Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
A fine job by appropriately-named Texas reliever Austin Wood on Saturday. In a 25 inning, 7 hour affair, Texas defeated Boston College 3-2 in the longest NCAA game on record.
Wood pitched 13 innings of scoreless ball. More impressively, he allowed no hits for 12 1/3 innings of it. Wood struck out 14 and threw 169 pitches.
Hereās the box score from University of Texasā web site.
And kudos to the 7000+ fans who stayed with the game for seven hours.
Solve this mystery for me. I found this refrigerator magnet (actually two of them) in my sonās room when cleaning his room with him. I have no idea where we got them.
With two bats crossed and a smiling bear in the middle, the text of it says:
Lady Bruins
1954
Black Mountain University
Fossil Conf. AAA Winter League
After a web search, the only possible result that matched was a Black Mountain College that was founded 1933 near Asheville, North Carolina. The school closed in 1957.
I couldnāt find anything on a Fossil Conf Winter League.
Keep in mind that it could either baseball or softball (Iām thinking softball).
Odd mystery and even odder that it would show up in my kidās room.
From May 20-23, the Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be in full force at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. For those interested in keeping up on the latest news, here are some good places to start:
Complete with the tournament bracket, schedule, and I assume, eventually box scores and wrap-ups.
Good places to get the official word on your favorite Big Ten team.
… then there are the blogs.
Chris Webb has brought online a repository of information surrounding the Tourney. Great articles, info, links, and reviews (including one of Illinois written by yours truly). Great idea by the Ohio State blogging contingent.
Iām sure Chris will also be updating his Buckeye-specific The Buckeye Nine for all you OSU fans.
Brian DeCaussin will continue to cover Big Ten baseball in the excellent way weāve been accustomed. If I want to get past the hype, I go to BTH.
Two blogs covering University of Indiana baseball.
Of course! Iāll be at the tournament (leaving early tomorrow) and will be updating the site daily on the goings on from an Illini perspective. Iāll be snapping photos and uploading like crazy.
So letās have some fun and go Illini!!
demolitionofyankeesstadium.com has recent photos of them tearing down the seats at the old Yankee Stadium.
Baseball history buffs, olā Yankee fans and purists may want to avert their eyes. Itās probably a tough sight to see.
Washingtonās thirdbaseman Ryan Zimmerman just got a hit off the Giants tonight to extend his hitting streak to 29 games.
Heās hitting 45 for 122 (.369) during the streak.
I just ran across this page on Recondite Baseball which lists The āWorstā Hitting Streaks.
Juan Pierre tops the list. In 2000, his rookie year with Colorado, he went 18 for 66 for a .273 during his 15 game hitting streak. And in 1984, Cubbie catcher Jody Davis went 16 for 57 (.281) also for a 15 game streak.
Fortunately for Washington, Zimās hitting more than the bare minimum for his streak. Heās gotten his batting average up to .352 for the season.
Itās interesting to me, in light of Manny Ramirezā suspension for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), how certain media elements are handling the story. While some like ESPN or Sports Illustrated are taking a more hard line approach, MLB.com not surprisingly is towing the company line and taking a more conciliatory approach.
Compare these two articles that came out the day the suspension was announced, one from Sports Illustrated and the other from MLB.com.
Both are factual and to my knowledge, accurate. However, the SI makes some clear or at least implied allegations that go beyond Mr Ramirez:
Ramirez is the first major star to be suspended under baseball’s stricter drug-testing rules that went into effect in 2003. Until now, baseball and the players union have portrayed drug use as having been nearly eradicated in the past few years, pointing out that the major drug-related stories — involving Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and the revelations in the Mitchell Report — involved drug use prior to the 2003 tightening of the program.
Itās also interesting to note the tone of the headlines of āRelated Articlesā from SI. Manny saga no longer funny, the sarcastic Didnāt see this one coming and Do you buy Ramirezā excuse?
MLB.comās initial article, predictably and I guess blamelessly, has a very official and almost apologetic tone to it. There are quotes from Ramirez about his ādoctorās excuse ā and his statement of apology to the owner of the Dodgers; Joe Torre, his teammates and of course, the fans.
We also read the requisite statements from other baseball officials on how āsaddenedā they are.
Links to other articles on MLB.com point to official documents such as Major Leagueās official drug policy and the official statements by Ramirez and the playerās union and the MLB. And more articles about how others are sad about thisā¦. but not angry.
Where am I going with this? Do I think MLB is evil because they donāt tell the whole story or because they sugar coat the issue? Not really. Do I think ESPN, USA Today Sports and others are the bastions of sports freedom because the speak the truth? HARDLY.
Just this and maybe itās painfully obvious, baseball fans need to diversify their sports news input. Since MLB.com obviously has direct access to the information, itās a great place to go for the hard facts like stats, boxscores, game wrapups etc. But for good analysis, Iāll read the columnists on the more independent (but not as independent as Iād like) media outlets.
But for straight out-and-out opinions, Iāll read the blogs.
#27 Ohio State is coming to town this weekend (most likely, theyāre already here) to face #25 University of Illinois Fighting Illini. The biggest series of the season is almost upon us.
I did an interview of Drew Grigsby, die-hard fan Buckeye fan and he gives a rather in-depth look at our adversaries. Itās posted at Illinois Baseball Report where youāll also find the schedule for the weekend.
The weather reports promise that the rain will clear up this afternoon so Iām looking forward to a great weekend!
If youāre in the area, come on out this weekend and support the Illini baseball team!
I just posted a Q & A of star shortstop Brandon Wikoff (above) over at Illinois Baseball Report last night. Heās good now and is definitely worth keeping your eye on. Check out the interview over at IBR.
Illinois, fresh off their sweep of Penn State last weekend (which put them in a tie for first place with Ohio St in the Big Ten), just defeated Southern Illinois Salukis in a mid-week non-conference. I just came from the game and was able to get some photos. Check out the write-up and some photos also at IBR.
Finally, for those who keep tabs on Willie Argo (and you really should), he took the Big Ten Player of the Week Award for his performance against PSU.
PS. heās not stopping there. He hit a grand slam tonight.
Go Illini!
At least one friend of mine thinks the latest Onion article entitled Brawl Clears Benches of Everyone But J.D. Drew hit a little too close to the truth.
"I thought about getting in there for a second, but then I thought, nah. It didn’t really directly concern me. I mean, yeah, they shoved a bunch of my teammates, but it’s not like they were gonna die or anything.ā
Looks like MLS commish Don Garber and Yanks prez Randy Levine are having a hissy fightā¦ all over the issue of attendance figures.
Sez Levine:
"Don Garber discussing Yankee attendance must be a joke. We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriouslyā¦ Hey Don, worry about Beckham, not the Yankees. Even he wants out of your league.
Garber had earlier made a comment about the empty front row seats at Yankee Stadium.
Thereās no point in taking sides in this one. Theyāre both being idiotic. Garber is taking on the seven-headed giant and worse, Levine is stooping to respond to the comment in a rather childish manner.
Take a time out, guys.