Took some time after work to watch the team in full practice today. Despite what it looks like in the top photo it was pretty much all business. For example, here’s Ditt running the bases, a fine sight for any Illini baseball fan: I’ve put all (the good) photos from…
I stopped by Illinois Field today after work to observe practice. The team was still in individual workouts so I’ll hold off on posting photos for the time being. Coach Snider tells me that full team practice will probably begin after Wednesday. The players look good. Specifically, Matt Dittman looks…
Last night, I went with friends (thanks to all of you, I know you’ll read this) to see the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians-Toledo Mudhens game. A baseball game is always fun but when former Illini Shawn Roof is the starting thirdbaseman for one of the teams, it makes it awesome. So…
Today’s number on the sports page of the News-Gazette was 44. That’s the number of rbis that Adam Davis (left) accrued this summer while playing for the Madison Mallards in the Northwoods League. That was good for sixth in the league. He accomplished this in part behind a .328 average. …
As you may know, Shawn Roof is now playing for the AAA Toledo Mudhens and tonight and tomorrow night, he’s playing in Indianapolis. This is as close as he’s gotten to Urbana in his minor league career. Here’s my chance to see him in action. So with the help of…
It’s a busy week on campus. All the University students are back and finding their way to their new classes. Good luck to the players this semester. I don’t need to remind them how important their studies are. To their credit, Coach Hartleb and the rest of the coaching staff…
After work today, I trekked on over to Illinois Field to see how construction was going on the improvements on the Illinois players’ clubhouse. I took some photos while I was there too. The UI baseball program has come out with a press release on the construction. Here are some…
Congrats to Adam Davis, Josh Parr and Matt Dittman who made the Northwoods League postseason All-Star team. All three had excellent summers for their respective teams. For the Rochester Honkers, Matt Dittman hit .332 with 44 rbis. Parr, who was with the Madison Mallards, hit .307 and scored 41 runs…
I just got back in to town from a well-deserved and very-much-enjoyed two week vacation. Our family spent most of it in Wyoming. I was a hop, skip and a jump away from Casper which made me think of Dom Altobelli who did a short stint with the single-A Ghosts…
There’s good news coming from former Illini shortstop Shawn Roof. He’s now playing AAA baseball. The Tigers’ affiliate Toledo Mudhens now have Shawn on the team and given his performance in his first game, they might be happy they do. He went 2 for 4 in his AAA debut! Nice…