Quote from: Gregory Sager on May 11, 2026, 12:13:26 PMYour postscript about sports and graduation raises an interesting and timely issue, FDF. It's been a tradition at North Park for decades to hold a separate graduation ceremony for senior student-athletes in spring sports whose teams have qualified for postseason tournaments or meets that will take place on Commencement Saturday. It's always held on the Tuesday of Commencement Week in the small and intimate Isaacson Chapel in Nyvall Hall, the seminary building on North Park's campus. It's usually a function that serves North Park baseball teams that have qualified for the CCIW baseball tournament, although sometimes (as happened this year) the softball team also qualifies for their CCIW tourney and thus has its seniors receive their diplomas in the Tuesday graduation ceremony in Isaacson as well. The tradition used to be that the baseball players would wear their North Park baseball caps in lieu of the usual flat-topped and tasseled mortarboard graduation caps, but this year they abandoned that tradition and went with the standard mortarboards...

The first time this happened -- in 2010, I think -- I was the lone faculty member who was able to participate.  I was even pressed into service as marshal for the event. I was happy to do that because I worked closely with the team (as statistician) and knew most of the players very well.  It was a rather short ceremony (which I appreciated!), and each of the players and their families got lots of photo time with the president, provost, teammates, and coaches.  We had a group photo taken in which everyone (including the president) donned a North Park baseball cap.  Then we went outside Nyvall Hall to continue the photo fest, surrounded by all the beautiful flowers and shrubbery.

Subsequent early graduation ceremonies have included graduating softball players when their team qualified for the CCIW tournament.  More faculty members joined in, too, usually invited by the coaches at the request of the players.  It was always a very nice event, and an apt reward for student-athletes who qualified for post-season play.

The final weekend of CCIW play has wrapped up in exciting fashion (and this is an understatement).  Millikin (15-5) had the luxury of sitting on the sidelines with the first seed already in hand. The all-important second seed came down to Saturday's twin bill between North Park and host Illinois Wesleyan.  The Titans (12-8) prevailed, winning game one, 10-3, and game two, 15-12.  That sweep pushes the Vikings into the knockout round on Wednesday against Wheaton (9-11). The Vikings had a particularly difficult final stretch with three-game sets against Augustana, Millikin, and Illinois Wesleyan, plus two against Elmhurst.  The Vikings went 5-6 against these four opponents.

Carthage (10-10) resurrected its season with a doubleheader sweep of Augustana (10-10), 10-6 and 11-1 (7 innings).  The Firebirds went 6-1 in their last seven CCIW contests to move into fourth place. The same two teams will play the first knockout game on Wednesday.

That left the sixth and final slot wide open.  In dramatic fashion, last-place Elmhurst stunned pre-season favorite North Central, taking two out of three from the Cardinals to knock them out of playoff contention.  The Bluejays won the Friday contest at home, 8-4. Then they won a really barnburner in Saturday's game 1 at Zimmerman by the football-like score of 25-21.  The Cardinals did salvage game 2, 15-10, but North Central (9-11) had already been eliminated from postseason play because Wheaton (9-11) held the tiebreaker over the Cardinals.  Carroll wrapped up its CCIW season with an 8-12 record.

Here is a link to the tournament website.

Congratulations to North Park head coach Luke Johnson for recording his 400th victory. In 2006 he took over a team that had just finished 1-39.  He quickly turned the team around and has guided the Vikings to numerous CCIW tournaments, three conference championships, and one NCAA Regional appearance.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on March 23, 2026, 12:47:51 PM...a wild 14-11 affair in Kenosha in which NPU sophomore shortstop Taylor Joseph hit for the cycle -- I hope that Dennis Bricault steps in here at some point when he's not traveling and lets us know the last time that a Viking hit for the cycle...

I sent a message to SID Tyler Woolbright after the game to tell him I don't recall any Viking batter hitting for the cycle in the time that I spent traveling with the team (i.e., 1998 to 2019).  I was not at every single game during those seasons, but I did keep the scorebook for most of them. I told Tyler that the most likely candidate for hitting for the cycle would have been during the Randy Ross era, when several players in the early 1980s put up some pretty gaudy extra-base hit totals.  Unfortunately, the scorebooks of earlier seasons are long gone.

For what it's worth, two other stats I have yet to see by the Vikings are a triple play and a no-hitter.  I've seen a few one-hitters, but never a no-no.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on January 05, 2026, 06:42:10 PMThe reporter and the NCC people interviewed seemed to have overlooked the fact that there's already a D3 school called North Central University here in the midwest.

Well, there are two schools named Wheaton College, so you see (IL) and (MA) after "Wheaton" when there is any chance of confusion.

I recall being in faculty meetings when North Park College was considering a name change back in the late 1990s to reflect its wider range of degree offerings.  Several names were being considered: North Park University, the University of North Park, and Nyvall University, in honor of the founder of the school.  While the third choice garnered some support, many faculty and administrators felt that they would lose name recognition among alums and prospective students. This was also during the heyday of the printed Peterson Guides (and other such publications) which listed institutions alphabetically.  The listing for "University of North Park" would have been placed along with a panoply of other institutions that began with "University of...," and prospective students looking for "North Park..." would have come up empty.  I'm not sure how much that weighed in on the final decision, but I'm sure it was a consideration.  I think everyone wanted to continue with the already familiar name, but with "University" replacing "College" in the name.  It seemed to be a logical progression of when North Park went from a Junior College to a four-year institution, starting in 1958.

North Central goes 0-2 in the Case Western Regional, giving up double-digit runs in each game.  The Cardinals dropped Friday's game to the host Spartans, 19-9, and then Saturday's elimination game against Centre, 13-5.

Quite a finish for the CCIW regular season: Illinois Wesleyan sweeps Carthage to take the regular-season title; Millikin sweeps Wheaton; North Central sweeps North Park to take second and bump Carthage to third (based on a tie breaker: NCC had a better record than Carthage against champs IWU); and Elmhurst wins the final game of the regular season, a 9-8 thriller over Augustana in 12 innings. With the game tied at 7-7 going into the bottom of the ninth, Augie's leadoff batter hit a triple but was left stranded there.  Each team scored a run in the 10th, and in the 11th Augie once again left the winning run stranded on 3rd.  Elmhurst scored the eventual winning run in the top of the 12th on a double, a wild pitch, and a passed ball.  The Augie loss created a three-way tie with Augie, Wheaton, and North Park holding identical 8-12 conference records.  Wheaton had the tie breaker over North Park (by winning 2 of 3 games), and North Park held the tie breaker over Augie due to their record against the eventual champs, IWU -- North Park went 2-0 against the Titans, while Augie was 1-1.

The single-elimination play-in games on Wednesday will feature #3 Carthage vs. #6 North Park and #4 Millikin vs. #5 Wheaton. The winners of those contests move into the double-elimination round with #1 IWU and #2 North Central.  Here is a link to the tournament website.

Quote from: GU1999 on February 25, 2025, 02:14:36 PMWatched the North Park game live on Sunday in Indiana.  Soph catcher Reyn Matsuzaki with two bombs in a close loss.  He really presented well behind the plate as well.  One of 10 Hawaiians on the team.  My wife, a former NPU employee, and I were blown away by that.  I am sure that someone knows the connection to Hawaii and we are curious.  Hawaii is a very baseball oriented, but very small state.  My wife posited that maybe the Coach Johnson gets a recruiting trip for he and his wife and the program covers it.  

Greg may know the specifics, but I think it might have been a spillover from when the football team used to recruit heavily, and successfully, in American Samoa, Hawaii, and Guam.  One of the assistant coaches used to coach in Guam (I think) and had contacts there.  Perhaps he also spent some time talking with baseball prospects while he was on a Pacific trip.  Several years ago we had one baseball player from Samoa -- he never got any varsity time -- and an outfielder from Hawaii, who played on and off for four years.  After that, it might have been word of mouth and Zoom calls to Hawaiians who wanted to play ball in college but had very limited options to do so in their home state.

Quote from: markerickson on February 25, 2025, 10:55:27 AMIs the RESPECT Award comparable to tykes' 'everybody gets a trophy" award? /s  For example, what did DJ Wallace do to earn his award?

From the CCIW website:

RESPECT Award

"At the conclusion of every sports season, each varsity program will recognize one student-athlete as their RESPECT Award honoree. RESPECT Award recipients have distinguished themselves as an integral member of the team, their institution and community by upholding the values of Responsibility, Enthusiasm, Service, Pride, Excellence, Collaboration and Trust. The RESPECT Award recognizes the intangible traits a student-athlete possesses that exemplify great character and encourages inclusiveness and a positive culture."

It's one of many such CCIW awards. I don't know the intricacies of the selection process, but I'd hazard a guess that each recipient is nominated internally by the coaching staff and players.  Let's applaud these student-athletes for their contributions to their teams and their sport.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on January 29, 2025, 03:24:46 PMThe two preseason polls are out, and, to nobody's surprise, there isn't much love for the CCIW in either one of them. The ABCA preseason poll has zero CCIW teams in the Top 30, and only one CCIW team -- North Park -- in the Others Receiving Votes category. And, as for the D3baseball.com Top 25 preseason poll, there are likewise no CCIW teams ranked in the Top 25, and only two CCIW teams -- North Central and Augustana -- in the Others Receiving Votes category.

Notably absent from both lists is Millikin.  The Big Blue have been a formidable CCIW squad over the past few years. 

Quote from: Gregory Sager on October 26, 2024, 08:02:58 PMEven by Norm Eash standards it was outrageous.

I can only wonder what must have happened to Norm Eash at some tender age to have caused the milk of human kindness to curdle so sourly in that man.

I bet the bus ride back to Bloomington was a real treat.

Quote from: Gotberg on October 26, 2024, 04:54:04 PM

Quote from: CarollFan on October 26, 2024, 04:50:54 PMFinals

Wheaton 27 WashU 20
NPU 28 IWU 24
Carthage 24 Millikin 20
Carroll 45 Elmhurst 14
NCC 49 Augie 10

And norm refused to shake some coaches hands in chicago.

That is truly appalling, a real lack of class and sportsmanship.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on October 21, 2024, 04:07:57 PM...but I've come close to calling one or two baseball no-hitters. My baseball colorman and I definitely tiptoe around the topic if it looks like there's a no-no brewing.

Several years ago I was keeping the scorebook in the dugout for a home game.  I forget who we were playing, but after finishing up an inning, our defense came into the dugout and a first-year player said out loud, "Does the other team even have a hit yet?"  You should have seen the laser beams coming from the eyes of all the other players.

Final from Chicago: North Park 30, Carroll 26

Quote from: WUPHF on October 05, 2024, 10:45:42 PMNo reports and no volleyball games to call has me hoping that Greg Sager caught the team bus to Rock Island.

It's a good thing Greg wasn't doing the play-by-lay for that game.  It would take his voice a week to recover.