It was pretty much a perfect baseball day for me. The University of Illinois beat the University of Stephen F Austin Lumberjacks 4-2 behind the phenomal pitching of Aaron Martin (read my recap of the game over at illinoisbaseballreport.com <– shameless plug).
Then to cap it off, the Cubs beat the pants off the White Sox. With a score like, 13-0, it didn’t even seem like the Sox had a chance. HoHoKam was filled to a record 13,010 fans to see that drubbing.
More importantly, Aaron Heilman gave a good showing allowing one hit in two innings and striking out four. I wasn’t too thrilled with the prospect of the Heilman trade but I know others who think differently. I know two innings a season does not make but first impressions can go a long a way.
Corey Koskie
In other Cub news, I see they signed veteran Corey Koskie to a minor league contract. The contract stipulated he will get a chance in Spring Training but if he doesn’t make it in the bigs, he’ll get shipped to the Triple-A team.
To me, it seems that Koskie’s been around forever but checking out his stats, he’s only been in the majors for nine years (really eight, he was up for a small cup of coffee in 1998). And he’s only 35. His career derailed when he suffered a concussion after falling when chasing a pop fly. Post concussion syndrome put any thought of baseball out of mind for a while.
Now he’s back. A hard nosed thirdbaseman with a little bit of pop and who knows how to take a walk. Let’s see how far he can go.