My friend Robin gifted me a pretty nifty piece of Illinois Baseball memorabilia. It is an unperforated set of baseball cards of the 1993 Illinois baseball team. Wow! Lots of history here. Starting with the head coach, Itch Jones who still ranks 28th all-time with 1,242 wins. And guess who…
To be sure, it’s a good year to be an Illini baseball fan AND a Chicago Cubs fan. Both teams have exceeded expectations in 2015. On the night of the Chicago Cubs’ first 2015 playoff victory (with hopefully many more to come), here is a list of all University of…
Last week, the Big Ten has updated their Record Book. For those who have not perused the Record Book, it’s a plethora of sports information such as yearly standings, yearly statistical team and individual records, awards, and 2013 Year in Review. It’s really quite thorough in its treatment in all…
It isn’t taking former Illini Tanner Roark long. After just one month with the Washington Nationals, he already ranks 14th all-time among pitchers who hailed from the University of Illinois with five wins. Rk From To W ▾ L W-L% 1 Ken Holtzman 1965 1979 174 150 .537 2…
The New York Times ran an obituary of former Illini pitcher Marv Rotblatt who passed away on July 16th at the age of 85. An Evanston native, Rotblatt played for the Illini in the late forties winning the championship in 1947 and 1948. Rotblatt did make it to the majors…
On January 2, former Illini head coach Lee Eilbracht passed away at the age of 88. With 515 wins in his 27 years as skipper, Eilbracht is the winningest coach in Illini history. “We have lost a great part of our Illini family,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “Lee was…
I was going through my photos last night and found these shots of the Illinois Baseball team from the 2005 season, the last time they were Big Ten Champions. I don’t even think some of them are posted in the photo gallery (I should take care of that when I…
Over the winter, I’m taking a historical look at some of the Illini baseball alums. Today let’s look at the top hitters all-time in the majors by former Illini. Unfortunately, you won’t find any .300 hitters here but one comes close. Former Illini From To BA Lou Boudreau 1938 1952…
Last week, I started a series entitled “The Illini Who Made it Big” with the intention of bringing some historical perspective to University of Illinois Baseball. I’ll be talking about some of the former Illini who had made to the majors. And to make it interesting, I introduced a stat…
During this off-season, I thought I would occasionally take a look the former Illini who had played in the Major Leagues. To take it a step further, why not post the all-time leaders among Illini alumni in particular stat categories? It would give us a starting point for some discussion…