BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RedMan1]

Carthage sweeps double dip from North Park today.

http://carthage.edu/athletics/

Carthage hit I believe 13 home runs today. I heard wind was blowing out to right. Many balls ended up in the river. Nice job by the Redmen and keep the wins coming!!

[augie28]

13 HRs is a nice little boost for the stat sheet...not that the Carthage offense generally needs one.

Augie and Elmhurst split today.  Augie 7-0 in game 1 and Elmhurst 4-2 in game 2.

Freshman Adam Doyle threw a CG 2-hitter in game 1 in his first career start.  In game 2, Kevin Dencker came in and continued to throw well in relief, but the offense came up short.   

Interestingly, Eric Knott (who seemed to have been Augie's #3 starter) did not pitch today.  It may just be a result of a short week as he would not have full rest before their Friday/Saturday matchup with Wheaton.  Starter Matt Erickson only gave up 4 runs, which isnt awful, but still a dissapointing loss. 

[yank52]

What a pathetic showing the last 3 games for the NP Vikings.
11, 21, 18 runs after moving their ERA to below 5 prior to these massacres.

hopefully the next few weeks will build on the 10wins they have but it looks like a repeat of last year when they were 11 and 10 and finished 14 and 26.

I am optomistic and it may well turn out they finish 20 and 20.

good luck Vikings you will need it!!!!

[REDMENFAN]

I know the wind was blowing out, but does anyone know how deep the NP fence is down the lines and to center? If it was 13 homeruns, that's awesome, but had to be a pretty short porch

[mr_b]

I know the wind was blowing out, but does anyone know how deep the NP fence is down the lines and to center? If it was 13 homeruns, that's awesome, but had to be a pretty short porch

I don't know the distance, but all but one Carthage home run was to right (Hodges hit one to left).  Some of the homers to right were legitimate, while others barely made it into the stands.  Carthage was very effective at taking advantage of the jet stream today!  The whole lineup hits well, wind or no wind.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage hit I believe 13 home runs today. I heard wind was blowing out to right. Many balls ended up in the river.

You mean the channel, not the river. The channel runs behind the football stands, and the river runs behind the first-base dugout in foul territory.

What a pathetic showing the last 3 games for the NP Vikings.
11, 21, 18 runs after moving their ERA to below 5 prior to these massacres.

hopefully the next few weeks will build on the 10wins they have but it looks like a repeat of last year when they were 11 and 10 and finished 14 and 26.

I am optomistic and it may well turn out they finish 20 and 20.

good luck Vikings you will need it!!!!

NPU's pitching thus far has certainly been inconsistent, particularly with regard to the starters. I know that the wind direction combined with the short porch in right and a loaded Carthage lineup boded ill will for the Vikings, but 13 home runs on the day is ridiculous. The NPU hurlers need to seriously step up their games. Carthage's prowess at the plate does not excuse this sort of embarrassment.

I know the wind was blowing out, but does anyone know how deep the NP fence is down the lines and to center? If it was 13 homeruns, that's awesome, but had to be a pretty short porch

I don't think the exact dimensions have ever been measured, but my guess is that the right field corner at Holmgren Athletic Complex is about 280-285 feet from home plate. It's about 300 to the alley in right, maybe 330 or so to deep center, and probably about 315 to the alley in left and 300 down the left-field line. Those are my guesses, but anyone at a ballgame at NPU can tell that the uneven dimensions caused by the football stands create an invitiing target for lefthanded hitters.

[OshDude]

What in the wide world of sports? It's 280-330 at a college ballpark? Wow! Do second basemen slip on the warning track on pop flies to right?

I learn something every day on these boards, but this is a top-fiver to learn that a college team plays on a slightly larger field than my 8-year-old niece does in T-ball.

[Gregory Sager]

Well, I could be wrong on the other dimensions aside from the right-field line. They could be somewhat deeper than the figures I gave. But I'm pretty sure that it's about 285 feet down the right-field line. I've heard that figure from a former NPU baseball coach. It isn't 300 feet, that's for sure.

I learn something every day on these boards, but this is a top-fiver to learn that a college team plays on a slightly larger field than my 8-year-old niece does in T-ball.

Not every school in America has the luxury of unlimited greenspace, OshDude, or the money with which to buy up land in a pricey urban neighborhood for the sole purpose of using it as a footprint for a baseball stadium. North Park University is a small school with a modest $50,000,000 endowment that's located in a Chicago neighborhood in which a two-bedroom home on a standard 25' x 125' lot currently goes for $400,000 or more on the open market. The idea of buying up half a square block's worth of lots, razing all the buildings on it, and then constructing a baseball stadium on the site is absolutely ludicrous. It would represent hideously poor stewardship of the school's limited funds.

The more modest alternative, renting a field for the NPU baseball team, isn't really feasible, either. For one, it would put NPU baseball coach Luke Johnson at a disadvantage in terms of scheduling, since he would be at the mercy of whoever owned the field with regard to getting whatever practice and game times he felt was necessary for the team. Second, it would add vastly more expense in terms of rent than the NPU baseball team currently requires in the way of field upkeep (Holmgren Athletic Complex has extremely low-maintenance Fieldturf, and the players groom and cover the dirt cutouts around the bases and the home plate area themselves). Third, a rented field would not be in close proximity to the North Park campus. Northeastern Illinois University, located two blocks west of NPU on Foster Avenue, has an unused baseball stadium, but it has dimensions that are no bigger than the ones at North Park's HAC. The closest ballpark that has standard college baseball outfield dimensions is UIC's Les Miller Field, 6 1/2 miles south and three miles east of the NPU campus (neither DePaul nor Loyola have baseball teams or baseball stadia).

The only realistic place for North Park to play baseball is at the HAC. It's located on a narrow strip of land leased from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, bracketed on two sides by Chicago streets (Foster Avenue and Albany Avenue), on a third side by the North Branch of the Chicago River, and on the fourth by the North Shore Channel (the drainage canal that runs through the city's North Side and through the North Shore suburbs and which forms an alternate connection between the North Branch and Lake Michigan). This narrow strip of land is best suited for a football stadium, and Holmgren Athletic Complex is in fact where NPU's football and soccer teams play. But it's also the only place on campus to put a ballpark for the baseball Vikings, so the baseball team plays on a diamond tucked into the southwest corner of the field and the softball team plays on a diamond tucked into the northwest corner of the field. The combination of the narrow plot of land (HAC is only about a city block wide) and the football stands creates the short porch in right field.

It's not unheard of for baseball teams to have to make do with a short field within the confines of a stadium primarily designed for football. For the first four years after they moved to the West Coast, prior to the construction of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their home games in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which forced them to deal with a left field line that was only 250 feet from home plate. It should also be noted that the Polo Grounds, where the Giants played for decades and the Yankees and Mets played for shorter periods, had a right field line that was 258 feet from home plate, a left field line that was 279 feet from home plate, and a left field overhang that made it possible to hit a 250-foot home run to left.

It's easy to make snarky comments about somebody else's school. But it's often a little tougher to make them once you actually have the facts at hand.

[Gotberg]

North Park University is a small school with a modest $50,000,000 endowment that's located in a Chicago neighborhood in which a two-bedroom home on a standard 25' x 125' lot currently goes for $400,000 or more on the open market.

Greg,

As of June 2007, endowment was slightly over 62 million:  http://www.northpark.edu/home/index.cfm?NorthPark=About.Abt_Facts

I received a form letter from Dr. Parkyn's office recently that stated the same number.  According to wikipedia.org, endowment was just 36 million in 2005.  That's a nice increase over a 2 year period assuming wikipedia has accurate numbers.

This doesn't change your argument, but just an fyi.

[augie28]

Well said Greg.  I would have to say that NPU has done an awfully good job with what they have.  The addition of the "new turf" has given them the ability to use that field 365 days a year if need be and not worry about wear and tear.  They also have used every square inch in order to make it the most realistic baseball and softball fields possible.  In a neighborhood like that, with open land being unaffordable if available at all, it is really not a terrible place to play unless the wind plays a major role. 

I also have no idea what the actual dimensions are, but I would agree with it being close to 290 down the right field line.  I would have to say center is closer to 375 though (once again with nothing to go on other than visual memory.  When I last played there, it continued to go out further as you moved into left field and the left field line was back near the softball field at 400'+.  Is that still the case, or have they created a temporary fence at a more reasonable distance?

In any case, that's both the great thing and the rough thing about D3 sports.  You see fields, stadiums and amenities from every side of the spectrum.  Just within the CCIW you have nice fields at IWU, Carthage, NCC and the $1.5 million stadium at Augie, which in my biased opinion is the best.  Then there is the fair playing surface but poor baseball environment at NPU, followed by nothing more than average high school fields at Millikin, Elmhurst and Wheaton. 

[matblake]

Wheaton takes one from North Central and hits 2 grand slams in one inning.  The second game was tied when it was called for darkness.
http://athletics.wheaton.edu/News/baseball/2008/4/1/base-ncc1.asp?path=baseball

[REDMENFAN]

Thanks for the info Sager.

[augie28]

I see North Park got some pub for tying a D3 record with two grand slams in an inning. 

Does anyone know where Carthage's 8 HRs in one game this weekend ranks in the CCIW or D3? 

[BigPoppa]

I see North Park got some pub for tying a D3 record with two grand slams in an inning. 

Does anyone know where Carthage's 8 HRs in one game this weekend ranks in the CCIW or D3? 

The two grand slams were hit by Wheaton, not NPU.

[OshDude]

I like how you turned a lame joke into an affront to everything that is North Park. A shrug of the shoulders, a roll of the eyes or maybe even a chuckle was my expectation. Ah well, can't win 'em all.

Didn't know I needed boxing gloves after making jokes about field dimensions. Have a nice day, Sager and everyone else who saw things his way. Keep taking the North Park fight to the oppressors who think the dimensions of a baseball field reflect poorly on a university. You know, people like me, or so I just read.

I think 280-330 feet, like was written, is worthy of a comment. How that comment is received isn't up to me. Fire away, I guess.