Like last year, there was one Illinois baseball question among the 100 questions they gave us.  And once again, Lou Boudreau was the subject of the trivia question.  However, unlike last year, we actually got this one right.

The question??  What was Lou Boudreau’s number when he played for the Illini?

I wish I could claim responsibility for getting this answer right.  But I’ll give credit where credit is due.  My teammate (and IBR reader) Shawn Lee was the one who chose #5 as the right answer.  I don’t know if it was an educated guess or a shot in the dark but he got it right.

Thanks to Shawn for helping me save face.

Today let’s look at the top hitters all-time in the majors by former Illini.  Unfortunately, you won’t find any .300 hitters here but one comes close.

*min 1200 ab

I talked a bit about Lou Boudreau in my past article when I ranked homeruns.  Quite honestly, hitting for average was more Lou’s forte.  He led the AL with a .327 clip in 1944 and in 1948, managed an amazing .355 mark.

Wally Roettger is an interesting entry here.  Yes, he was an Illini player and yes, he did very fairly well in his eight years in the majors but he also came back to his roots and coached for the Illinois baseball program.  In the ‘30s, the University of Illinois brought back Roettger to head up the team.  Roettger had success too as he brought home a championship for the Illini in 1937.

The first thing that came to my head when I saw Harry McCurdy was “the Illini’s reputation of having good catchers goes back a long way”.  McCurdy never made it big in majors, never playing a full season.  But from all reports, in his years with St Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia, he was a solid defensive catcher and managed to hit the ball just like everyone else in that era.

Hoot Evers hit  over .300 three years in row from 1948-1950 for Detroit.  The year after that, he could only manage a .224 clip which most likely precipitated a trade to Boston.

Dan Lenhardt put in five years in the American League in the early fifties as an outfielder and corner infielder.  He had a breakout rookie year for the St Louis Browns hitting .273 with 22 homeruns and 81 rbis,  He had a solid follow-up year hitting 15 dingers and two years later, hit .313.  If only it weren’t for the years, that he hit .239 and .232.

Other articles in the “The Illini who made it big” series.

All stats are courtesy of Baseball Reference.

Let’s start with the dinger, the tater, the four-bagger, the ever popular homerun.

Tom Haller was a steady and reliable (if not spectacular) catcher throughout the 60’s.  He did manage to consistently hit homeruns in the double digits for most of the career which puts his 134 mark at #1 on our list.

For hard-core Illini baseball fans, Darrin Fletcher (right) is remembered as one of the all-time best offensive players.  If there’s any doubt, check the record books… his name is mentioned all over the place.

Once he got to the majors, it took a few years to get going but once he had a nice stretch of seasons.  Playing for Montreal and Toronto, he hit in double figures in homers seven out of eight years between 1994-2001 with a career high of 20 in 2000.

Scott Spiezio is a recent one… his last season was with the St Louis Cardinals only three years ago.  Spiezio had a penchant for the playoffs with a total of 25 rbis in the postseason.  The versatile fielder did hit 119 homeruns in his career.  Trivia fact:  His dad Ed Spiezio who played in the majors in the 60s and 70s, also attended the University of Illinois.

Hoot Evers… now there’s a name not everyone knows.  Yet, the outfielder put together a string of decent seasons with the Detroit Tigers when he hit 73 homers between 1947-1952.  Altogether, Evers played for 12 seasons and his 98 dingers puts him 4th all time on the Illini list.

Lou Boudreau did just about every else right (which got him in the Hall of Fame) but wasn’t much of a power hitter.  He averaged under five homers a season.  He had a power surge in 1948 when he hit 18 and hit .355 and that was good enough to win the AL MVP.

All stats are courtesy of Baseball Reference.

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):

…and I missed it.

Here’s the question:  “Who’s is the one Illinois baseball player to have his uniform number retired by the University?”

Their were four choices:  Lou Boudreau, Darrin Fletcher, and quite honestly, I forgot the the other two choices. 

It was a tough choice but I went with Fletcher who was an absolute monster while he was here at the U of I.  A couple years ago, the News-Gazette’s Jeff Huth called Fletcher “the  greatest hitter in Illini history”.  An ‘87 graduate, Fletcher’s name still litters the Illinois Baseball record book more than 20 years later. 

He had the highest career batting average of any Illini baseball player.  He hit at an amazing .392 clip.  His senior season certainly contributed to that mark.  That is the season he hit .497 which is the highest single season batting average.  The list continues.  He is second in career rbis (199), fifth in career homeruns (38), and his 1987 season total of 147 total bases ranks sixth all-time.  All while playing a demanding position behind the plate. 

So I picked Fletcher.  Wrong choice.  The correct answer would have been Boudreau.  Mr Boudreau had his number retired in 1992.

I know a fair amount about Lou Boudreau as a major league ballplayer but quite honestly, I was a little ignorant about his time here at the University of Illinois.  So for  penance for my little transgression, I would make up for it by looking it up and learning a little about it.

 FightingIllini.com has Lou Boudreau’s obituary written back in 2001  from an Illini point of view.  There’s even a photo of Lou at his uniform retirement ceremony.

Facts about Lou Boudreau and his time at the University of Illinois:

• Competed at Illinois in 1937-38
• While he played baseball, of course, some say his better sport was basketball.
• He helped lead Illinois basketball team to the Big Ten title in 1937 and was named team captain in 1938.
• He hit .347 his sophomore year with 25 hits.
• During that sophomore year in 1937, he helped the Illini baseball team to the Big Ten championship
• According to SABR, Boudreau probably hit around .270-.285 for his career at the University of Illinois.
• While at Illinois, he worked out with the Cubs but turned down their offer when they offered him a contract. 

Statistics and facts are hard to come by when we’re talking about players in a time so long ago and a level not always covered adequately (i.e. college).  As a matter of fact, different websites (reputable ones) were making diametrically opposite statements.  Your mileage may vary. 

So Lou Boudreau, if you’re looking down at me, please forgive my mistake last weekend.  It won’t happen again.  But let’s face it, Darrin Fletcher was a hell of hitter.