BB: WIAC: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[szlongball]

How did Reubens do in the WIAC tournament last year and the regionals?  Not much of a factor as I recall. That is what I meant. And though Lechnir has won over 600 games, when did he go to the World Series last? It has been Whitewater and Point lately. The record for saves would be the school record so I don't think Reubens will break that. Would definetly rather have Zielke starting, but not my call. And you're right, winning is the most important thing, not individual records, as I 'm sure he would agree.

[OshDude]

There's no more cruel treatment to your defense then messing around with batters and walking them, or taking at least 5 pitches an at bat to finish them off.  It puts your defense to sleep, and baserunners and a sleeping defense is not a good ninth inning strategy when you're trying to close the door on a team. 

Sorry that I called you "Bootshong" whenever you fell asleep in Oshkosh. Hard to believe I couldn't think of anything cleverer when I was in school. A Cameron Crazy I am not.

[cubs]

How did Reubens do in the WIAC tournament last year and the regionals?  Not much of a factor as I recall. That is what I meant. And though Lechnir has won over 600 games, when did he go to the World Series last? It has been Whitewater and Point lately. The record for saves would be the school record so I don't think Reubens will break that. Would definetly rather have Zielke starting, but not my call. And you're right, winning is the most important thing, not individual records, as I 'm sure he would agree.

Just for the record, in the WIAC Tournament Rubens was 1-1, and in Regionals he did not pitch.

As far as going to the World Series last, it's been five years since UWO made it, but he does have a World Series Title to his resume, something only current WIAC coaches Vodenlich and Lechnir can claim.

And I think EVERYONE who ever wore a WIAC uniform would agree, winning is more important than individual records.

[Brewers20]

Zielke will remain the closer for Point guaranteed.  Bloom knows how valuable it is to be able to close games the way Zielke does, and knows that not everyone has the capability to do it.  How do you think Zielke would feel if he was starting, and he went 8 strong innings, left the game, and see the closer give up the lead?  IDK about anyone else, but that would really burn me.  I say you stick with what's working, he is a great closer, and he has developed that reputation.  I don't think it would be wise for Bloom to start messing with the rotation at this point in the season, stick with what you prepared all fall and winter for, and the success will come.
After this year, however, i think if Cody Koback can handle it, he should step in and play the role as closer, similar to the Yacko kid from Chapman.  He definitely has the talent to do it and not putting him on the mound in some way is a waste.  However, having him be a starting pitcher and play center would be way too much.  With Zimmy pitching and hitting was different because he didn't play the field, he just DH'd which saved his legs a lot.  But playing the field and being a starting pitcher would ware the kid out.

[Dagger]

I wasn't suggesting that bloom "should" change the roation, I was just throwing out a possible scenario on how things could work out with the staff he has.  zielke will and should remain the closer and nix will remain the top one or two on the staff.  As for the closer blowing a lead, it's frustrating for any pitcher to lose a lead in the late innings after the ball is out of your hands, however zielke isn't immune to doing the same thing at some point.  I would gladly have him closing the game after I threw, but he's still human.

However it would be foolish to not adjust the team according to results...you can't just pick and path and follow it if it's going to run you off of a cliff!  Take an exit and find a better route on the way if you see it coming.  There's no reason that he couldn't mix things up a little if he needed to (which i dont think they do).  and the wiac isn't quiet the big leagues so as far as routines and everything goes, I think it's a fairly easy switch for a pitcher to make.  Maybe the arm strength and other issues come into play that would make switching less desirable, but overall it's certainly a relatively easy change to make at this level.

[Dagger]

There's no more cruel treatment to your defense then messing around with batters and walking them, or taking at least 5 pitches an at bat to finish them off.  It puts your defense to sleep, and baserunners and a sleeping defense is not a good ninth inning strategy when you're trying to close the door on a team. 

Sorry that I called you "Bootshong" whenever you fell asleep in Oshkosh. Hard to believe I couldn't think of anything cleverer when I was in school. A Cameron Crazy I am not.

haha, well there's been less clever names than that trust me!  and I was no doubt subject to the most random errors you could imagine over the course of the year.  pretty much the more routine the ball, the higher percentage I had on making an error...I don't know must have had too much time to think about it I guess.  I recall last years oshkosh series, which had hurricane force winds blowing right in my face and I threw a ball to first that started about waist high and flew over the fence!  I don't think I have that much carry on the ball haha...but yea I stumbled around on the infield plenty in my day, what can you do? 

[Just Bill]

Around here we prefer former athletes who know their strengths and limitations, rather than the ones who think they walked on water. 

[Dagger]

I can barely swim, so walking on it is out of the question...I was just happy to salvage a respectable senior year.  I'm really not on here for self promotion at all, my older brother (D1 player) made sure I knew all my limitations very clearly!  

[OshDude]

There's no more cruel treatment to your defense then messing around with batters and walking them, or taking at least 5 pitches an at bat to finish them off.  It puts your defense to sleep, and baserunners and a sleeping defense is not a good ninth inning strategy when you're trying to close the door on a team. 

Sorry that I called you "Bootshong" whenever you fell asleep in Oshkosh. Hard to believe I couldn't think of anything cleverer when I was in school. A Cameron Crazy I am not.

haha, well there's been less clever names than that trust me!  and I was no doubt subject to the most random errors you could imagine over the course of the year.  pretty much the more routine the ball, the higher percentage I had on making an error...I don't know must have had too much time to think about it I guess.  I recall last years oshkosh series, which had hurricane force winds blowing right in my face and I threw a ball to first that started about waist high and flew over the fence!  I don't think I have that much carry on the ball haha...but yea I stumbled around on the infield plenty in my day, what can you do? 

Glad I've become more refined in my baseball watching. I didn't say anything during the UWO/UWW DH. I even thought UWW got screwed on a few calls.

I probably won't chime in unless our CF gets bumrushed again  . Anyway, I'm not smart enough to come up with puns for Koback or Fritz. Bootshong and Stew-eeee5 is about the best I can muster. Wait ... if our CF gets attacked  , I thought of one for Fritz. Gonna have to announce "earmuffs" for it, though.

Can we read some stories about last year's get-together now? I played so many games, yet I never got a brawl story out of my years on the diamond.

[cubs]

Around here we prefer former athletes who know their strengths and limitations, rather than the ones who think they walked on water. 

Does chewing gum and spitting seeds at the same time count as a "strength?"  If not, I guess I don't have any....    I'm all limitations!!!!

[Brewers20]

I thought of one for Fritz. Gonna have to announce "earmuffs" for it, though.

If it has anything to do with what happened in WW last year, lets not go there.

[Dagger]

well I'll pull bench clearing fight #1 of my career out of retirement here....(these both happened in UWO by the way!)

...it's my freshman year, walked onto UWW who at the time was a pretty good team so I was real excited and everything that goes along with all of that.  So we get to the UWO series which is a huge deal and we got our talks to fire us up from the players and the coaches and all that good stuff all week.  Keep in mind this series featured shere who played for uww and then transferred to uwo.  so we start the game, both teams of course are all jacked up, tension everywhere....shere comes up, and tomasciewicz hits him in the head with a curve ball.  I can say this was not done intentionally...lolly pop curve ball lefty against lefty so it happens, but obviously shere thought it was intentional and started walking out at kevin.  UWO's bench immediately left their dugout with resulted in us leaving ours shortly thereafter.  While the benches are clearing, tomaciewicz is running off the field and jumped the fence into our crowd along the right field line, which just so happened to be where a number of our large football players were standing!  Back on the field I wander out into this mess of giant men, oshkosh in those days was put together pretty well, and I...well I'm not exactly a power lifter (especially freshman year).  So I'm just kind of walking around taking it all in pulling a leg or an arm here and there...During my travels through this carnage I witnessed the two highlights of the skirmish happen within feet of me...

...first was the knock out haymaker coach henry landed on the UWO redshirt was punched in him in the back of the head first.  henry was simply holding down feiner...for good reason if you've ever seen the man...and sweatie clad freshman guy comes up and starts beating on henry for some reason, so being the experienced big league player that he was he reacted by smashing in his face.  That was a sight to be seen, I can't say that he was wrong in doing it though, and i'm pretty unbiased I think!  The kid punched him in the head first I saw everything!....

...meanwhile I head off in another direction and stumble across a person I wont name strangling (literally) our pitching coach.  Face was beet red, slightly purple...so the death grip was on and the whole time this was happening the strangler was shouting/spitting, with veins popping out of his neck, I will F@#$ing kill you!  at this point I cried, not really but I think I wanted to....anyway after that our pitching coach could not talk for two days, no joke!....

....I forgot, and I mentioned this in a previous post, that the first person I ran into was mancusso and that was enough to make me want to quit life!....

...anyway so the day ended with one of our coaches being arrested, our team getting escorted to our bus by six officers of the law with their dogs in tow, and several bruises scattered throughout the players....and some suspensions mixed in there! 

so I would say all the hype was lived up to in that first series against the conference rival! 

[Dagger]

UWO brawl numero deuce to follow....

[cubs]

Dagger-
Great stuff man!!!!  You got me rolling on the ground laughing twice this week!!!

I never had the pleasure of getting into a true brawl against a conference rival.  The closest was against River Falls, after their catcher tagged a guy out at the plate and proceeded to bounce the ball off of our runner's helmet as he was heading into the dugout.

Also had a "skirmish" the same year down on our spring trip, but that was rather "tame" as well.

[ShineTime]

Point and Whitewater will get their 2 games in today but it's looking like snow and 32 tomorrow for a high and another bad day on Monday.  Will Whitewater have to come up here again for a DH or will they not get those games in?  I remember two years ago Point went to platteville and they ended up playing 3 7 inning games and didn't get the 4th in so that's why I'm wondering.  I was thinking they may have tried to do that today and have 3 games but haven't seen anything on the website indicating a schedule change.