Wes: We finished off another Big Ten foe this past weekend; coming back from 3 runs down with 2 outs in the 9th on Sunday to beat Ohio State. Ironically, it was T.C. Knipp of the Knipp-Lambert Combine Workout who sent his beloved Buckeyes packing with his 3 RBI triple (He reportedly wept in the comforts of his FIJI room and wrote OSU a handwritten letter apologizing). Between beating Ohio State and missing Little 500 week with his fraternity brothers, it's amazing Knipp has been able to gather himself to even make it up to Iowa this weekend. Rumor has it he has been put on cleaning duty usually reserved for pledges as punishment for his absence.
Since our publication of the Knipp-Lambert Combine Workout mentioned above, both athletes have been noticed in class and on campus by random people who have watched the video. First, we’d like to thank you all for spreading the word, but we’d also like to pay homage to the effectiveness of their workout and that its influence can be felt across the IU campus. We see it as no coincidence that both of these men recently received the IU Army ROTC’s Warrior award for their leadership on and off the field for our team. They both deserve and have earned the honor. Congratulations.
Beating Ohio St. was good, but now our sights are set on the Iowa Hawkeyes. We spent most of today playing the waiting game, seeing if the weather was going to play out how they predicted. Eventually, the game was postponed so that we play two on Saturday, so we went to the heralded Coral Ridge Mall in Iowa City to let us run around a lil’ bit.
Dylan: We have had a pretty great week up to this point. Won the Ohio State series; got to experience some of 'Lil 5' at the Lil' Wayne Concert; and we beat Indiana State in a pretty good game (thanks to Knipp again). Now we're in Iowa. We've been here since Thursday (it is now Saturday at noon) and we still haven't played thanks to torrential downpours and snow. Luckily it has been an interesting trip with our new bus driver; the ever enthusiastic Mr. Mike. I've got Carlos to keep me and Reed company in the room, Monar and Drew have had enough time to successfully 'creep' through every IU female's Facebook page… Twice; and we went to the mall so Skip could continue his second career of film critiquing. Unfortunately the funniest part of the weekend was so impromptu I didn't have the camera out for it… Wesley danced, twerked, and booty dropped in the local Hardees for a free milkshake; and it worked. So for all of those people who see his on the field antics and wonder why he does some things… I can answer that for you. It's just Wes and it's 100% real. He can't turn it off and quite frankly after the initial reaction of wanting to punt him, it's absolutely hilarious.
So, even though we didn't get the Hardee's dance sesh on tape we do have one from our trip this weekend… By the way… I know you see some repeat characters in our video, but trust me we've tried to spread the love; young guys are just camera shy… and Serfling has a problem of staring at the camera every time it's on. We'll keep trying our best to show all 35 of the squad sometime, but we can only lead a horse to water…
Talk atcha soon.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
It's Been Awhile...
It’s been a while since we last posted. Sorry for that, we figured we’d better focus on the student part of Athlete-Student for a bit, with midterms and papers due the last few weeks. The addition of the two midweek games last week didn’t help the blog get published any quicker either. So now, after getting back on Sunday after a 3 game set at Michigan, we finally found some time to sit down and bang one out.
Wes: Everyone was raring to go and finally get started on the Big Ten season. All the games prior to this weekend were preparation for the grind of the conference schedule. While 3 games in 3 days is nothing compared to the 8 games in 8 days during Spring Break, the fact that each team is fighting for the same conference title means that anything can happen at any time. I feel like these first few games set the tone for the rest of conference play, nobody wants to play catch-up after dropping 2 or 3 games. We got after it this weekend and took 2 of 3 from the Wolverines (should have taken all 3, but that’s baseball). By playing 2 games on Saturday, we were able to get home and have an extra day of rest. So, with that, Big Ten play resumes at Sembower with Ohio State coming to town. With any luck, we won’t have to play in anything under 60 degrees and I fully expect the Party Porch to be alive and wild.
Dylan: Good weekend in the humor department as well. Gary didn't make the bus, Friday was April Fool's Day, Coach Greenspan thought he messed up our official lineup card, and Dylan got put in timeout during game 3. April Fool's day had a few good jokes, but the best was by Lambert (must be his 8 years of experience on the team). Right after breakfast on Friday morning he frantically called me and claimed that the bus wasn't clean, which is a Cardinal Sin, and convinced me that we were being punished before we left for our game. So, after my anxiety calmed enough to send a mass text to our team I wrote, "Trash found on bus. Put on running shoes. Meet in Lobby now. Not a Joke." SOMEHOW I didn't know it was April 1st, and neither did the entire team other than Lambo and Casey. All of the sudden you see 23 angry, grumpy, half asleep, and mostly scared guys file out of rooms in workout gear and make their way to the lobby. You could hear a pin drop and have powered a small country with the collective anxiety as we waited for our fate. Meanwhile, Brian was hiding when he called to claim "April Fool's!"; solid choice because we'd undoubtedly be down to 24 guys on the ride home instead of 25 had he shown his face at that point.
Skip put out his customary April Fool's lineup, but forgot when he penciled me in at 2nd base that I've not only played over half of the positions in my career, but actually started at 2nd before. He's done better (Thinking of the year he had us convinced freshman DH Alex Dickerson was starting centerfield). Coach Greenspan unintentionally made for a great laugh on Saturday too! After a last minute lineup change he forgot to change the player number on the lineup card. What he thought was that we were going to get caught and lose a run… oh, how we enjoyed watching this unfold. It's not very often you get to see a coach visibly scared/nervous in the dugout. Quite honestly he looked like a freshman who just slept through class and isn't sure if the coaches know yet. Those 30 minutes made up for every punishment we've had to endure for our lack of "attention to detail" and the endless speeches about "paying attention to the little things". It was at a crucial point in the game, but we're just cocky enough to know it wouldn't dictate the outcome. Fortunately for BG (and all of us, I guess) the rule states that only the Name of the player matters and no real mistakes were actually made.
So this week's video gives you a glimpse at Gary's arrival and the surprise serenade at Macaroni Grill… Talk to you soon.
Wes: Everyone was raring to go and finally get started on the Big Ten season. All the games prior to this weekend were preparation for the grind of the conference schedule. While 3 games in 3 days is nothing compared to the 8 games in 8 days during Spring Break, the fact that each team is fighting for the same conference title means that anything can happen at any time. I feel like these first few games set the tone for the rest of conference play, nobody wants to play catch-up after dropping 2 or 3 games. We got after it this weekend and took 2 of 3 from the Wolverines (should have taken all 3, but that’s baseball). By playing 2 games on Saturday, we were able to get home and have an extra day of rest. So, with that, Big Ten play resumes at Sembower with Ohio State coming to town. With any luck, we won’t have to play in anything under 60 degrees and I fully expect the Party Porch to be alive and wild.
Dylan: Good weekend in the humor department as well. Gary didn't make the bus, Friday was April Fool's Day, Coach Greenspan thought he messed up our official lineup card, and Dylan got put in timeout during game 3. April Fool's day had a few good jokes, but the best was by Lambert (must be his 8 years of experience on the team). Right after breakfast on Friday morning he frantically called me and claimed that the bus wasn't clean, which is a Cardinal Sin, and convinced me that we were being punished before we left for our game. So, after my anxiety calmed enough to send a mass text to our team I wrote, "Trash found on bus. Put on running shoes. Meet in Lobby now. Not a Joke." SOMEHOW I didn't know it was April 1st, and neither did the entire team other than Lambo and Casey. All of the sudden you see 23 angry, grumpy, half asleep, and mostly scared guys file out of rooms in workout gear and make their way to the lobby. You could hear a pin drop and have powered a small country with the collective anxiety as we waited for our fate. Meanwhile, Brian was hiding when he called to claim "April Fool's!"; solid choice because we'd undoubtedly be down to 24 guys on the ride home instead of 25 had he shown his face at that point.
Skip put out his customary April Fool's lineup, but forgot when he penciled me in at 2nd base that I've not only played over half of the positions in my career, but actually started at 2nd before. He's done better (Thinking of the year he had us convinced freshman DH Alex Dickerson was starting centerfield). Coach Greenspan unintentionally made for a great laugh on Saturday too! After a last minute lineup change he forgot to change the player number on the lineup card. What he thought was that we were going to get caught and lose a run… oh, how we enjoyed watching this unfold. It's not very often you get to see a coach visibly scared/nervous in the dugout. Quite honestly he looked like a freshman who just slept through class and isn't sure if the coaches know yet. Those 30 minutes made up for every punishment we've had to endure for our lack of "attention to detail" and the endless speeches about "paying attention to the little things". It was at a crucial point in the game, but we're just cocky enough to know it wouldn't dictate the outcome. Fortunately for BG (and all of us, I guess) the rule states that only the Name of the player matters and no real mistakes were actually made.
So this week's video gives you a glimpse at Gary's arrival and the surprise serenade at Macaroni Grill… Talk to you soon.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Thank You, So far, and Knipp/Lambert Pro Day Video
Well, the number of responses to our first introductory blog was much bigger than even our conceited selves expected, and we want to say "Thanks!" We’d like to specifically shout out to Dustin Dopirak (@DustinDopirak) of the Bloomington Herald-Times and everyone’s favorite fountain of IU knowledge, Jeremy Gray (@jfgray) for showing our blog some Twitter love. Much appreciated. We got mostly positive reviews, a few jealous comments from our teammates, and several requests and ideas for future postings (keep them coming). However, all that really matters is that our parents loved it and are so very, very proud of us! (Love you too!) As for our less forgiving followers, we promise we’ll get better every week…which should be evident in the serious video upgrade we made for the end of today’s (pretty long 'catch you up-to speed') blog.
GOOD NEWS: Spring Break is coming up, and with that, comes our chance to be “Sun Gods”. The purpose of spring break is to go down to warmer weather, bask in the sun, meet tons of cute(ish) softball girls, and see a few JUCO guys partying hard enough to put Charlie Sheen to shame. Spring break stories are legendary ones that stay with teams forever. The ingredients are all there: 25 college kids, long flights and bus rides, endless downtime, and no school the entire time. So, don't be surprised to see a couple updates from the road. Once we get all that out of the way, we, as Coach Ben Greenspan would say, “FIND A WAY” to mix in a few baseball games (8 of them actually, in 8 days).
Apparently in order to keep our relationship with IU Sports Marketing and the blog working we have to include baseball from time to time (Dumb we know). We apologize (Don't hesitate to email Kyle with complaints). So with that said…let’s get caught up on the season so far:
Wes: Our goals this season are lofty by IU standards, heck, by anyone’s standards really. Four years ago when we came here as freshmen, I think we had visions of being this good, but really didn’t know exactly how that would come about. Now, we are still here and have the talent and depth to make a serious run at the Top 25 polls. No, not the Top 25 Party School polls, but the Top 25 College Baseball polls. Our team KNOWS that this is a possibility and this confidence is evident from the oldest guys on the team (Resident Granddads Carr and Lambert) to the young’ns (Dylan interjects: Think about this. Lambert has been here so long… He played with a guy, who played with a guy, that played here in the 1990s. He’s seen it all!). Two years ago we made a run at the right time to clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, but I’m here to tell you that we might not need an auto berth this year. Our goal is to leave no doubt who the cream (and Crimson) of the Big Ten crop is, and instead be the focus point of other teams in an NCAA Regional. This is lofty talk so early in the season, but it’s reality. Bulletin board material or not, the Hoosiers are tryin’ ta get up in ya.
Dylan: Don’t be scared to give other teams bulletin board material Wes. If something isn’t controversial it’s not worth discussing (at least that’s my thought), plus you didn’t lie. Up-to this point in the season we are 8-5, which is the best start against the best schedule since I’ve been at Indiana. And my favorite part is that we are NOT happy about it. The first weekend went ‘okay’, I mean we beat a ranked Coastal Carolina; the second weekend we smashed a good Texas A&M CC team and beat a ranked UConn squad; and most recently we won 2 out of 3 by beating Tennessee, an SEC team (NCAA would have you believe this means something), and OVC team Morehead State. So you would look at those wins and our record and say “pretty good” wouldn’t you? No. Not with us. I wish I could describe how we felt after losing those games on Sunday, even after winning the other two games; it felt like we got swept… going 2-1 on the weekend felt like we got swept. We’re good. We expect to win every game and are not happy about being 8-5 against a great schedule, because the toughest team on that schedule has been Indiana. So don’t let our jovial off-the-field mood and antics lead you to believe we’re getting complacent… we’re not, it’s just hard to turn off this charm sometimes.
Well enough about baseball… Since this was slightly longer and more serious than we really want, we stepped up our video game. After a stellar weekend in TN we had to feature T.C. Knipp (Dylan: he is also our 'in' with the Greek community at IU and frankly I'm doing this blog for the Sorority girls). T.C. and Brian Lambert decided to let you in on their secret to success… the Knipp/Lambert Combine Workout. ENJOY.
GOOD NEWS: Spring Break is coming up, and with that, comes our chance to be “Sun Gods”. The purpose of spring break is to go down to warmer weather, bask in the sun, meet tons of cute(ish) softball girls, and see a few JUCO guys partying hard enough to put Charlie Sheen to shame. Spring break stories are legendary ones that stay with teams forever. The ingredients are all there: 25 college kids, long flights and bus rides, endless downtime, and no school the entire time. So, don't be surprised to see a couple updates from the road. Once we get all that out of the way, we, as Coach Ben Greenspan would say, “FIND A WAY” to mix in a few baseball games (8 of them actually, in 8 days).
Apparently in order to keep our relationship with IU Sports Marketing and the blog working we have to include baseball from time to time (Dumb we know). We apologize (Don't hesitate to email Kyle with complaints). So with that said…let’s get caught up on the season so far:
Wes: Our goals this season are lofty by IU standards, heck, by anyone’s standards really. Four years ago when we came here as freshmen, I think we had visions of being this good, but really didn’t know exactly how that would come about. Now, we are still here and have the talent and depth to make a serious run at the Top 25 polls. No, not the Top 25 Party School polls, but the Top 25 College Baseball polls. Our team KNOWS that this is a possibility and this confidence is evident from the oldest guys on the team (Resident Granddads Carr and Lambert) to the young’ns (Dylan interjects: Think about this. Lambert has been here so long… He played with a guy, who played with a guy, that played here in the 1990s. He’s seen it all!). Two years ago we made a run at the right time to clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, but I’m here to tell you that we might not need an auto berth this year. Our goal is to leave no doubt who the cream (and Crimson) of the Big Ten crop is, and instead be the focus point of other teams in an NCAA Regional. This is lofty talk so early in the season, but it’s reality. Bulletin board material or not, the Hoosiers are tryin’ ta get up in ya.
Dylan: Don’t be scared to give other teams bulletin board material Wes. If something isn’t controversial it’s not worth discussing (at least that’s my thought), plus you didn’t lie. Up-to this point in the season we are 8-5, which is the best start against the best schedule since I’ve been at Indiana. And my favorite part is that we are NOT happy about it. The first weekend went ‘okay’, I mean we beat a ranked Coastal Carolina; the second weekend we smashed a good Texas A&M CC team and beat a ranked UConn squad; and most recently we won 2 out of 3 by beating Tennessee, an SEC team (NCAA would have you believe this means something), and OVC team Morehead State. So you would look at those wins and our record and say “pretty good” wouldn’t you? No. Not with us. I wish I could describe how we felt after losing those games on Sunday, even after winning the other two games; it felt like we got swept… going 2-1 on the weekend felt like we got swept. We’re good. We expect to win every game and are not happy about being 8-5 against a great schedule, because the toughest team on that schedule has been Indiana. So don’t let our jovial off-the-field mood and antics lead you to believe we’re getting complacent… we’re not, it’s just hard to turn off this charm sometimes.
Well enough about baseball… Since this was slightly longer and more serious than we really want, we stepped up our video game. After a stellar weekend in TN we had to feature T.C. Knipp (Dylan: he is also our 'in' with the Greek community at IU and frankly I'm doing this blog for the Sorority girls). T.C. and Brian Lambert decided to let you in on their secret to success… the Knipp/Lambert Combine Workout. ENJOY.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Welcome to the Our Blog...
Fans, friends, family, students, coaches, kids, and teammates – Welcome to the first edition of Catching Up with the Hoosiers (the only bad pun is a pun that goes unsaid) with Wes and Dylan. Thank you for giving our brand new blog a shot! This is our first time writing one and I promise we aim to entertain, and we will definitely get better each and every week.
For those of you who don’t know us, we are two good looking, quick witted, and charming senior catchers on the Indiana Baseball squad. This is our fourth lap around as IU student-ATHLETES, and we’ve had some unbelievable experiences along the way. Throughout the years we’ve seen everything from 15 players being stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes, the entire bench getting ejected following an on-field fiasco at Fresno State, priceless spring break pranks, spectacular (and not so spectacular) bus introductions, and countless idiotic dugout rituals. We decided (with the help of Skipper Tracy Smith and our SID Kyle Kuhlman) that in this, our final lap, we should include our fan base in this unscripted, unpredictable behind-the-scenes experience of an Indiana Baseball player.
Dylan: So finally, after taping the entire 2010 season and doing absolutely nothing with the footage, Wes decided to tape the 2011 season… and yet again… do nothing with the footage. Luckily for you, we (I mean I, but have to include him out of politeness) decided that it’s time to stop hoarding the film and let our fans see the hilarious antics of the roughly 40 man cast that comprises our Hoosier Baseball family. Since Skip already does a great job with (the big budget, high-end production) weekly updates that everyone loves, we decided to keep ours in written form with a short video clip at the end (because we’re shorter on time and have no budget space to work with). Think of our blog as a compliment to the already established franchise that is “Skip’s Scoop.” Your turn Wes.
Wes: We’re going to include a little more authentic and impromptu part of our program: the players. Between airports, bus rides, and hotel rooms, there are plenty of untold stories just waiting to be made public. We’ll even give our takes on the sentiments in the locker room, as well as showing our teammates some love if they deserve it (as I’m typing this, Dylan is reminding me this blog isn’t about us, it’s about our teammates – but we’ll see). Oh, and by the way, let me remind you that we are a pretty good baseball team on the field too (Dylan: Understatement of the Year).
Dylan: Sorry for the long introduction today. We can’t be more excited about the season ahead, and I promise the Road to Omaha is going to be a great ride on and off the field. It’s our pleasure to invite you to enjoy every part of the trip.
Here is small (spicy) taste of the things to come, this is our first video, starring “The Pride of Rockport” aka “Papa Monski” aka Blake “Monski” Monar in the Houston Airport...
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