One year after Goose Gossage spoke at the 2017 Illinois Baseball Hot Stove Banquet, another famous former Yankee will keynote at the annual banquet sponsored by the Dugout Club and the Illinois Baseball program. On January 20, 2018, Bucky Dent will headline the event at the iHotel in Champaign.
A Yankee for most of his career, Dent is most noted for his winning homerun in the tie-breaking game against the Boston Red Sox in 1978,
The Hot Stove Banquet is the seen as the kickoff event of the Illini baseball season. Soon after, players begin practice and it won’t be long before the season starts with Lamar on February 16th.
Aside from Dent’s keynote speech, the Hot Stove Banquet includes food, fun and plenty of tradition. No doubt, we will hear from Coach Hartleb who will give us his overview of the team and its mission. There will be a silent auction and if we’re lucky, Mike Namoff will conduct an energetic live auction for a worthy cause.
I for one, am looking forward to it!