As for me , I’m in Pittsburgh for a four-day weekend with friends so I’ll miss it.  If anyone gets some good photos, contact me and we can post them here. 

In related news, Coach Hartleb got some air time with Steve Kelly a couple days ago on NewsTalks 1400 Sports Talk.  You know the Illini Baseball season is getting close when the local media begins covering the sport.  Of course, Hartleb was plugging the Hot Stove Banquet but hit on the prospects of the 2012 season, the tougher 2012 schedule and even some MLB talk.  Note: the Hartleb segment begins at about the 32:00 mark. 

Also, some good news from Hartleb… the Banquet seems to be a sellout. 

You can listen to the full episode at illinihq.com. 

Practice begins today, baseball fans. 

It’s an illuminating interview… you’ll find out Wes’ hopes for the future, favorite Jewish ballplayers and favorite pizza.

By the way, you might recognize the photo from the article.  It’s one of my photos from this year’s series against Iowa.

Way to go, Wes.

Not only will the Nebraska be new to the Big Ten but they’ll have a new head coach.  Former MLB player Darin Erstad has taken the reins for the ‘Huskers.  Erstad has been the volunteer assistant coach no doubt being groomed for the head honcho job.

Erstad was a punter for the 1994 national championship Nebraska football team and went on to play 14 seasons in the majors.

In other news

Davis Hendrickson’s hometown paper, the McDonough Voice had a nice write up on his 2011 season including Illinois’ NCAA postseason play.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with good ol’ friendly Illini HQ and fightingillini.com either.

Tonight, Illinois will play the winner of this afternoon’s Minnesota-Michigan State matchup.  Both teams will be tough.  We already know how good the Spartans are.  Consider this though:  After an initial loss, Minnesota has eliminated the remaining three tournament participants with wins against Penn State, Purdue and Ohio State.  Call them the Terminator.

Illinois hasn’t had a chance to play Minnesota this year.  As a matter of fact, the last time the Illini faced the Golden Gophers was in 2009.  Given what happened the last time we met with them and our 2011 track record with MSU, I say, bring on the Spartans!

The tournament has simplified itself but here’s the updated bracket anyway.

Good luck, Illini!

The Chicago Tribune interviewed walk-off hero Matt Dittman

The Daily Illini has a couple of interesting articles.  One on the missing trophy (stupid policy in my opinion) and another preview of the Tournament.  A quick kudos to the DI for their extensive coverage of Illini Baseball ALL season.  I hope they continue that next year.)

And since all games at the Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be televised you might be find the Big Ten Network TV Schedule link useful.

Good luck, Illini!!

The Daily Illini has a nice article on the Parr brothers not to mention Dad Cam who we find out was a shortstop himself at Huntington University.

Speaking of shortstops, former Illini shortstop Brandon Wikoff (left, during his Illini days) has been doing quite well in AA ball. Brandon is playing for Corpus Christi with the Houston Astros organization.  I won’t jinx him by quoting his numbers but you can check them out for yourself.  By the way, it was nice to see Brandon’s mom make it to Friday’s game.

Interesting stat of the day:  Illinois has a better record when they give up two or more homers (2-1) than when they don’t give up any at all (12-17).   Unfortunately, today was the exception.

IlliniHQ also had an accompanying ‘just-the-facts’ article.  By the way, it’s official, Josh Parr injured is knee during practice which explains his absence last night (I heard rumors but wasn’t going to publish anything till I heard something more detailed).

Speaking of IlliniHQ, they ran a piece on Casey McMurray that shows just how tough he really his.

“The Illinois left fielder played his entire junior year with cysts in his tailbone area that made even sitting — much less running and sliding — at times excruciating.”

Ouch.

Finally, the Daily Illini has been pretty good about paying attention to Illinois baseball all season. Kudos to them.  This past week, they ran an article on Will Strack billing him as ‘Dynamic Strack’.

Collegebaseball360.com, for example, for will be broadcasting 13 of the 24 games of the Big East/Big Ten Challenge down in Clearwater/St Petersburg, Florida.  They are increasing their broadcasting from eight games last year.  Of interest to us Illini fans, they will stream the West Virginia-Illinois game on Sunday February 20.

For more info on the Big East/Big Ten Challenge, here is the tournament web site.

Big Ten Network will increasing their baseball coverage as well. They have just posted their broadcasting schedule for the 2011 baseball season.  The BTN plans to show 30 games on their television network and stream another 50 games over the web.

Three Illinois games are scheduled to be on BTN television network.

• Saturday, April 9 Iowa at Illinois 7 p.m.
• Friday, April 22 Michigan State at Illinois 7 p.m.
• Sunday, May 15 Illinois at Purdue 3 p.m.

The Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be broadcasted in its entirety.  Here is the full Big Ten baseball schedule for the BTN.

Fast forward to this past Sunday when under a foot and a half of snow (complicated by drifts), the Metrodome roof collapsed.

If you haven’t already seen the video, it’s worth a look-see.  Quite a scene.

Not to worry for intrepid Illini folks planning to go to the Metrodome Tournament.  Crews are already beginning to inspect the damage in preparation of repairing the damage.

But there’s a new bonus that probably appeals to geeks like me.  The online roster has a click-to-sort feature.  If you want to sort the players by a particular field (last name, uni number even height and weight), just click on the header field and it will do so alphabetically or numerically as the case may be.

Very handy feature, in my opinion.