I ran across some old photographs on my system that not been previously posted. By old I mean 2005, before I started blogging about the team. To put this into historical context, this was the year that Illinois won the Big Ten Championship. It was also Coach Itch Jones’ last…
Though it’s still freezing here in Central Illinois, we have to remind ourselves that opening day IS less than two weeks. Let’s find out about the University of Illinois baseball by the numbers. There are 34 players listed according to the roster. I’ve sorted, filtered, and broken it down to…
A snowy day against MSU in March ‘09 Fans and friends who had heard about Illinois baseball’s early home date of February 20 have been asking me about it. Typical questions are “Are they holding in inside?’”, “Is it a typo on the schedule?”, and “Are they crazy?”. Well, as…
Last weekend along with my friend Shawn, I took part in the Kiwanis Sports Trivia Championship. I could go into details but long story short, we could have done better. But here’s the kicker… there was one Illinois Baseball trivia question asked all day… …and I missed it. Here’s the…
Good news for former Illini firstbaseman Mike Rohde. The Gary Southshore Railcats have signed him for the 2010 season. Rohde, who was the league’s 2008 Rookie of the Year, moved to thirdbase last year. And go figure, Rohde got a blogging gig for the Northwest Indiana Times last summer. If…
The Big Ten Network has promised they would provide more games via streaming video this year and it looks like they are coming through. They have announced their online streaming schedule for 2010 and it is quite improved from last year. At this point, Illinois has ten games on their…
A quick note: Brian over at The College Baseball Blog is interviewing college baseball coaches around the nation and recently he got around to quizzing our own Coach Hartleb. It’s a good read.
You know the Illinois Baseball season is getting close when they announce the Hot Stove Banquet (maybe a little closer than usual this year). The baseball team and Fighting Illini Dugout Club have just announced the details of the upcoming annual banquet which will take place on February 6th. They…
A quick note with a slight bittersweet tint… Big Ten Hardball, the blog that incessantly covered Big Ten Baseball news, issues, and analysis, is closing its virtual doors. Brian DeCaussin who maintained BTH, is calling it quits after five incredible years. Those of you who are parents of players most…
Hard to believe that one month from today when students are still in their first week of classes, Illinois is scheduled for their first game of the 2010 season. It’s a HOME game to boot. Some of the cynics out there are wondering if given our Illinois weather, we’ll be…