Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
In the “not baseball-related” category, it’s Homecoming Weekend now at the University of Illinois. As tradition with our family, we attended Friday night’s Homecoming Parade.
Lots of fun as usual. Some photos:
Game time is at noon and it will be televised on ESPN.
Go Illini! Whack the Gophers!
With the playoff game going on tonight, I had lot going on already but that didn’t stop me from dropping by Illinois Field after work and catching a few innings of today’s game of Orange and Blue Game World Series. The intra squad series of the University of Illinois baseball team has been going on all week.
Next February, the Illini will compete in a tournament between the Big Ten and BIG EAST conferences. The inaugural BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge will take place February 20-22, 2009 and will be hosted by the St Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission. All teams of the Big Ten and BIG EAST will take part.
The tournament will take place on the same date that Major League pitchers and catchers report for spring training.
Here is the proposed schedule:
BIG EAST/BIG TEN CHALLENGE MATCHUPS
Day 1 – Friday, February 20
Ohio State vs. Notre Dame
Penn State vs. St. John’s
Illinois vs. Iowa
Michigan State vs. Connecticut
Michigan vs. South Florida
Northwestern vs. Georgetown
Minnesota vs. Seton Hall
Indiana vs. West Virginia
Purdue vs. Cincinnati
Day 2 – Saturday, February 21
Michigan vs. Cincinnati
Purdue vs. South Florida
Penn State vs. Northwestern
Ohio State vs. Connecticut
Indiana vs. Georgetown
Illinois vs. Notre Dame
Minnesota vs. West Virginia
Michigan State vs. Seton Hall
Iowa vs. St. John’s
Day 3 – Sunday, February 22
Michigan vs. St. John’s
Ohio State vs. Cincinnati
Minnesota vs. Michigan State
Northwestern vs. Connecticut
Indiana vs. South Florida
Iowa vs. Georgetown
Purdue vs. Notre Dame
Penn State vs. Seton Hall
Illinois vs. West Virginia
Update: I asked Brian from The College Baseball Blog why the BIG EAST was in ALL CAPS while the Big Ten wasn’t in all the press releases I read. He simply said, "He simply said, It’s because they’re the BIG EAST."
‘Nuff said.
I wandered onto the Illinois Field premises during practice on Wednesday and snapped a few shots. It had rained earlier in the day but conditions were ok for a few hours of field time. Say what you want about Illinois Field’s Field Turf, it does handle the rain pretty well.
Today it was infield fielding practice with Coach Hartleb hitting the ball to the guys.
Watching practice, you see so much of the effort that goes into teamwork that seems transparent during the actual game.
See photos from last week on their first day of practice.
In other Illinois Baseball news, former Illini firstbaseman Mike Rohde was just named Rookie of the Year in the Northern League. Congrats Mike!
For those in the Champaign-Urbana area looking forward to a minor league team, you may have to wait at least couple years.
Matt Perry, a spokesman for a group of investors who said last year they want to bring a Frontier League team to Champaign-Urbana, now says the group is shooting for 2010.
National Sports Services, the sports consulting firm behind it all, are now focusing on launching a Frontier League team in Ohio.
Today, the University of Illinois baseball team took the field at Illinois Field for the first time this semester for practice. So I took off work early and got some photos.
It was a sunny, hot 92-93 degrees and just standing around was enough to work up a sweat.
I saw a lot of players I recognized from last year and quite a few new kids on the block. When i was there, it was mostly warmups, drills and a little batting practice.
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| Joe Bonadonna | Casey McMurray and Nick Stockwell |
Coach Eric Snider teaching the finer points of laying down the bunt.
Some of the pitchers were practicing their faux deliveries on a wooden beam in front of full length mirror.
Snider feeding the pitching machine under the scoreboard in left field. ugh… 93 degrees.
Dom Altobelli (right) came over to shake my hand before practice. It sounds like the torn labrum which he injured last season is still nagging him. Hopefully, he’ll be good as new by spring.
Chris Robinson who was a catcher for the University of Illinois and played for Team Canada in this year’s Olympics, did a Q&A for the Chicago Tribune.
I was a bit puzzled by the Trib’s last question though.
Q: Cubs vs. Tigers, World Series. Who do you root for?
Umm, considering that Robbie is currently on the roster of the Cubs Double-A team, the Tennessee Smokies, I would hope he would choose the Cubs. Of course, he did.
Team USA came from a 4-0 deficit to beat Canada Saturday. With the score 4-3 in the bottom of 7th, Terry Tiffee was the hero of the game with two doubles and two key rbis.
A tough luck loss for former Illini catcher Chris Robinson who is playing for Team Canada. He was 3 for 4 but with no runs or rbis.
It’s been a rough journey for Canada so far this Olympics. They are 1-3 and all three losses have been one-run losses. Despite their record, they have scored seven more runs than their opponents.
Team USA, however really needed this win. Going into this game with a 1-2 record, this gives them some hope.
Nix nixed
On some rather unfortunate news, Rockies prospect Jayson Nix is out for the rest of 2008 Olympic games due to a 1 1/2 inch gash above his left eyebrow. The injury is from a high and inside pitch/botched bunt in the game against Cuba.
Nix was expected to be recalled by the Rockies September 1. No word on whether this will affect his availability.
Three days into Olympic baseball and powerhouse Cuba has already shown they are a force to be reckoned with. They are undefeated through three games having beaten US, Canada and Japan.
The US took gold in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney but it will take a Cinderella story for that to happen this time. At this time, they are 1-2 and will have to struggle to make the semi-finals.
Canada’s catcher and former University of Illinois player, Chris Robinson already gotten 2 hits and scored a run.
Steve Vedder from The Grand Rapids Press has a nice feature on former University of Illinois catcher Chris Robinson who is representing his home country by playing for Team Canada.
Team Canada plays their first game of the Olympics on August 13 when they face China.