Hello Coach Butler. I'm sorry to see that the activity on this forum is down so much. Boy, back arounde 2004-2009 our state was maybe second to Texas in the number of active users and fans. I know that during that period I was either calling out someone or I was being called out, and called much worse that just called out. LOL. You were still coaching your HS team and your daughter was just starting out on her softball journey. I miss the connection with all the folks from Illinois and hope that your lives after HS, college and maybe even professional baseball for your sons has been good. Up here, all that's going on is my son waiting to hear from medical schools so he can begin that journey. Coach B25, wishing you all the best.
Wow, my day, week and month has just been made. itsrosy, you don't know how great it is to hear from you. I know you must be proud of your son and he's going to do well. Medical school? Man, I hope he gets into the school he wants and I know he has all of the support he will ever need from home.
Brianna is a senior this year and has had a great career at UMSL. She was an All American last year. She wants to be a teacher and coach. While I tried to talk her out of it, I guess it is in her blood.
Itsrosy, while you and I know that there was a lot of conflict in the old Illinois Forum, I sure enjoyed all of the camaraderie. I was able to meet a lot of coaches after "meeting" them on this website. I was able to form a friendship with members like you as well. I guess we can't go back but I sure would if we could. Man it was great hearing from you!
Take care,
Darrell
Coach B, great to hear from you. Yes, we're now sounding more like our parents. We wish we could go back and relieve those precious years, but I'll settle for the memories. Congratulations on the academic and athletic career that Brianna is having and know that with all your support she will continue to shine. I guess I just took that feeling of comaraderie for granted too often. Sure wish I knew then what I hopefully know now. All the best to you and yours.
CoachB and itsrosy..... just stopped in to take a look after several years....
I still remember the Christmas chili!!!
GOD Bless
This is like groundhog day.
That's the spirit..... In the old days that would have started a donnybrook.....
Hello Smokey. You haven't aged a bit! Strange how you manage to look the same as a decade ago. You're right, it never took much to start a war of words in this forum, but there is a lot to be said for passion. Great to hear from you.
Wow, look at all the activity and guys checking in!
Who looks to be good this year? I know my HS is going to be down and very young but, wow the freshman class is incredible. They are very much like the 2005 group I had.
For those of you who knew I had a daughter playing in college, she is in the GLVC and plays against gotwood4sale and playbaseball's daughter. Woodrow, Annette, and my wife and family went out to eat together last year after our daughters played against each other. I saw their daughter hit a home run the other day. Mine has 8 in 14 games. She turned into a big kid.
Smokey, dad passed on the chili recipe to me this past Chrstmas. He's 84 now and so, it was time. He didn't like it as much as when he made it. LOL!
Originally Posted by itsrosy:
Hello Smokey. You haven't aged a bit! Strange how you manage to look the same as a decade ago. You're right, it never took much to start a war of words in this forum, but there is a lot to be said for passion. Great to hear from you.
It is great to see you checking in and making a post! Hope all has gone well.
Take care,
Darrell
Originally Posted by Smokey:
CoachB and itsrosy..... just stopped in to take a look after several years....
I still remember the Christmas chili!!!
GOD Bless
Smokey,
Any updates we need to hear about?
Hey all, since the format has changed again, maybe more will stop in the Illinois Forum and post what is going on. We have some local TB Teams doing some good stuff here in my area and, naturally, HS Ball is always pretty good. I tried to get back into HS baseball but that wasn't possible. So, I'm going to coach HS Softball this spring. I'm getting back in after my daughter wrapped up her college career. What's going on in your area? Maybe we can get this Forum back up to where it once was.
Well if I can brag a little.My guy went 9-0 w 2sve 108K's 12 W in 65 inn. hit 343 6hr. 33rbi...Going into 2016 he is 1 game away from tieing state record of continuous complete game SO 5 (recoerd 6) and also has current streak of 40 no hit no runs scored innings.Was named POY ar 2 out of 3 closes newspaper.The kis is a hard worker so hopefully last year of H.S. b.b. can go real well.Won't take a whole lot for things to be better than the football thing.
Easy to see why your "Proudhesmine."
My first time back since new format ait may take some getting used to.
The "I-70 Baseball Clinic" is going to be held again in Greenville, Illinois. They do a great job and bring in top names each year. This year, they have Coach Leggett, Leo Mazzone, Pat McMahon, and Rick Eckstein speaking. If you want more information, google "I70 Baseball Clinic" and then click on the 2015 link.
Darrell, why isn't your name among the luminaries who'll be at the I 70?
> On Dec 17, 2015, at 4:51 PM, HS Baseball Web <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>
> On Dec 17, 2015, at 4:51 PM, HS Baseball Web <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>
itsrosy posted:Darrell, why isn't your name among the luminaries who'll be at the I 70?
> On Dec 17, 2015, at 4:51 PM, HS Baseball Web <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>
Hey, how have you been? I would have to know something in order to give a presentation. That old quote about, "Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" applies! LOL Good to see you still checking in. I am hoping that we can get a few more participating here in the Illinois Forum. My High school's team is going to be down some this year but will be very young. I think in another year, they might make some noise. Its just around the corner.
Just saw where GotWood4Sale and PlayBaseball's daughter just had an outstanding start to her season. She is playing D-II Softball at a Kentucky University. We had the pleasure of getting to talk these past two years as our daughters played against each other. Congrats Kelly.
25 days. But who's counting.
CoachB25 posted:Just saw where GotWood4Sale and PlayBaseball's daughter just had an outstanding start to her season. She is playing D-II Softball at a Kentucky University. We had the pleasure of getting to talk these past two years as our daughters played against each other. Congrats Kelly.
See if you can get GotWood4Sale back contributing to the site. We miss him!
Yep, 25 days and counting. I'm going to Mesa to catch some spring training games with my son. Even going to see the Cubs(SS) vs white sox ! Coach B, I hope you're not part of that unruly group from Cardinals country that is so bitter about what has happened in this hot stove season. LOL.
Itsrosy, nope. I am a Cardinal Fan tried and true. However, I have some common sense. I enjoyed watching JH play and you will as well. I wish him the best. With St. Louis being down now with the loss of the Rams, we need baseball to start up. As an FYI, I am going to coach JV Softball this year. I can't wait to get back on the field. I'm hoping to get the kid to help out once in a while and we are going to have fun. I have 3 years left for retirement and I intend to enjoy these last 3 years.
14 days but whose counting. 
Golfman25 posted:14 days but whose counting.
YUP! I can't wait. I'm already getting hitting presentations ready, some of my fielding stuff out and reviewing, and trying to make sure the equipment is ready to go.
Coach B25, I haven't been on this site in years, but the woodman was on the "radio" with ClevelandDad yesterday, so I thought I'd check in and saw this thread about Illinois and saw that you posted some very kind words about Kelly both this year and last! Thanks so much! Yes, she has started the season really well---she actually hit two home runs IN ONE GAME---- matching her career totals in that game, and then the next time they played, she hit a grand slam!!!!! She's never done that before! We had driven down for the day and saw it! The 4:15 AM alarm was worth it!
Hope you, your wife and Briana are doing well. I know this has to be hard for you --Briana not playing! First time in how many years?
Thank you again! Keep in touch!
Play Baseball, wow, Kelly really is doing well. She is a great kid. I enjoyed the time we all went out to eat. BB is struggling a little not playing. It is such a drastic change in her life. She has been working as a permanent substitute teacher in St. Louis. So far, she has worked every day since graduating. Hopefully, she will get a permanent job and get on with her life. She is coaching a 12U Team and they are really going to be good. One player reminds me a lot of BB and so, I think she will do well in HS and College. She seems to have the same love and drive BB had.
You already know this but I also greatly respect Kelly's coach. When BB got hurt at the end of the year against Kelly's school, that coach went out to talk to her between innings and tried to get her to smile. BB tore her meniscus and finished the year playing in a lot of pain. I sent Kelly's coach a thank you for taking the time to be so kind to my daughter. I hope that all is going well with you and Woodrow.
Take Care,
Darrell
And away we go. Good luck everyone.
Unbelievable today. We were out in 65 degree perfect weather. Tomorrow storms and Thursday possible snow. Typical spring.
Great weather here yesterday, today not so much. Problem is our HS holds tryouts at 5:00am. Which means the kids need to be in the field-house and ready to go at 4:45am. Still a little chilly at that time to move them outside. I do know our soccer and lacrosse tryouts were held outside on the turf yesterday. Unfortunately we only have 1 turf field which means the last team to use it held tryouts from 10 to midnight last night.
Years ago our HS was being "renovated" which really meant they were tearing it down section by section and rebuilding it while still attempting to use the HS. We were really stretched for places to hold spring tryouts. Somehow the baseball team drew the short end of the stick and had the early slot for those tryouts. We won the state championship that year, so its now become tradition to hold tryouts that early in the morning. As the coach says, "if you are not dedicated enough to get here for an early morning tryout, you don't want it enough". Plus it kinda gives the kids something to rally around. They can bitch and moan to each other about the early mornings, but it really does have an effect of bringing them closer together as its something they faced as a team.
We started yesterday too. Must have been a suprize to some.No idea where portable mounds are.
Talked to my kid. Unbelievable. We have to work around girls soccer.
We are actually lucky. We have a fair amount of room inside. As long as the coaches all get together and ration the space/times it works out pretty good. Everyone gets a morning and late night. Nobody gets "stuck" with a bad time the whole week.
Showing 50s and 60s next week, so everyone will likely get outside.
So I am about to jinx everyone. The Spring weather has been great. Sitting here waiting for the Kid's next game to start in a few hours -- it's sunny and reasonably warm. So far we have gotten all but one game in. Much different than this time last year. This Bud's for you Jerry Taft.
Golfman, don't know where home is for you but when I think back to spring bb all I remember is dressing for games like we were going to a Bears game. Now, just got back from 5 days in Mesa seeing my son and we caught 3 Cubs games and ASU vs UC Davis. Had a great game of catch with Jordan and that was the best of all! Good luck to all the players this spring.
Well as I predicted, I jinxed everyone. After some decent weather to start, we have actually been snowed out Friday and Saturday. This week played a few in sleet and 40 degrees with wind. Just down right miserable. I truly apologize.
Boys team played Tuesday for their 4th game of the season (3 non conf & 1 conf), then canceled Wed, Thurs, Fri, and today... It was baseball weather a month ago vs now...brutal.
Weather looks clear and in the 50's this week; hopefully everybody will get to play.
For us tomorrow will be our 11th day with no games played.Thank goodness our I-8 large school coach has arranged things to make up most the games cancelled.Now starting monday we will play 11 games in 11 days with 3 pitchers capable of finishing what they start along with 3 kids that if they go 1-2-3 against bottom of any line up you feel lucky.Hopefully things will work out so that after a few days rest when we have our 7 games in 6 days we will be ready.
We were able to play on Tuesday 4/5 but have not been able to play since. Luckily we headed south the weekend prior to that and were able to get 4 games in or we would be in the same 11 day boat as others.
Tuesday's game was a nice cold affair (about 40 degrees) with a nice light mist/rain for the 2nd half of the game but we got it in. We were hopeful that we could have played on Saturday, but once the tarps came off the field the sun warmed up the field enough that the frozen water just below the surface melted and created a nice mush on the infield. Good thing the football field is turf and no one was using it. The kids were at least able to get a practice in.
We are now facing 8 games in the next 6 days. Good thing we are deep on pitching this year.
Rain, rain and more rain. We have rain tomorrow in forecast again. It rained all day today. However, the forecast is about to change after Monday and it actually looks like we are going to play some games. BTW, we put that clay/sand mix underlay on our fields and have rolled them a few times. We have been told that we will play as long as it is not raining. I'll believe it when I see it.
Hey Illinois Forum, some of you can step it up and post some. This forum was once the shining light of this site and more than a little contentious.
Update - I will retire after next year. I am coaching JV Softball and giving hitting lessons on the side. I have had 22 students pretty much all of the time and have had as many as 50 want lessons. I am extremely expensive at $15 for 45 minutes. I don't care about the money but want hitters who listen and work hard so I am selective in who I give lessons to. Brianna is a teacher now and is coaching 18U Gold Travel Ball. They played in 7 in 8 states last year and that gets expensive. They went from Florida one weekend to Denver the next to Arizona to ... She loves it and is a great hitting coach. I do miss coaching baseball. Baseball has always been a major part of my life.
I miss the friendships that once existed in the forum. How about some of you checking in talking to a new wave of posters and getting them to weigh in on their sons?
Take care,
Darrell
Darrell, since I'm in the suburbs of Chicago I clicked on your post and a lot of this is related to weather (has anyone noticed it's been exactly 17 degrees for the past seven days?). Since I wasn't a part of HSBBW back when the forum was hot, what should the Illinois Forum do? Help us newbies understand how we bring the Illinois forum back to respectability. What say you other Illinoisans? Gov?