I am so excited for tomorrow!! Super Bowl Sunday is finally here! My Arizona Cardinals are actually in the Super Bowl.  You might think that I’m just a bandwagoner, but I was actually born and raised in Arizona. I played JUCO ball the past two seasons at Chandler-Gilbert CC. I have been disappointed just about every year with the Cardinals. They have always been bad! That’s what makes it so hard to believe that they are actually in the Super Bowl! More importantly though, we have our first official team practice tomorrow! We can’t wait to start playing our games. It’s crazy to believe that we start playing in less than three weeks! Time has been flying, but now with the start of official practices, time will pass at an even quicker rate.  GO CARDINALS!!!!!!

After reading the first round of Ping!Baseblogs, I am realizing the bar is high with our blogging crew and I need to step it up in order to have the interest that all these young witty guys have.

We are without a message board, so I am going to use today’s post as such.

To the young man from USF, Mike C, how does Coach Prado fit your entire last name on the lineup card ?  You are easily the winner of the picture contest.  I am sure we each think our pictures are a little dorky, but you stole all the picture thunder in my opinion.

Chris Hervey, I am really surprised to hear about hip hop music coming from “the other” Indiana blog.  When I think of IU Baseball, my first thought is Coach Ty Neal and his cross image of tough guy Atlanta Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzoni and country singer Tim McGraw.  I was expecting to hear “Where the Green Grass Grows” on the Sembower sound system and Coach Neal wearing a cowboy hat in the bullpen.

I can’t razz the Bryant bloggers to much.  The Bulldogs took it to us two years ago in North Carolina so I will leave those results as they stand.

Mr. Ryan Flanagan and D & E is also a member of the NCAA Division II North Atlantic Region just as we are at IUP … so I will be careful not to provide any PSAC vs. WVIAC bulletin board material for you to post.   The movie review is a good twist !   May I suggest my favorite for a future D & E baseball bus trip - the hockey movie “Miracle”.

WIN with CLASS !

Jeff Ditch
IUP Baseball
www.winwithclass.com

It was another smooth week for Senator baseball.  The season is just around the corner and all the players can taste it.  Coach Palmer gave us a fresh breath of air with our Wiffle Ball World Series.  Evan Gazza’s team ended up winning it all, going 3-0.  My team started out hot but fizzled out when I got ejected for kicking fake dirt on the umpire.  On Saturday, our basketball team played Seton Hill University, and fell by three.  JJ Jumper and the National Jump Rope Association were on campus.   JJ Jumper is the official mascot of the NCAA. Two thumbs up to the National Jump Rope Association, they were absolutely amazing and did some things that I thought couldn’t be done with a jump rope.  We had two recruits on campus this weekend, a middle infielder and a left-handed pitcher.  They both had a good time and would be a good addition to our baseball team.  The Senators are scrimmaging West Virginia Tech on Super Bowl Sunday.  It will be a good test to see where we are heading to North Carolina the following weekend.  We open up with Chowan University; the season is just around the corner and the anticipation is killing us. 

Weekly Senator Movie Review:

Righteous Kill – 3 Stars

How could you not like a movie with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino?  Personally, I enjoy movies with serial killers and bloodshed but anyone could find something to like about this movie.  Pacino is starting to show his age but you can’t deny how good of an actor he is.  The movie itself has a good plot; Pacino and De Niro are partners and go around putting away bad guys.  Some of the bad guys end up walking away clean so they decide to take it into their own hands.   You think you know what’s going on but the twist throws you off.  A must watch if you’re a serial killer fan or a De Niro and Pacino fan.

Living in Omaha, Nebraska I’ve been fortunate to witness the increasing popularity of college baseball firsthand. When I used to go to the College World Series as a kid, I’d get into games on the cheap and sit in wooden bleachers running down the right field line that started just after first base. It was from these splintered seats that I watched players like Texas’ Roger Clemens, Michigan’s Barry Larkin and Oklahoma State’s duo of Robin Ventura and Pete Incaviglia play for ten days in our little cowtown. The north parking lot was nicknamed “Dingerville” by its transient residents filled with more trailers and mobile homes than a Springer Show reunion special. Outside of Omaha and the teams who played during the Series, it seemed hardly anyone knew the CWS even existed.

Now twenty years later Omaha has become a must stop for baseball fans and Rosenblatt Stadium has received so many facelifts to accommodate the increasing crowds that even Joan Rivers would blush. The seats which barely went past the bases now hug the entire field. The parking lot which once served as a two week settlement for baseball fans has been taken over by ESPN and TV crews to broadcast every pitch of every game. The Series has grown so much that Omaha has broke ground on developing a new stadium for the exclusive purpose of keeping the Series in town. It could potentially be vacant for the other 49 weeks of the year, but amazing it would still be worth it financially for the city.

While I’ve enjoyed college baseball and CWS during its time under the radar, I’m just as enthused – if not more – to spend spring afternoons sharing it with the rest of the country. I’m glad these amateur athletes are starting to get their due and hope that our website helps increase the awareness and enjoyment level of the game. I look forward to posting this season and hope you like our little grassroots site. Until next time…

Nick

Opening day is less than 10 days away and everyone here in Due West, SC is ready to get started.  After three weeks of practice, the players are itching to get on the field against outside competition as the Fleet look to improve on a record breaking 2008 season that saw Erskine finish with a school record 44 wins and made the program’s first ever NCAA tournament appearance. Expectations are high for the Fleet, with a #23 preseason ranking while also returning nine starters and 10 pitchers from last season.  We open up February 3rd with a double header against Paine College then travel to Georgia College on the 5th.