Illinois Baseball Report

A few former Illini baseball players have been making noise in the minors in the past few days… Brandon Wikoff hit his second homerun in as many days last Wednesday.  Unfortunately, it was in a losing cause as his AA Corpus Christi Hooks lost 3-2.  But Brandon’s effort’s were rewarded with a leading photo of [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 30th, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »

As someone who works at the University of Illinois and lives four blocks from campus, I can tell you the atmosphere has really changed in the past week.  U of I students have been back at classes for a week for the 2011 fall semester and campus is hustling!  Good luck to the baseball team [...]

Filed under: Off Season Happenings on August 27th, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »

Former Illini and current Iowa Cubs fan favorite Chris Robinson is getting is due at the last game of the season.  As a promotion on September 5, the AAA I-Cubs are recognizing the popular catcher by giving away jerseys commemorating him. From the Iowa Cubs website: Chris Robinson has been an I-Cub and a fan [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 27th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been migrating my Illinois baseball photos to a new and hopefully better photo gallery (using Smugmug).  I was slightly delayed because I took a desperately-needed vacation this past two weeks but I’m ready to unveil it to everybody. You already see the results in the sidebar.  In [...]

Filed under: Blog Administration on August 20th, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new banner at the top of the IBR web page.  This was one of my favorite photos from last season.  Nothing captures emotion better than a key homerun during the last series of the season.  We can thank Casey McMurray for all of this.  This photo was taken after [...]

Filed under: Blog Administration on August 19th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Some fans passed on this photo of former Illini Shawn Roof.  They saw Shawn play on August 4th when he was playing for the single-A Lakeland (Fla) Flying Tigers. The good news is that Shawn has been promoted to Double-A since then.  After hitting .348 in 14 games for Lakeland, he’s swinging the bat once [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 17th, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »

On Monday, Illini recruit Charlie Tilson finally made his decision and he chose to sign with the St Louis Cardinals who drafted him in this year’s MLB draft.  It might not have been an easy decision to make but the $1.275 million may have helped the 79th round outfielder make that decision a little easier. [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 17th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

On top of the news that Drew Dickinson has officially joined the Illini coaching staff, another former University of Illinois pitcher will be taking his place as volunteer assistant coach.  Last week, it was announced that Jason Anderson will take on the position on the heels of the news that he retired from professional baseball [...]

Filed under: Announcements on August 17th, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »

Seems second time is better for former Illini outfielder Kyle Hudson… at least when it comes to Triple-A.  The first time Hudson (left during his Illinois days) was promoted to the Baltimore Oriole AAA affiliate Norfolk Tides, he could only muster a .197 average.  This time he’s hitting .373 with the Tides. Hudson was promoted [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on August 9th, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »

It was announced today that Drew Dickinson was named University of Illinois baseball pitching coach. Dickinson’s impressive credentials do him justice.  While playing for the Illini, he earned two All-American awards and was conference Pitcher of the Year.  After a seven year pro career (reaching as high as AA ball), he was volunteer assistant coach [...]

Filed under: Announcements on August 3rd, 2011 | Leave a Comment! »