Technically, they may not be the BEST quality photos I’ve taken but they are my favorites from this year.

The sun setting in the west beyond Illinois Field after a game.

Anyone who’s followed Josh Parr knows he’s made amazing progress in the field in just one year.  He’s saved Illinois many runs with his glove.

Willie Argo getting some air time stealing second.

I love getting shots of emotion.  This photo of Willie Argo was taken right after he scored in the comeback win in our first home game against Indiana State.

I just like the look on Pete Cappetta’s face as he motors into third base.

Matt Dittman gets a quick respite as he stands safely on third base.

All eyes follow the foul ball.

It might be worth looking at a larger version of photo.  The look on each player’s face shows how excited they are about Casey McMurray’s homerun in the last game of the year against Indiana.

Wes Braun comes off the field after one of many successful innings off the mound.

Matt Dittman mentally prepping for the first game against Indiana.

Josh Parr slides in for a triple against Indiana.

Pitcher Bryan Roberts was out for 2011 but he played an integral role in the dugout keeping it real.

Iowa head coach Jack Dahm expresses his opinion to the umpire

I don’t know why I like this photo of Brandon Hohl standing in the edge of the dugout but it’s one of my favorites.  .

Justin Parr always as an intense look on his face when on the field.  Here he his after scoring against Iowa.

These photos aren’t in any order of preference but I am saving the best for last.  This shot of Matt Dittman’s Big Ten title-clinching homerun trot is one of favorite photos I’ve taken.  There’s something about a smile on player knowing what he has helped accomplished for his team.

Your favorite??

Occasionally, I like to do interviews here are on IBR but this time I was really looking forward to doing this one.  The subject this time is sports photographer Cary Frye.  Those baseball fans  who attend games at Illinois Field will probably recognize Cary with his signature orange cap usually worn backwards. 

As an amateur photographer, I’m somewhat envious of Cary.  After all, he has nice expensive cameras slung over his shoulder and he has these nice long telephoto lenses.  Seriously, Cary is one of the best and to top it off he is a top notch guy who is always willing to chat at the ballpark.  Lucky for us, he was willing to answer a few questions for the IBR. 

Illinois Baseball Report:  A lot of us see you taking photos at Illinois sporting events
but tell us who you are.  Who do you take photos for and how did you get connected with Illini sports?

Cary Frye:  I’m Cary Frye a freelance photographer who lives in Champaign, I shoot for basically anyone who’ll hire me, many times its just for an event or game. Other times it could be for an entire season. I’ve shot for several Newspapers, web sites and a couple of magazines. As for working with Illinois it just kind of happened over time, I started out helping them on one sport and then another and as I got better equipment and became a better photographer they kept giving me more sports to shoot.

IBR:  Canon or Nikon?  Or maybe something else?

CF:  Nikon  I don’t really have a preference with Nikon or Canon their both the tops in their field, it’s just that when you start with one, you pretty much have to stay with that brand because of the cost of getting all new equipment.

IBR:  Without getting too technical, walk us through a sporting event from your perspective.  How many photos do you take at one game on average and how long does it take to process them afterwards?

CF:  For football and basketball I usually try and get to the game 2 hours before it starts, all other sports about 30-45 minutes before they start. At times I may have specific things that I need to shoot during the game, it could be an award being presented during a timeout or someone throwing out the first pitch etc. With shooting the game itself the game usually dictates what I do and at other times I may plan on trying something new like shooting from different spots or angles. On average I take about 500 photos per game, shooting a 1,000 isn’t out of the norm, it really depends on the game and how much action is involved.

IBR:  What gives you more personal satisfaction, getting the homerun shot or a photo of the diving grab at third?  Has there been one particular shot that you captured that you are particularly proud of?

CF:  That’s a tuff one, I guess it would be getting whatever the big play would be, that’s what makes shooting sports so much fun, any night something special could happen and if you capture the moment in a photograph its something you can treasure forever. For all time favorite, I’d have to go with my top 5 in no particular order.

IBR:  I know you shoot a variety of sports. Are there any that are more difficult than others to photograph?

CF:  Football is probably the toughest, one because you have to move up and down the field with all your equipment. It’s fast moving and covers a large area and you have to keep alert and try not to get ran over on the sidelines. But that’s also what makes it the funnest to shoot as well.

CF:  Not that I have found!

Thanks to Cary for taking the time from his busy photographer schedule to answer some questions.  You can see some of Cary Frye’s fine work over at IllinoisLoyalty.com.  He is also on Twitter @illiniphotog. 

Here three things I’ve learned recently.  Maybe you’ll find them interesting.  Or maybe you already knew about them in which case you can go to the head of the class.

Disclaimer:  These opinions are from his experience.  They may do things different here in the Big Ten.

Who calls the game in case of bad weather?

I got thinking about this question because of the Saturday game against Indiana State that was cancelled.  I found it unusual that the game was called five minutes before the scheduled start.  The fans were in the stands and the players were all warmed up then the PA announcer told us the game had been cancelled because of cold weather.  I was curious who made the decision.

Todd says that generally speaking, up until game time, it is the home team that makes the decision whether to cancel a game because of weather.  Once the game starts though, that decision is handed over to the umpire crew.

By the way, if you’re curious, that photo above was taken at a Michigan State-Illinois game on March 29, 2009.  And yes, they finished that game.

How long does a home plate umpire wait before going out to the mound to keep the game going?

We see this several times a game.  A manager, catcher and who knows else goes out to the mound for a conference.  Sooner or later, you see the home plate umpire stride on out there to hurry them up or they’d be out there forever.

I once asked Todd if he had a set time limit that he gave teams for a conference on the mound.  Now keep in mind that every umpire is different but this is Todd’s routine.  He tells me that once the conference starts he waits about ten seconds then takes the time to brush off home plate.  If it doesn’t seem like it’s going to break up anytime soon, then he makes his move toward the mound.

Again, every umpire is different, I’m sure.

What is that device strapped to the umpire’s belt?

Time is of the essence now, apparently.  These devices are stopwatches.  Todd tells me that as of this year, umpires have an additional duty.  They are required to make sure pitchers deliver the ball twenty seconds after they receive the ball from the catcher.  And unless the game is televised, there should not be more than 90 seconds between half innings.

This USA Today article has the details on the rules:

“With the 20-second pitch clock, when the bases are empty the pitcher has 20 seconds from the time he receives the ball from the catcher to begin his windup. Should he fail to do so within 20 seconds, he will be given a warning. Each violation after that, a ball will be added to the pitch count. Hitters that fail to enter the batter’s box within the allotted amount of time will be given a strike for each violation following the initial warning.

— The 90 second clock begins once the last out of the previous inning is made. From that point, the pitcher has 90 seconds to warm up and the leadoff batter must be in the batter’s box.”

Some NCAA stadiums are even installing pitch clocks.

I appreciate the inside info my buddy gives me.  It helps me enjoy the game more.  I’ll even sometimes hear those stories of when he’s had to eject a player or a coach.  Glad he’s not an ump here in the Big Ten… he may have a quick thumb.

10.  A warm jacket.  Those early season games get pretty chilly.

9.  Money…but only if you want to get something from the concession stand.  Illini baseball games are free this year!

8.  Your Orange and Blue gear.  Wear it proud.

7.  Your voice.  Let the Illini players know you’re there!

6.  A glove.  Handy to catch those errant foul balls.  Don’t forget to turn them back in to the media office, though.

5.  A camera.  I always bring mine.

4.   Did I mention a warm jacket?  It’s supposed to be 41 degrees at gametime tomorrow.

3.  Your enthusiasm, love of the game and sometimes, patience.

2.  Your friends, family, anyone you know. Let’s fill the stands.

1.  Yourself.  That one’s important.

On to the interview:

Illinois Baseball Report:  Michigan outfielder Ryan LaMarre, who was injured in the first weekend of the season, wasted no time making an impact in his return this past weekend. He played well enough to be named Big Ten Player of the Week. I imagine Michigan fans are happy about this. Do you see him continuing this type of the play throughout the conference season?

MGoBlog:  Michigan fans are ecstatic to have Ryan back and for good reason. This weekend was an explosion that no one saw coming. That said, I don’t think anyone  has the ability to keep a .600 batting average over a 7 week stretch. What should be scary to opposing pitchers is that LaMarre (left) was diagnosed as only about 80-90% this weekend. He still has some time to build back up his strength to the point it was before the fracture. Once he gets that back, those two he hit off the wall in the same inning will be clearing the wall easily.

IBR:  Aside from LaMarre, who are the other Michigan players Illinois needs to keep an eye on? Any newcomers who are pulling their weight?

MGoBlog:  Michigan has a lot of talent on offense this year, but it all starts with the lead off man Patrick Biondi. Biondi was a late round draft pick by the Tigers, but he came to Michigan to build up his draft stock. He’s arguably the fastest player in the Big Ten and has one of the best bats as well. The kid has come out of nowhere to hit .376 with a .482 on base and .547 slugging percentage. The kid just gets on base, then he steals another. He’s already tied Michigan’s freshman stolen base record with 19 so far this season.
Things also won’t be easy after LaMarre. Senior catcher Chris Berset took over the offense during LaMarre’s absence, and he put up better numbers than LaMarre did in the previous season. He’s batting .400 as of the Purdue series and the game plan appears to be get LaMarre on, steal to get into scoring position if necessary, then let Berset line a single in the outfield for the RBI. That combo worked 4 times this last weekend. 
After you get past Berset, you’ve still got Coley Crank, the team’s leading slugger, and Mike Dufek who lead the Big Ten in homers last season.

IBR:  Michigan is 18-11 for the year but 3-8 as the visiting team. Is that going to be an issue during the Big Ten schedule (and hopefully against Illinois)?

MGoBlog:  3-8 as the visiting team is somewhat deceptive. Michigan was swept on the road by three opponents following the exit of Ryan LaMarre. Texas Tech is a top 65 RPI team, UNC is a fringe ranked team, and Coastal Carolina got a wake up call from some team I’m sure you’ve heard of, which left them extra focused for Michigan. That’s 7 of the losses, and the eighth was at Indiana when Michigan made some questionable pitching choices on a weekend when Sabourin and Dickerson were red hot. Michigan probably should have taken one or two from UNC, but they were still shell shocked from the LaMarre loss.
The three wins we have are solid though, including a win at top 100 Florida Gulf Coast and two at Indiana. So I think the boys can handle almost any road situation.

IBR:  Minnesota has had a slow start during the non-conference schedule and even Ohio State, while still dominant, lost to a couple of non-competitive teams early on. Going into the season, they were two of the favorites of the conference. What does that mean to a Michigan baseball team who is trying to regain their status as the team to beat in the Big Ten?

MGoBlog:  I think Michigan is trying to take advantage the best they can. There isn’t the dominant pitcher at the front of our rotation as there has been in the past, but our pitching depth is one of the top in the Big Ten. We also have the advantage of not facing Michigan State, the current leader, in conference play (although we do have a pair of mid-week games against them). This opens Michigan up to a potential run to try and steal a regular season championship if we catch a few breaks.
I don’t think we’re worried about being the team to beat. After last year’s debacle, Michigan is out to just win every series and get a good seed to the tournament. If we can get there, our pitching depth should help us get back to the national picture. 

IBR:  Surely, there has to be a weakness on the Michigan squad. Care to share what it is?

MGoBlog:  There are two major concerns on my mind right now. The lesser of the two is the team defense. Freshman Derek Dennis has been a solid contributor and will definitely be a star sometime in the near future, but his defense has been rocky as of late. It hasn’t cost us a game that recently, but it’s been close a few times.
The bigger issue facing the team right now is consistency in the starting rotation. Alan Oaks dominated out of the gate, but he’s been on a 4 week slide and hasn’t shown signs of digging out of it yet. I’m not sure if this is just fatigue from his first full season on the mound or what. Sunday starting pitching has been a hodge-podge of guys that haven’t had a ton of success this season. Burgoon did alright, but he’s been too valuable at closer. Miller has left the ball up a lot. Sinnery came in for his first start of the season this week and looked good, but that’s just one start. I need more data to really get a feel. 

Ok, let’s do a few rapid fire questions…

IBR:  The Big Ten team Michigan must win all three against?

MGoBlog:  [slams head to desk] Northwestern. We couldn’t do it last year. We can’t afford not to do it this year.

IBR:  Stats aside, the Michigan player that has come through in the clutch?

MGoBlog:  Until this last week, Mike Dufek. He’s cooled, so I’ll go with LaMarre/Berset combo. 

IBR:  Similarly, the pitcher you want on the mound for the big game (or big inning)?

MGoBlog:  Game is tough. Brosnahan is hot right now. Big inning, no doubt it’s Burgoon. He was throwing 93-94 and touching 96 on the fast ball last weekend. Filthy slider.

IBR:  The Michigan baseball team, a group of stars or a team effort?

MGoBlog:  Group of stars. Bottom 3 in the lineup are just contributors this year. We lack the stars in the starting rotation.

IBR:  Finally, your favorite Michigan alum who’s made it to the bigs?

MGoBlog:  So many greats, where to start… I’m going way back to George Sisler (right).  Potentially the greatest Wolverine. Special love to Barry Larkin though. He was the man when I was a kid growing up. He’s also getting his number retired during the OSU series this year.

IBR:  To close this off, tell us about mgoblog.com. How long have you been covering the team? Also, is the program pretty receptive to you as someone who blogs about the team?

MGoBlog:  mgoblog.com was started by Brian Cook in 2005. covering mainly football with a couple other Michigan sports and some U.S. Men’s soccer. It’s grown quite a bit over the last 5 years to the point where the site gets about 50-60,000 visitors each day. Over the course of its existence, coverage became focused to just Michigan football, hockey, and basketball, but following the acquisition of Varsity Blue (my former affiliation) to start this academic year, lacrosse, volleyball, and baseball have all received quite a bit more coverage. Volleyball and baseball are my own contributions to the site, with volleyball just wrapping up it’s first season of coverage, while baseball is now in it’s second year.
From what I heard from a former player, the guys don’t follow my work. That’s probably for the best. I know a couple parents do keep up with the write ups and they seem to appreciate it. The Athletic Department seems to have a few consistent readers as an SID or two has mentioned to me, and as I’ve noticed them sending out specific emails about an hour after certain threads on our message board ask similarly specific questions. My interactions with them have been nothing short of excellent.
In many cases, the UM AD gives Brian, our reporter Tim, or our photographer Paul any media credentials we desire, be that for baseball, football, or otherwise. We’re treated like any other media source, but unlike the Detroit Free Press and a few other major local pundits, we generally have a very positive view of all things Michigan. I think it makes us more desirable.

thanks to formerlyanonymous for taking the time to answer my questions.  I’m looking forward to this weekend’s series with Michigan… it should be a good one.

Larry Fall blogs about sports at Penn State University and his blog, Happy Valley  Hardball covers the baseball team at PSU.  Happy Valley takes a unique look at the team as it is very stats-oriented and Larry even occasionally expands his coverage to the conference in general. 

In light of Illinois’ opening Big Ten series against Penn State this weekend, Larry was kind enough to answer a few questions about the PSU baseball team. 

Illinois Baseball Report:  Taking a quick look at the standings, the Penn State record of 8-12 (as of Saturday) doesn’t seem too impressive.  But looking closer at their schedule, they’ve played some tough teams.  For example, they’ve played ranked Texas A&M twice.  In the long run, will playing such competitive teams help PSU when the Big Ten season starts?  And given all that, just how good is Penn State?

Happy Valley Hardball:  One would hope so, but we’ve scheduled even tougher competition on our spring break trips in the past and it hasn’t seemed to help.  We got off to a very good start in the Big Ten/Big East challenge (wins over Cincy and Seton Hall and a one run extra inning loss to Notre Dame), which were followed up with a split in a four game weekend tournament in Texas (wins over McNeese State and Dallas Baptist, but two losses to Lamar).   At that point, I’d say things were looking pretty optimistic since, in the past, we’ve been notoriously slow starters.

Unfortunately, we then ran into a buzzsaw in the aforementioned Texas A&M and they whopped us pretty good (17-3, 7-0).  That led to a string of defeats, seven in all, and it wasn’t until this past weekend that we looked like we might come out of it.

If you dissect our 9-12 record, you find that we’ve 0-5 against top 50 RPI schools with our losses coming to #13 Texas A&M (2) and #40 Texas State (3).  So that makes us 9-7 against the rest of the world.  Given that the entire Big Ten only has three wins in forty four games against RPI top 50 schools, maybe we can hold our own in conference.

However, to be honest, I don’t expect us to.  I think our pitching is suspect, particularly the bullpen, and without good pitching, we’re going nowhere.  I see us struggling to play .500 ball in conference.

Just as a follow-up on the scheduling.  I think the Big East/Big Ten challenge has been a fantastic idea.  The Big East traditionally has some pretty decent teams (from a northern school perspective) so they provide a challenge for the Big Ten schools but, at the same time, don’t have the enormous early season weather advantage that the southern schools possess.

IBR:  Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but Penn State has a 0-9 record in opponent’s ballparks but a 8-3 record elsewhere.  Do you think there’s anything to that?

HVH:  Actually, I do.  Part of it is, of course, that we played the top 50 schools, Tex A&M and Texas State, on their campuses, so that’s likely to put us in a road hole to begin with.  The rest of it, though, I think is because of the make up of this team.  We have an ok offense and a bunch of kids who won’t quit, but we are handicapped with our pitching.  So in games where we get the last at-bat, we have a chance.  But with a weak bullpen, the same can be said for our opponents when they get the last shot.

Penn State has actually been involved in seven walk-off games.  We’ve won four and lost three.  Amazingly, when we have the last at bat, we are actually 7-1.  Of course, that also means we are 2-11 when the other guy bats last.

IBR:  Junior catcher Ben Heath seems to be Penn State’s big offensive threat this season.  At this point, he’s leading the team in homeruns and rbis.  Are there other Nittany Lion hitters that Illinois should be careful with?  Pitchers?

HVH:  Ben is having an outstanding season (.358 BA, 7 HR, 26 RBI); I’d actually call it an All Big Ten type of season to date.  He’s currently second in the conference with 7 home runs and, if he can continue to hit with power at Medlar Field, a not exactly power friendly park, he could have a shot at Penn State’s thirty plus year old home run record of 17.  His backup at catcher, Bobby Jacobs (.390 BA, 1 HR, 6 RBI), is someone else to keep an eye on since he’s recently taken over most of the DH role. 

But the big pleasant surprise of the season is sophomore and Illinois native Joey DeBernardis (.372 BA, 1 HR, 17 RBI) from Lake Zurich.  Joey played sparingly as a freshman last year but is having a breakout season this year.  He’s taken over the first baseman’s slot vacated by four year starter (and coach’s son) Cory Wine.  Joey is carrying a very hot bat right now with eight multi-hit games in his last 12.  He did have an eight game hitting streak come to an end last Friday but he has reached base in 19 of 21 games so far this season.  He’s also backed that up with an error-less performance in the field 

Another kid who has come on strong of late is freshman Elliot Searer (.341 BA).  Elliot is normally a middle infielder but coach Robbie Wine has moved him to the outfield to try and get some more offense into the lineup. 

Also, watch out for leadoff hitter Sean Deagan.  If he gets on, he’s going to run.  He’s currently 14-14 in stolen bases.  Unfortunately, he’s only batting .245 with an OBP of only .311, a little low for what you’d like at the top of the order.

As far as pitching goes, I’m having a hard time finding much good to say.  The ace of the staff should be Mike Wanamaker (1-2 W/L, 5.62 ERA), who missed all of last year with an injury and who still looks a little rusty.  The bullpen has really struggled but David Lutz (1-1 W/L,3.97 ERA) had a good week in long relief, putting up 7.1 consecutive scoreless innings. Starter Ryan Ignas (2-1 W/L, 5.34 ERA) had a good outing on Saturday with a seven inning complete game. 

IBR:  Tell us about your blog, Happy Valley Hardball.  It’s pretty unique college baseball blog in that you have a focus on sabermetrics. 

HVH:  The sabermetrics thing is probably something that I ought to remove from my tagline since I’m doing less and less of it all the time – not so much from a lack of interest as from a lack of time. If I could find a better way of automating the data collection and number crunching end of it I might do more. I’ve found myself doing far too much cutting and pasting into Excel spreadsheets when my automated web queries fail. 

One thing that I will do though is use Bill James’s Pythagorean Expectation formula to calculate what we might expect the Big Ten teams winning percentages to be.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, James says that a teams winning percentage can be expected to be equal to their runs scored squared divided by the sum of their runs scored squared and their runs allowed squared.  It’s called the Pythagorean Expectation because of its similarity to the familiar c squared equals a squared plus b squared.

I’ll publish my first expectation results sometime in the next couple of days. My experience with the Pythagorean Expectation highlights some of the problems I have with my sabermetrics stuff.  Ideally, I’d like to plot out the teams winning percentages based on Big Ten stats only.  I think the percentages are distorted by the different caliber of competition that the Big Ten teams have faced during the early non-conference play (Iowa has the toughest SOS at #89 while Purdue has the softest at #280 – that’s a pretty big disparity).  That all goes away if I just use conference results.  However, I have been unable to find a source that can provide me with the runs scored and runs allowed just in conference play (the conference provides conference game stats only for basketball, I don’t know why they don’t do it for baseball).  So to publish it the way that I’d prefer to do it, I’d have to go to every team’s website and pull out their conference numbers from the box scores.  Not going to do that so I have to settle for a non-conference Pythagorean Expectation.

One thing that I’ll also continue to do is experiment with ways of presenting data.  I want to see if I can find some new visualization techniques.  Things like this batting stats chart that I published last year (sometime before the weekend I should get a post up with this season’s data in it).  The chart is interactive and you can play around with it doing various comparisons.

I’ll look around the web other ideas that I can use.

IBR:  Finally, would you care to make a prediction on what teams will make the Big Ten Tournament in 2010? 

HVH:  To be honest, I have yet paid enough attention to the rest of the conference to make much of an educated guess.  I’ve been hard at work on my wrestling blog, Happy Valley Half Nelson, and it’s only now that wrestling season has ended that I can concentrate more on baseball.

***

Thanks to Larry Fall for taking the time to inform us a bit on the Penn State baseball program.  If you want to check out his Penn State baseball blog, head on over to Happy Valley Hardball.

Of course, Cappetta has really developed since his first season. Illini fans know of his reputation of being a a player who could play just about any position. He is versatile and can play the outfield and all infield positions.  Who knows?  Give him the opportunity, he’ll probably try catcher too.

In 2009, Cappetta began to show that he could hit, too. He is probably the most underrated offensive threat on the Illini team. Batting .384 (tops on the Illini), Pete has been known to really come through in the clutch.

And to top it off, I can vouch that Pete Cappetta is one of nicest guys on the team. Maybe that doesn’t win games but that counts for something in my book.

So without any further ado, here are 8 Questions for Pete Cappetta and his answers.

Illinois Baseball Report:  Pete, you had a breakthrough year in 2009.  The year before (in 2008) you were a backup shortstop.  Then last year, you led the team in hitting with a .384 batting average.  Not only that, you didn’t make an error in the field all season.  I know this question sounds cliche but what contributed to your success last year?

Pete Cappetta:  I put in a lot of hard work going into the year and it paid off. I have some of the best coaches here at U of I that prepared me very well for last season, and they continue to do the same for this upcoming season. I have to say they contributed a lot to my success last season.

IBR:  You are getting a reputation of being a player who can play almost any position in the field.  I’m sure Coach Hartleb probably appreciates a quality like that.  Are you going to continue to be an uber-utility player this year or are you going to settle down to one position in 2010?

PC:  I really don’t know where Coach Hartleb has me penciled in right now, but I am definitely excited for the opportunity to play anywhere. One of my main strengths is my versatility and I just want to help the team wherever possible.

IBR:  What was the most exciting moment for you personally during the 2009 season?  You certainly have a few choices between the exciting LSU series, the opening comeback win against Ohio State not to mention the whole Big Ten Tournament experience.

PC:  The LSU series was the most exciting moment for me as a player and I think our team as a whole. We really showed a lot of people that our program is on the rise and I hope we take the momentum from last year into this year.

IBR:  The Illini are going to open up at home against Bradley on February 20th.  Really??  Dang, that’s going to be cold.

PC: To be honest, we practiced outside for almost a week prior to our first tournament last year, so we will definitely be prepared for the first game no matter what the forecast looks like.

IBR:  The Illini coaching staff has brought a solid core of freshman and transfers to the team last fall.  It looks like some of them will play a big part in Illinois’ 2010 season.  From your standpoint, are they ready?

PC:  I am really excited about this freshman class. They are good ballplayers who all have the potential to be starters on this year’s team. There is a lot of versatility among them, and I have a feeling a number of them will contribute right away.

IBR:  Do you see a repeat performance from last year’s 16-8 conference record?  Do you guys look ahead to postseason games like the Tournament (or even the Regionals) or do you, as they say, take one game at a time?

PC:  Every year we go in with the mindset that we will contend for a Big Ten championship. The best approach in doing that is to take it one game at a time. Once we get ahead of ourselves, that’s when bad things can happen.

IBR:  The schedule says that you guys are going to play the University of Missouri at Busch Stadium in April.  Are players excited?  What about the Cardinal fans on the team?  They gotta be ecstatic.

PC:  We are all very excited about the Busch Stadium game. It’s going to be a great atmosphere to play in. There are quite a few Cardinals fans on the team, especially Lee Zerrusen. I don’t think he has gone a day without talking about the game. I feel bad that Brandon Wikoff is going to miss it, though. He is a huge Cardinals fan, and I’m sure he would have loved to suit up for that game!

IBR:  Finally, tell everyone one thing we don’t already don’t know about Pete Cappetta.

PC:  Being from Chicago and being a huge football fan, you would assume I love the Chicago Bears. But I am about the biggest Green Bay Packers fan there is. I was speechless for about two days after the Packers lost in the playoffs this year. But with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, things are looking very bright for the future. They are the youngest team in the league and I’m expecting big things from them in the next few years.

I would like to thank Pete Cappetta for taking the time during his busy schedule and doing this for us.  Good luck to him and the rest of the Illini!

There are 34 players listed according to the roster.  I’ve sorted, filtered, and broken it down to get a sense of exactly what kind of team we have.  Some of the info is important… some of it is frankly, trivial.  Hopefully, it is ALL interesting.

Year in School

A good sign… we have a young team. 

Where they’re from

Catcher Aaron Johnson is born in Sussex County, New Brunswick, Canada.

The Righties and Lefties

Among pitchers only

Corey Kimes is the lone lefty on the pitching staff.

How they measure up

Casey Mac lost his two 5’8 partners to the draft.  Both former Illini Joe Bonadonna and Brandon Wikoff were also 5’8.

…and just for kicks

(Edit 2/12)  I’ve made a few corrections.  It seems the roster on fightingillini.com was incorrect.  After noticing the differences in my post, the corrections were made on the official roster.  They are now correct above. 

It seems Josh Parr grew an inch and put on 5 pounds (I thought he bulked up a bit).  Also, a there are three players (John Anderson, Billy Barrett and Wes Braun) who are classified as redshirt juniors not seniors.  Also, for the record, there are also three redshirt freshmen (Thomas Shelton, Doug Schumacher and Bill Charvat). 

I hadn’t even noticed this when I first glanced the 2010 Illinois schedule.   However, someone pointed out to me that in April, the team are in for a treat.  On April 7th, they will play at the St Louis Cardinals’ home field, Busch Stadium.  Outstanding!  They will play the University of Missouri Tigers. 

I’m not a Cardinals (go Cubs!) but I’ve been to the new Busch stadium, thanks to my cousin and his wife were wonderful hosts when my wife and I went down to St Louis one weekend.  The stadium is first-rate. 

Word from the team is that Coach Hartleb has a few connections with the Cardinals staff.  Since they like to arrange a few college and even high school games at Busch each year, Coach H was able to finagle an invite.  Score! 

I can’t say for sure that Illinois has never played in a MLB stadium but they haven’t in my recollection.  Maybe some of the old timers can chime in on this. 

I know it’s a few months away but Go Illini BEAT MIZZOU!