Next Game:

	Games #50-53	Thur May 15 6:05pm Fri May 16 3:00 (DH) Sat May 17 4:00pm (DH)
Record: 29-20 Big Ten 15-12	vs Purdue	at Illinois Field Champaign, IL

 

Ok, Illini Fans, this is it.  Our magic number is down to two.  The Purdue Boilermakers are coming to town and the Illini need all fans to come to the park.  Don’t forget that the schedule is a bit different this weekend.  It will be a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series.

Purdue has already clinched their Big Ten Tournament spot.  It would take a four-game sweep for us to overtake their second place position and thereby gaining a bye in the first round.  I honestly don’t know what would happen if we tied them by going 3-1.

[Update:  I inquired about this of the one person who I knew would know, Brian DeCaussin of Big Ten Hardball.  His reply:

I believe that if the Illini take three of four from Purdue, they would be the second seed by virtue of their head-to-head record against the Boilermakers.  That would give them the first-round bye.

So nothing official but that seems to makes sense to me.]

 

Media Coverage

If you have the Big Ten Network and can’t make to the ballpark, all three games will be broadcast.  This should make my buddy Brando happy who’s always asking why he can’t watch Illini (or any Big Ten baseball, for that matter) on BTN.

More Altobelli?

I didn’t even notice last weekend that Dom Altobelli suited up and pinch hit in two games against Ohio State.  Dom had been out since April with a torn labrum.  His replacement at third base, John Schlichter, has been doing a bang-up job in his stead but it’s good to see him getting his swings in.

Can we get some good weather?

According to Illini’s official website, six of the seven Big Ten series have been affected by the weather what with cancellations or postponements.  It would be nice to have a 3-day series of sunny baseball weather to watch the games.

Checking the weather forecast, looks like a chance of rain on Thursday but clear on Friday and Saturday.  Hopefully, the rains will hold off on Thursday night.

[Update:  Thursday's game was postponed.  I updated the schedule above.]

Comeback Mountain

An amazing 14 of Illinois’ 29 wins this season have been comeback victories.  Five of those wins happened in the last at-bat.

See you at the ballpark!!!

 

And the dirt on Purdue: 

Opponent:	Purdue University
Nickname:	Boilermakers
Conference:	Big Ten
Head Coach:	Doug Schreiber (9th year)
Hometown:	West Lafayette, IN
Current Record:	27-22 (18-9 Big Ten)
Baseball Program website:	Link
Players to watch:	Catcher Dan Black is their long ball guy.  He leads Purdue with 12 homers and 51 rbis.  Bonus:  He’s played for the local Danville Dans.
Team Fact:	Purdue’s ERA is a full point less than their opponents (4.59 to 5.67).

Tags: University of Illinois Baseball by The Baseball Zealot
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I know it’s been about one month ago since Pirates hitting coach Don Long was injured when a piece of a shattered bat hit him in the face while he was sitting in the dugout, but the situation of exploding bats has gotten out of control. Check out the full story of Long getting hit, here.

Even though the White Sox are out of town and I will not go to the Unfriendly Confines on the Northside of Chicago, I’ve been watching alot of MLB on Direct-TV’s MLB package. It seems as though three or four times per game, at least, bats are shattering. They are exploding! The barrel end is flying onto the field, causing fielders and pitchers to have to avoid the flying projectile while attempting to field the ball. In many cases the barrel end has a sharp, jagged end, that is seriously dangerous. It’s only fun until somebody gets impaled, or in the case of Don Long, loses an eye, which almost happened.

Last night Brian Roberts was left with only the knob of his bat, after his bat exploded, and the dangerous part flew into the stands, where it almost hit several shocked fans. We all know, when attending a game in person, to be on the lookout for foul balls screaming into the stands, but this is even more dangerous. It used to be that every once in awhile, especially on a rainy day, a player would lose his grip on his bat and it would fly into the stands. In those rare instances, fans would be allowed to keep the bat, or negotiate with the batter for a replacement bat. But who wants to be skewered?

MLB needs to wake up to the fact that somebody is going to be seriously injured or killed and do something fast. What to do, you might ask? Well the problem seems to be in the bats that are used today, in particular maple bats. Before Barry Bonds went on his home run tear, or tearoid as the case may be, nobody except Barry used maple bats. Now everybody uses them. There’s even a bat company called Old Hickory, you guessed it, they make maple bats.

I’m not saying we need to go back to the days of hickory bats. But we need to wake up to the reality that maple bats are lethal weapons and outlaw them, before it’s too late.

Tags: Injuries by Teddy Ballgame
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