Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
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Big Ten fans don’t forget… The Michigan Wolverines will be taking on the New York Mets Tuesday at 12:05 CST at Port St Lucie.
The University of Michigan is Mets’ owner Fred Wilpon’s almer mater.
You can follow along with Gametracker and/or listen to the audio of the game from the Michigan Wolverine web site.
The Florida Marlins are looking for a few fat men. Not to play on the team but to cheer them on.
They are looking to create an all-male “plus size” cheerleading team that will be called the “Manatees”. Despite their intended size, these men should be agile say the Marlins.
Unfortunately, there will be no pay involved. They will of course, get free admission to home games and as the snarky Yahoo Sports reporter put it, “the honor of dancing in front of crowds that have been smallest in major league baseball for the last two seasons.”
We’re now upon college baseball season and I plan to do a lot of coverage of the Illini. As I found out at the Big Ten Tournament last year, there are one or two who read those posts.
For those who wish to use RSS and are only interested in University of Illinois baseball related articles, you can use The Baseball Zealot Illini feed and plug into your favorite news aggregator like Google Reader.
There’s a handy RSS link on the right sidebar along with a link that will take you to all Illini baseball stuff (the ol’ fashioned way).
It was another pitcher’s duel this morning at the Al Ogletree Tournament but this time Illinois came up on top.
Aaron Martin and Ben Reeser were lights out against the Lamar University Cardinals just as were all summer as teammates in the Coastal Plain League. They combined for a six hit shutout with seven strikeouts.
That was fortunate since the offense was still a bit lean and provided them with the one run they needed to win. That run came in the bottom of the 5th (the Illini were the home team today) when Kyle Hudson singled, stole second, and scored on a Brandon Wikoff base hit.
That was Hud’s third stolen base in the first three games of the season. Wikoff had two hits to go along with his rbi in the game.
That closes out Illinois’ participation in the Al Ogletree Tournament. After winning the first against Sam Houston 6-4, they lost 2-1 against Texas State.
Wrap-up and Analysis of the Tournament:
As much as I like Gametracker, it is certainly no replacement for being at the game. You just don’t get a feel for the game and there is so much that you miss. I am so much looking forward to Illinois’ home opener.
That said, I think it’s safe to say that the pitchers were on their game this weekend. Opponents scored five earned runs in three runs in the three games. Take away the four run inning in the first game against Sam Houston, and well.. you do the math.
The offense is another matter and that will probably come with time. Some of the problem is due to rookie mistakes and the team learning to gel. We have some new guys being put in some key roles and they are learning to produce.
Freshman Casey McMurray is playing leftfield and has been leading off. Transfer John Schlichter is playing the hot corner and batting in the cleanup spot. Both made offensive contributions this weekend.
Coach Hartleb spoke to the media about the lack of offense after the 2-1 loss to Texas State:
“I was disappointed with the offense today,” Hartleb said. “We had numerous opportunities to move runners with no outs, but we didn’t do it and that was the difference in the game. If we move runners at all today, we’re 2-0.”
My guess is that he’ll be working on the offensive fundamentals this week. That said, he’s not feeling too bad about winning two out of three this weekend.
By the way, here is the typical lineup being used:
McMurray, Casey lf
Wikoff,Brandon ss
Hastings, Ryan 1b
Schlichter, John 3b
Webb, Daniel rf
Johnson, Aaron c
Giller, Mike dh
Bonadonna, Joe 2b
Hudson, Kyle cf
Illinois’ next game will be against Baylor on February 29th.
Update: Here is a link to FightingIllini.com’s summary of Illinois’ game against Lamar.
Manny Ramirez fired his agent and has hired Scott Boras. Or maybe it’s more appropriate to say that Boras has picked up Ramirez as a client.
Ramirez, never one shy to speak his mind, said he’d like to stay in Boston but the idea of free agency wouldn’t be so bad either:
“I want to stay here, but it’s up to them if they want to bring me [back]. But if they don’t want to bring me back, that’s fine. I know I’ll be a free agent after ’08 so that’s another thing I’m looking forward to.”
In a free agent year, you can bet Manny’s fantasy value will go up.
With a growing list of teams who simply won’t deal with Scott Boras, Manny might be find his options somewhat limited next spring should he go that route. Then again, any team who deal with Boras probably can’t afford Manny anyway.
Chris Berman has made a public response to the online videos that were released a few weeks ago. The Miami Herald conducted a phone interview with him.
Now I’ve never ever been a Berman fan but after watching a few of the few of videos, I started wondering what the fuss was all about. Certainly, we didn’t expect a famous baseball analyst to let his hair down and act like the rest of us, did we?
To Berman’s credit, he didn’t apologize for his actions on the videos nor did he try to spin it to his advantage.
”It’s almost as if what we would fight against as a country — the Soviets spying — it’s almost like that’s what everyone is doing,” Berman said by phone Wednesday. “What’s said in the huddle, which is what I did, should be in the huddle.
“I’m disappointed people would think I’m not really good with the people I work with, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Do I wish I didn’t say a few things nine years ago? Yes. But if that’s the worst thing I ever did, I can live with it.”
Now the Soviet reference is a tired cliche but otherwise, it’s a solid statement. I think we as baseball people need to not fall into the trap of thinking that if something that doesn’t follow the company line needs to be apologized for.
I still don’t care for Chris Berman as an analyst or sportscaster but let’s not bring him down because of this.
By the way, ESPN has requested You Tube to remove the videos which they did. Now that’s a totally different issue.
Boy, that didn’t take long.
Today’s game was a mirror image of yesterday’s. Friday Illinois scratched out runs out of nothing. Today, the hits were there but runs were scarce.
Illini starting pitcher Mike Stankiewicz pitched a six inning gem allowing six hits and one run. Unfortunately, the Illinois offense didn’t back him up and when he left the game it was 1-0 Texas State.
It goose eggs till the to of the eighth when the Illini finally drew blood and tied the game. John Schlichter doubled home Ryan Hastings who had walked.
Unfortunately, it was also Schlichter who booted the ball at third base in the bottom of the 9th allowing Spenser Davis to reach base. One wild pitch later, Bobcat Adam Witek singled him home for the wining run.
The offense obviously wasn’t there today but you gotta feel good about the pitching performances about Mike Stankiewicz and Nick Chmielewski (wild pitch notwithstanding).
Newbie catcher Aaron Johnson went 3 for 4 though his offensive effort was somewhat wasted with no runs and no rbis.
Tomorrow, it’s another early 9am game against Lamar University Cardinals.
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Game #3 |
Sat Feb 24, 9 am |
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Record: 1-1 |
vs Lamar |
at Edinburgh, Tx |
| Opponent: | Lamar |
| Nickname: | Cardinals |
| Conference: | Southland Conference |
| Head Coach: | Jim Gilligan (30th year) |
| Location: | Beaumont, Texas |
| Current Record: | 1-1 |
| Baseball Program website: | Link |
| Players to watch: | Reliever Tim Erickson who was named to the NCWBA Stopper Watch list. |
| Team Facts: | Lamar won the Southland Conference East Division in 2007 with a 20-10 record. Pre-season polls predict the Cardinals to win their division again. |
This will be the last game of the Al Ogletree Tournament. After that, the team will be off till next weekend when they play Baylor on the 29th.
Go Illini!
Update: Lamar just lost a tough one to Sam Houston State 18-7 this afternoon. Also, here is FightingIllini.com’s summary of the game.
It’s hard to believe with a heavy snowstorm upon us here in Illinois, that I would be following a baseball game today. With the help of CSTV’s Gametracker, that’s exactly what I did as I saw the University of Illinois win their season opener against Sam Houston State at the Al Ogletree Tournament in Edinburgh, Texas.
Offensively, the Illini made the most of little especially at first. With the help of an error, two walks, and a hit batsman plus a Daniel Webb single, Illinois scored two runs in the second inning. The next inning they scored another run on a another Bearcat error, scoring Brandon Wikoff who singled and stole second.
Meanwhile, Scott Shaw was lights out for five innings allowing no runs. However, Shaw ran into trouble in the 6th when he gave up four earned runs. Kevin Manson came in relief.
In the 7th, rbi hits by frosh Casey McMurray and Ryan Hastings made it 5-4. For good measure, Joey Bonadonna scored on a sac fly after the Illini loaded the bases.
Back to Kevin Manson… he closed out the game pitching 3 2/3 innings allowing no runs with 3 strikeouts and got the precious win. Final score Illinois 6 SHSU 4.
I’ll bet the players will be celebrating tonight!
But not too much. They have a early 9am game tomorrow. Here are the details:
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Game #2 |
Sat Feb 23, 9 am |
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Record: 1-0 |
vs Texas State |
at Edinburgh, Tx |
Illinois go from facing the Bearcats to facing the Bobcats of Texas State. It’s their second game of the Al Ogletree Tournament.
| Opponent: | Texas State |
| Nickname: | Bobcats |
| Conference: | Southland Conference |
| Coach: | Ty Harrington (9th year) |
| Location: | San Marcos, Texas |
| Current Record: | 1-0 |
| Baseball Program website: | Link |
| Players to watch: | Thomas Field, Adam Witek |
| Comments: | SS Field was named pre-season Southland Conference First Team and pitcher Mike Hart was named pre season second team. The Bobcats were 37-23 in 2007 and were listed in the Top 100 college teams in a preseason poll. |
Again, their opponent is tough. More importantly, they have a win under their belt, defeating Stephen Austin in a 10 inning game today.
Go Illini!
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