FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In a perfect world, coach Dave Van Horn might not be playing Wednesday’s game against Arkansas-Little Rock. Although nowhere as grueling as a 162-game MLB season, the Razorbacks are 42 games into a 56-game slate that would put wear and tear even amongst the most seasoned players.

Van Horn was grateful for the three full days of rest after losing two out of three to Texas A&M over the weekend before having to take the field again in Arkansas’ 10-0 win over the Trojans in seven innings Tuesday.

“The human body [and] the human mind can only take so much,” Van Horn said. “When we had that little rain delay [against Texas A&M], it was hard to get it going again a little bit, as tired as they were. I know how tired I was, I know how tired other coaches were, so I know the players were more tired than that. They play and run and hit and do all the other stuff.”

To compound the exhaustion, Arkansas will be the only SEC team in action Wednesday as the Hogs finish the third and final double midweek on the schedule this year against the Trojans. Other SEC schools and major programs either opt to play its double midweeks earlier in the year or schedule under the maximum number of games allowed by the NCAA.

Teams are allowed to schedule a maximum of 56 games, something that Van Horn decided to do for the 2025 schedule. In 2024, Van Horn scheduled 55 regular season games. Prominent baseball programs like UCLA and Virginia both only have 54.

Making things more complicated, Arkansas only has four D1 schools in the state, far fewer than many other schools in the SEC. The closest, Central Arkansas, is roughly two and a half hours away from campus.

“Fayetteville is not easy to get to,” Van Horn said. “It’s not like you can run down the highway and go play all these schools. When you’re at some of the schools in our league, you can run down the road 20 minutes, 15 minutes and play some Division 1 schools all around town. Can’t do that here.”

The unpredictable weather at the beginning of the year doesn’t help either. Fans at Baum-Walker will be familiar with the often cold conditions that sweep across the area. Fayetteville doesn’t have the luxury of being “70 and sunny like in San Diego,” according to Van Horn.

Given the importance of what lies ahead for Arkansas in the final four weeks of SEC play, getting a clean and crisp run-rule victory like the Hogs did on Tuesday that lasted just a minute over 2 hours could pay dividends leading into the weekend series against Florida.

Florida run-ruled Georgia Southern 12-1 Tuesday and now will get an extra day off before welcoming the Razorbacks to town.

“I’d rather not play two at this time of year,” Van Horn said. “If we do play two, it’s nice when you can play seven innings and only use three pitchers.”

Colin Fisher will get the start on the mound for Arkansas.

“You can tell how I feel about all this,” Van Horn said, “It’s just what you do because that’s what the schedule tells you to do. It’s baseball. It’s the up and downs of the game, you win and lose, you can call it a skid, you can call it whatever you want. I call it baseball.”

Arkansas concludes its two game set against Little Rock 5 p.m. Wednesday on national television. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.

For years, my girlfriend, Suzanne, has enjoyed me reading to her. She’s Swiss and she says she likes my Southern voice. A history of the Comanche in Central Texas, Ukraine, chicken recipes, excerpts from “The 1619 Project,” a tropical fruit I’ve never heard of … it’s a random choice of stories, the product of a wandering liberal arts education, I guess. There is an intimacy, scrolling early mornings through The New York Times or evenings with bourbon and book talk, that we treasure.

Lately, though, our reading time has become dark. New York Times headlines have turned into a litany of political absurdity, lies and betrayal. Reading aloud the words and fulminations of this president is like walking knee-deep in sewage. Former Arkansas Times columnist and author Gene Lyons recently retired, saying that in the limited time he had left on Earth, he was done thinking about Donald Trump.

A few months ago, Suzanne and I rented a vacation house for a few days surrounded by green and purple mountains, long, deserted beaches and a multicolored sea. It was pure tranquility. Yet every day I would open my phone and begin to recite aloud the utterances and actions of unserious sycophants strutting and bellowing across the national stage. One morning we looked at one another and I asked, “Why are we doing this?”

Now I read the paper and turn on NPR out of a sense of duty, not because I expect to be inspired or lifted up. It’s like being an Arkansas Democrat: You vote because you are a citizen, not because you expect anything good to come of it. 

Several weeks ago our country, along with North Korea, Belarus and Russia, voted against a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then the president attacked the Ukrainian president during their meeting at the White House, blaming Ukrainians for Russia’s invasion of their country. Then JD Vance, with all the gravitas of a barking chihuahua, went after Zelensky. At that point, Brian Glenn, a reporter for the fringe TV outlet Real America’s Voice, demanded to know if Zelensky owned a suit. The place had gone batshit. My country has lost its moorings and no one will stand up.

I keep my dad’s funeral flag folded on the mantle in my living room. The VA gave it to us at his funeral in recognition of his service during World War II. He didn’t put up with bullies or wannabe dictators; he had seen more than his share. That morning the White House room was full of bullies and dictators, but on the American side this time. 

I live in Trumpland in northern Pulaski County and pass several blue Trump flags on Batesville Pike every day on my way to work. Most of my neighbors support Trump but, for the most part, we are respectful and civil. I don’t want to descend into crankdom. But the idea we were buddying up to a man like Putin stank of betrayal and treason. I felt my dad was with me when I unfolded his flag, went out to the street and hung it upside down, fastened with zip ties to our big farm gate. There it hung for the next three weeks until I noticed mud starting to splatter and took it down for cleaning. 

I am old enough to remember Orval Faubus, the Capital Citizens’ Council and the raft of misogynistic bigots (all Southern Democrats) that populated our Legislature in the ’50s and ’60s. I also watched as our state transitioned to Rockefeller, Bumpers, Pryor and Clinton. The pendulum does swing and I believe this will happen again, both in Arkansas and America. Eventually, I hope, the American people will have had enough of Trump’s stupid economic policies, his tariffs, his scapegoating, his narcissism, his opportunistic othering of immigrants, gay people and any other helpless group that catches his eye. Eventually, Trump will take his rightful place alongside Joseph McCarthy, and our country will awake, as from a long sleep. And if I am still here, I will go back to reading to Suzanne in the mornings and evenings, never to think of Trump again.