Without playing any games, Illinois predictably finds themselves right in the middle of the Big Ten non-conference standings at sixth place. The big winner this weekend is Ohio State who won both of their games while Northwestern and Indiana went oh-fer three.
Michigan may have gotten a bit of a scare today. All-American outfielder Ryan Lamarre left today’s game holding his arm after diving for a ball. Details are still sketchy but here’s hoping Mr Lamarre is doing ok.
***
With not much Illini action to report on, I thought I’d turn back the clock again. A couple days ago, I mentioned the University has posted the rosters of every Illini baseball team in history. I thought I’d take the history thing at another angle.
Here are all of the major league hitters that played for the University of Illinois (perhaps I’ll post pitchers another day):
| G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | BA | Yrs@School | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lou Boudreau HOF | 1646 | 6029 | 861 | 1779 | 68 | 789 | 51 | .295 | 1937 |
| Scott Spiezio | 1273 | 3899 | 517 | 996 | 119 | 549 | 33 | .255 | 1991-1993 |
| Darrin Fletcher | 1245 | 3902 | 377 | 1048 | 124 | 583 | 2 | .269 | 1985-1987 |
| Hoot Evers | 1142 | 3801 | 556 | 1055 | 98 | 565 | 45 | .278 | 1939 |
| Tom Haller | 1294 | 3935 | 461 | 1011 | 134 | 504 | 14 | .257 | 1957 |
| Jake Stahl | 981 | 3425 | 405 | 894 | 31 | 437 | 178 | .261 | 1901-1903 |
| Wally Roettger | 599 | 1949 | 192 | 556 | 19 | 245 | 4 | .285 | 1922-1924 |
| Harry McCurdy | 543 | 1157 | 148 | 326 | 9 | 148 | 12 | .282 | 1920-1922 |
| Don Lenhardt | 481 | 1481 | 192 | 401 | 61 | 239 | 6 | .271 | 1941-1946 |
| Ray Demmitt | 498 | 1631 | 205 | 419 | 8 | 165 | 42 | .257 | 1905-1906 |
| Ed Spiezio | 554 | 1544 | 126 | 367 | 39 | 174 | 16 | .238 | 1960-1961 |
| Joe Astroth | 544 | 1579 | 163 | 401 | 13 | 156 | 6 | .254 | 1939-1940 |
| Herb Plews | 346 | 1017 | 125 | 266 | 4 | 82 | 3 | .262 | 1948-1950 |
| Bobby Klaus | 215 | 590 | 65 | 123 | 6 | 29 | 5 | .208 | 1957-1959 |
| Larry Sutton | 252 | 572 | 63 | 135 | 12 | 78 | 4 | .236 | 1989-1992 |
| Bob Burda | 388 | 634 | 53 | 142 | 13 | 78 | 2 | .224 | 1957 |
| Ken Holtzman | 283 | 607 | 35 | 99 | 2 | 34 | 0 | .163 | 1965 |
| Dick Reichle | 128 | 385 | 43 | 99 | 1 | 39 | 3 | .257 | 1920 |
| Big Jeff Pfeffer | 147 | 323 | 20 | 66 | 2 | 28 | 4 | .204 | 1904 |
| Otto Vogel | 111 | 253 | 38 | 63 | 2 | 30 | 6 | .249 | 1921-1923 |
| Cy Falkenberg | 332 | 771 | 49 | 117 | 1 | 47 | 7 | .152 | 1900-1902 |
| Gary Kolb | 293 | 450 | 63 | 94 | 6 | 29 | 10 | .209 | 1960 |
| Jim Breton | 109 | 297 | 25 | 59 | 0 | 27 | 11 | .199 | 1912 |
| Carl Lundgren | 183 | 460 | 32 | 72 | 0 | 26 | 4 | .157 | 1899-1902 |
| Moe Franklin | 61 | 164 | 25 | 43 | 2 | 16 | 0 | .262 | 1935-1937 |
| Mark Dalesandro | 79 | 129 | 17 | 31 | 3 | 17 | 1 | .240 | 1987-1990 |
| Fred Brainard | 95 | 261 | 32 | 51 | 1 | 21 | 6 | .195 | 1911-1914 |
| Fred Beebe | 205 | 457 | 24 | 72 | 0 | 30 | 1 | .158 | 1902-1903 |
| John Happenny | 32 | 86 | 7 | 19 | 0 | 10 | 0 | .221 | 1923 |
| Carl Vandagrift | 43 | 136 | 25 | 34 | 0 | 9 | 7 | .250 | 1905-1907 |
| Dick Barrett | 141 | 222 | 22 | 40 | 0 | 15 | 0 | .180 | 1924-1925 |
| Ray Poat | 116 | 122 | 9 | 14 | 1 | 14 | 0 | .115 | 1937 |
| Howie Judson | 208 | 150 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 0 | .093 | 1944-1945 |
| John Felske | 54 | 104 | 7 | 14 | 1 | 9 | 0 | .135 | 1961-1962 |
| Dick Weik | 78 | 53 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .226 | 1946 |
| Rube Novotney | 22 | 67 | 4 | 18 | 0 | 6 | 0 | .269 | 1943 |
| Walt Linden | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 | 1943-1949 |
| Jim Hicks | 93 | 141 | 16 | 23 | 5 | 14 | 0 | .163 | 1959 |
| John Ericks | 57 | 36 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .083 | 1986-1988 |
| Jim Cook | 8 | 26 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .154 | 1900-1903 |
| Ethan Blackaby | 15 | 25 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .120 | 1960 |
| Terry Wells | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1983-1985 |
| Ollie Voigt | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | 1918-1919 |
| Jake Thies | 34 | 33 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .030 | 1945-1949 |
| Frank Smykal | 6 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .300 | 1908-1914 |
| Claude Rothgeb | 7 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .125 | 1904-1905 |
| Marv Rotblatt | 35 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1945-1948 |
| Lou Possehl | 16 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .100 | 1944 |
| Donn Pall | 47 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1983-1985 |
| Ernie Ovitz | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1906-1908 | |
| Johnny O’Connor | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1911-1912 | |
| Sean Mulligan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1989-1991 |
| Em Lindbeck | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1955-1956 |
| Herb Juul | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1906 |
| Jimmy Journell | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jeff Innis | 288 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1981-1983 |
| Dick Hyde | 169 | 43 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .093 | 1947-1948 |
| George Halas | 12 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .091 | 1914-1916 |
| Red Gunkel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1914-1916 | |
| Fred Frink | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1932-1934 | |
| Jack Franklin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1938-1942 | |
| Tom Fletcher | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1962 | |
| Lee Dunham | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | 1921 |
| Paul Chervinko | 42 | 75 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 0 | .147 | 1931-1933 |
| Jack Brittin | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1943 | |
| Jack Bradley | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1914-1916 |
| Chris Basak | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |
| Boyd Bartley | 9 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .048 | 1941-1943 |
| Bob Barnes | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1921-1922 |
| School Totals | 15619 | 43159 | 5031 | 11012 | 785 | 5269 | 487 | .255 | 1899-1993 |
It’s a long list filled with some a few names we should all recognize. Some are players that have played recently such as Chris Basak, Jimmy Journell and Sean Mulligan. Others are obvious all-stars from the bigs. Lou Boudreau, Scott Speizio (and his dad, Ed), Darrin Fletcher all stand out. Of course there’s always Papa Bear George Halas, too.
Wally Roettger played for Illinois, too. I mentioned him yesterday as the man who coached Lou Boudreau and the rest of the 1937 Illinois team to the Big Ten title.
In a couple days, I’ll post the pitchers.