lefthander Tim Byrdak, who had signed with the club at the end of spring training after he was released by Detroit. When he walked into the Astros clubhouse for the first time, Byrdak joined Lance Berkman and Jose Cruz Jr. to give the Astros three Rice Owls on their major league roster.

Jose Cruz, Jr., Tim Byrdak and Lance Berkman at Minute Maid Park (photo courtesy Houston Astros)

In the Astros win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday at Minute Maid Park, each of the Owls had a hand in the win. Berkman had four hits, including his 10th home run, and scored the winning run when Hunter Pence hit a two-run homer in the 12th. Byrdak picked up his first win as a Astro, while Cruz added a pinch hit single earlier in the game.

The Astros are no strangers to a hefty alumni presence on their roster. Just last year, Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane and Eric Munson, who had led Southern California to a College World Series title, were all members of the Astros. But three Owls on the same big league team is a first for the school.

"I don't think you see it too often," Cruz said. " It is good to see Rice guys succeeding, especially at this level. It speaks volumes for where Rice Baseball started and where it is now," he added.

"The fact that there are three of us on this team, and so many others playing in the pros is the result of the approach Wayne (Graham) took from the start when he came to Rice," Byrdak added.

Cruz is the link between all three players, having played with Byrdak during his one year with the Owls in 1994 and then rooming with Berkman for one year before becoming a first round draft pick in 1995. The one thing all three had in common was that when they made their decisions to come to Rice, the number of Owls in the majors was not a selling point for recruits.

At that time they were making those decisions, the Owls' only active big league products were relievers Norm Charlton and Dave Pavlas.

Charlton's debut in 1988 began a run of Owls in the majors that now appears likely to continue for an extended period, but it wasn't until Matt Anderson was called up in late June of 1998 to join Charlton and Cruz on rosters that the Owls could claim three big leaguers active at the same time. Byrdak earned his first promotion in August, giving the Owls a fourth big leaguer that same year, and one year later, Berkman donned an Astros uniform for the first time.

Now there are three in the Astros clubhouse, playing a scant few miles from the Rice campus where each honed their skills to a level that warranted their selection in the major league draft.

"Fourteen years later, to be back where it all really started for me is kind of nice," Byrdak noted.

"I think guys like Tim and Jose don't get the credit they deserve in helping establish the program that we have now at Rice," Berkman noted. "Both of them gave the program a lot of credibility. When I was in high school and started looking at programs where you might want to play, the fact that Rice had players like them gave the school a lot of credibility in my eyes. I know it has helped Coach Graham in his recruiting efforts since then," he added.

Cruz noted that while a clear path to the majors was not part of his decision to come to Rice, he sees a connection between the program's success and the consistent number of Owls who appear on major league rosters.

"It wasn't anything to consider when we were all making the decision to come to Rice," Cruz said. "Once people saw that you could come here and succeed, as well have access to the educational opportunities that are second to none, then all these other great players started to come to Rice.

"There are so many great players in Texas, especially right here in the Houston area, that you don't have to look far to find great talent. Now that talent sees Rice as the place to go," Cruz stated.

The three "Owlstros" keep an eye on the fortunes of the current crop of Owls, and along with teammate Michael Bourn, a Houston Cougar product, will take note of next weekend's Silver Glove series between the two schools.

"I made sure to let him (Bourn) know the score when Rice beat UH in the first game of the year," Cruz said. "When he sees me coming next weekend, he'll know what happened in the game."

All three recalled the intensity that surrounded the Houston series, even if the Silver Glove trophy had not yet been added to the equation.

"For Tim and Junior -- and for me the first two years -- those games were Southwest Conference games," Berkman noted. "We didn't have the Silver Glove, but they were very important for the conference race, so they were very intense because they meant so much, even without the cross-town rival aspect," he added.

"One of the reasons I came to Rice out of junior college was for the chance to pitch in the Southwest Conference and in Division 1," Byrdak said. "It seemed to me that Houston was the one series that really meant a lot to Wayne in those days because it was the other school in the city and he wanted to establish things. We ended up dropping two of three to those guys, so we didn't do such a good job that year," he recalled.

Current Houston head coach Rayner Noble was Byrdak's pitching coach in his one season at Rice, was on the staff for Cruz's first season and recruited Berkman to Rice before taking over the reigns of the Cougar program. Cruz said that connection only heightened the intensity of the series.

"I know that our series with Houston really seem to heat up once Rayner left Rice and went to Houston," he noted. "He knew us and had recruited a bunch of us to come to Rice. It became what it is today. At that time, I don't know that I knew that many of the guys at Houston, but now it seems like so many of them are from this area, it makes the series that much more intense," he added.

While the Owls and their Cougar teammate will be watching the results, Berkman said he would not try to pull Bourne into any friendly contest regarding the outcome of the games.

"We've won the thing so often, why would I want to take advantage of him?"