Question: What do you get with a piece of chicken, a foul ball and a pair of throbbing headaches?
Answer: A defeated laugh, shared together in Terminal A at the Sacramento airport, with some lessons learned, and a longing for better days ahead.
That’s how BYU sophomore left fielder Luke Anderson and I will remember the Cougars season opening road swing through California. The 2-4 start was disappointing, but our individual pains went a little deeper, beginning with a bus ride I thought would never end.
All choked up
There is a 64.2-mile stretch of California freeway between Berkeley and Davis that is likely to remain a personal haunt for years to come. In fact, each time AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” plays on 103.5 The Arrow, it will take me back there.
Last on the bus, after wrapping up the radio postgame show and packing the equipment, I fell into my seat. The carriage was full of coaches and players, but the air was silent. An eight-to-nothing loss to Cal can do that to a young team.
Tuckett Slade, the director of baseball operations, handed me a chicken dinner. Having just talked for 3 ½ hours, I was grateful for something to eat. However, in just one small bite, the nightmare of a lifetime began.
The chicken didn’t go all the way down and tried as I did, it wouldn’t come back up — and so began 90 minutes of slow-gagging that rotated my emotions from humiliation to frustration to fear.
“Do I have the bus pull over? Do I need the Heimlich? What is going on? Will this subside if I just sit still and focus on breathing? What if it doesn’t? Can the entire bus here me struggling? Don’t panic!”
I could still get air into my lungs, but every half-minute or so I had to cough to clear my throat to avoid drowning in mucus — or so it felt. All the while, like a teenager losing an argument, the small piece of chicken refused to relent.
Anderson was sitting across the aisle. He could hear that I was struggling. I was pretty sure everyone could.
“Hey, do you need some water?” he asked with a voice full of concern.
I wasn’t in a place to speak, so I showed him my bottle of water. There was no way I was going to have a drink. Adding anything down there would only make it worse.
My inner battle continued as the bus drove through the night. I started thinking about that AC/DC song and wondered if this would be my last highway. Once off the bus at the hotel in Davis, I resorted to other means to clear my throat. The stubborn bird fought for a while longer, but finally surrendered.
The aftermath left me with a thrashed throat and headache that would last the next four days — perfect for a guy who still had 27 innings to announce without a color analyst.
The foul ball
Anderson, a Snow Canyon product from Santa Clara, Utah, was a reliable freshman for head coach Trent Pratt in 2023. He earned All-Freshman WCC honors by hitting .294 with six home runs and 12 doubles.
During the Cougars 2-4 start, which included games against USC, Ohio State and Grand Canyon in Arizona before the road trip shifted to California and UC Davis, Anderson struggled at the plate.
He went 0 for 3 against the Bears and 1 for 7 in the first two games at UC Davis. Frustrated, Anderson stood in the dug out with no idea that an even bigger headache was on its way.
With the metallic crack of the bat, a foul ball screamed into the BYU dugout. From my broadcast position, I could tell that someone had gone down, but I couldn’t immediately identify who it was.
It was Anderson. The ball skipped off the ground and bounced up to hit him in the back of the head. After a pause, the game resumed but Anderson was scratched from Saturday’s finale due to soreness.
Meeting of the minds
Waiting for the airplane to take us home after a 10-day road trip, Anderson and I stopped to check on each other. The trip had turned into nothing but a big headache for both of us.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“I’m OK,” said Anderson. “You?”
“I will be. Just need to get home. Hey, next time, why don’t you just get out of the way when those foul balls are coming,” I said with a smile, trying to change the mood.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” he said. “And, how about you chew your food?”
We laughed out loud despite ourselves, which didn’t make either of our heads feel better. Eventually, we boarded the plane, longing for better days ahead.
Anderson and the Cougars hope better days will begin Thursday when BYU hosts former WCC rival Gonzaga (1-6) in the home opener at Miller Park (3 p.m., ESPN+, BYU Radio). If all goes well, neither of us will be looking for Tylenol after the game.
