Tag: Michigan State Spartans

Tigers draft Gibson

On By Minoring In BaseballIn College Sports, Major Leagues3 Comments
With their 160th pick, the Tigers drafted Cam Gibson out of Michigan State.
With their 160th pick, the Tigers drafted Cam Gibson out of Michigan State.

The Detroit Tigers have drafted Cam Gibson in the 5th round with their 160th pick. Not really ground breaking news, other than the fact that Cam is the son of Tiger legend Kirk Gibson. Like his father before him, Cam is currently attending Michigan State University. Of course it’s unknown at this point if Cam, who just finished his junior season, will return to MSU or join the Tigers organization. As a junior, he had a career-best 10 doubles and 17 stolen bases. He hit .294 while hitting five home runs and posting 32 RBI’s. We had a chance to see Cam play back in 2013 when he was a member of the Battle Creek Bombers.

Drafting family members of current and former Tiger players and management is nothing new. In fact, Detroit just drafted RHP Ryan Castellanos in the 25th round (760 overall), who is brother to third baseman Nick Castallanos. Over the seasons we’ve seen the likes of Pat Leyland, Colin Kaline, Nick Avila, and Ben Verlander in West Michigan, all relatives to others in the Detroit organization (and I’m probably missing a few). Out of their top picks, though, I think that outfielder Christian Stewart and pitcher Tyler Alexander have the best shot at cracking the Whitecaps roster right out of the draft.

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Whitecaps Update 7/13

On By Minoring In BaseballIn Minor Leagues1 Comment
Devon Travis leads the Midwest League in hits
Devon Travis leads the Midwest League in hits

Travis Promoted: The West Michigan Whitecaps second baseman, and the Midwest League All-Star game MVP,  Devon Travis has been promoted to the Single-A Advanced Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Florida State League. Travis was leading the league in hitting with a .352 average, and 102 hits. He also had a league high in games played with 77, was second in on-base percentage at .430 and runs scored with 55, and was fourth in total bases at 141. Travis was also slick with the glove, leading all MWL second baseman with a .982 fielding percentage. Playing his collegiate ball at Florida State, Travis was a 13th round pick by the Tigers last year. Replacing him on the Whitecaps rosters, is 19-yr-old Harold Castro. Castro is coming down from the Flying Tigers, where he was hitting .274.

Jeff Holm signs some autographs for Whitecaps fans
Jeff Holm signs some autographs for Whitecaps fans

Holm MWL PoW: The Whitecaps first baseman Jeff Holm has been named the Midwest League Player of the Week for the week ending 6/30. Holm has been pounding the ball in this seasons’ second half, batting .438 (.385 this past week), with a .484 on-base percentage, and .731 slugging percentage. He’s knocked two home runs, four extra-base hits, five RBI’s and six runs scored. For the season, the Michigan State product is now batting .308 and leads the ‘Caps with eight home runs and 54 RBI’s. He was selected the starting first baseman for the Eastern squad at the MWL All-Star game, and his .993 fielding percentage leads all the league’s first baseman.

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Crosstown Showdown Letdown

On By Minoring In BaseballIn College Sports, Minor Leagues2 Comments

Lansing3Cooley Law School Stadium-Lansing, MI: Last Thursday we gambled…and lost. As mother nature continued to punish us in Michigan with freezing rain, sleet, and snow, the 7th Annual Crosstown Showdown, pitting the Lansing Lugnuts against the Michigan State Spartans, has been postponed.  The Lugnuts announced that the game will be made up on May 1st, as a seven inning game. We won’t be able to make it to that one, but the Lansing ticket office staff was more than helpful in helping us exchange our tickets for a game that we will be able to make it back down for…weather permitting. The kids and I still had a fun day together, though. We took a tour of the State Capitol building that was very enjoyable and informative. Lily and Trevor have been studying government in school, and it’s good for them to actually see where and how it’s applied. Our love of cars also took us to see the R.E. Olds transportation museum. We love to see the old cars and memorabilia. So much pride and workmanship went into the classic vehicles. The most fun the kids had was at the Impression 5 Science Center. This is a hands on play area for kids to build, do experiments, and encounter science and nature first hand. They could have spent all day there, and we’ll probably visit this again after the Lugnuts game here in a couple of weeks. It does get you down a bit, waiting for the weather to clear up to see some baseball games, but we still had fun, and the kids were able to spend some quality time with their Papa for his birthday. We also had dinner at one of my favorite sports bars, the Nuthouse Sports Grill!

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The Gambler

On By Minoring In BaseballIn College Sports, Minor LeaguesLeave a comment

Crosstown-ShowdownWe all know how the song starts….’On a cold winter’s morning..’. And that’s exactly how it felt this morning when my alarm blared in my ear, telling me it was time to get up and get the kids ready for school. Despite being the first day of spring, ‘old man winter’  pounded us with another few inches of snow. Throw the high winds and cold with it, and it’s just another winter storm, complete with low visibility and icy roads. Spring has not sprung, and winter looks as if it wants to stay with us for a little longer. Today was also the day that single game tickets went on sale for the Lansing LugNuts. Here’s where the gambling part comes in.. Despite there being several feet of snow on the ground, and temperatures in the 20’s, I took a gamble and ordered tickets for the Crosstown Showdown on April 11th. I’m sure the grounds crew at Cooley Law School Stadium is working diligently to get the field ready  for game action, but there’s still no guarantee what the weather will be like and how cold it will be in just a few short weeks. If it was just me, I wouldn’t care too much, but I’m hoping it’s warm enough for the kids to sit through. I rolled the dice, however, so we’ll see what happens. The Crosstown Showdown is the LugNuts opening day exhibition game against the Michigan State University Spartans, based in East Lansing. According to the LugNuts, this is one of the most attended games every season, so I guess we were lucky to get tickets. Trevor is the one who really wanted to see this game, as he’s a Sparty backer, for some reason. It should be a fun day all around, too, as we plan on visiting the State Capitol building while down there, as well as a couple of museums. If I’m going to pull the kids out of school, I have to justify it somehow, right? It should be a good game to watch, also, as MSU is the defending Big Ten champions, and Lansing had a great season last year. So, in a few weeks we’ll pack up and head downstate…and hope that Mother Nature deals us a favorable hand.

Promotion courtesy of the Lansing LugNuts

2012 in review

On By Minoring In BaseballIn Minor Leagues10 Comments

The kids and I had a great time in 2012, and really look forward to 2013. This years’ baseball trip will take us to North Carolina, where we have 12 games planned in just one week! We hope to see the Bulls, Dash, Drive, Knights, Grasshoppers, and Intimidators in action. Before that, though, we plan on attending the ‘Crosstown Showdown’ in Lansing, MI, with the LugNuts defending their home field against the Michigan State Spartans. Trevor’s a Sparty, so this is a game he really wanted. We have plans for the other teams in Michigan, too, including the Beach Bums, Loons, Whitecaps, and BC Bombers. Thanks you again to all who have stopped by M.I.B., and all the best to you in 2013!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 20,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

2009 Baseball Trip

On By Minoring In BaseballIn Baseball Trip, College Sports, Minor Leagues2 Comments

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oldspark.jpgTues. May 5-South Bend, Indiana: Our first trip to Coveleski Stadium in South Bend pitted the home Silver Hawks against the Cedar Rapids Kernels. We fought off the rain all week, and it started here with some drizzle, but the rain actually held off and we got the whole game in. Trevor made the trip with us this year, and he was uccessful in getting two game balls. The stadium is a little plain, but cut into the ground which I like and had good seating. We had good seats in the front row.
  victoryfield.jpg Thurs. May 7-Indianapolis, Indiana: We experienced out first rain out Wednesday, but if one of our games was to be missed, that would be it because we planned on returning to Victory Field on this day for a morning game anyway. The Indians played the Scranton/WB Yankees in a double header starting at ten in the morning. Again, rain threatened us, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. The home town Indians got beat both games, but this is a great ball park and we would love to back here again. Pictured is me and Trevor in the upper deck. Trevor got a fowl ball here, too.
 
Louisville, Kentucky: Heading to Louisville Slugger Field for a night cap, gave us a record setting three games in one day. We did it, though, and enjoyed every second. As nice as the park is in Indy, this one is just amazing. The facade is build into an old rain road warehouse and it’s just another great place to watch a ball game. The Bats beat up on the visiting Rochester Red Wings, too. We got another foul ball, as I took Trevor to the play area, it just happened to bounce in there to me. We’ve been having lots of luck with this. This is another AAA ball park I would love to visit again. Pictured here is Trevor from the outfield, but out seats were front row down the third base side. Not a bad seat in this house, though.
 
Friday, May 8-Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum: This was just awesome seeing how these famous bats are made. We got to hold unfinished bats of some of the best players in the game today, and saw older bats swung by the likes of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio. The factory tour was interesting and we each got a souvenir mini-bat when it was all over. Lots of stuff for kids, so Trevor had a great time, too. I highly recommend this to anyone in the Louisville area. A ballgame and the museum are a great combination. I dropped a little coin at the gift shop here, too.
 
Fort Wayne, Indiana: We can at least say we were at Parkview Field during it’s inaugural season here in 2009. The newly named TinCaps also helped by beating the Peoria Chiefs, too. This is a beautiful park, and maybe the class of the single ‘A’ circuit. Really nice sight lines around Fort Wayne, too. As you can see by the pic, we were right next to the TinCaps dugout and got a game ball here, too. Still lucky on the weather front, as it rained when we got here, but actually cleared up for the game. Trevor got to run the bases afterward which made it even more special for him.
 
Sat. May 9-Lansing, Michigan: Ending our trip in our home state. Like most of the days, it rained all the way up to Lansing, so we dreaded that we’d get this far and miss some baseball. The ‘baseball gods’ must have been looking out for us, as is cleared up as we got to Michigan State. In probably the best ball game we saw, MSU beat Prudue 6-5. Oh, yeah, you guessed it, Trevor got a foul ball at the newly remodeled McLane Stadium also. Our trip finally ended at Oldsmobile Park featuring the Lansing Lugnuts and the Beloit Snappers. The ‘Nuts got beat and it was a bit cold, yet we’re happy it didn’t rain and we got the game in. This is the only game we got shut out on getting a foul ball. We were all pretty tired by this time, but stayed for the post game fireworks, which seemed like and fitting end to our trip.
 
This is the first year we missed a game in Grand Rapids watching the Whitecaps, but we’ll be down there later this summer. Next year we’re looking into heading to Iowa or maybe the other teams in Ohio we haven’t seen. It’s never too early to start planning.
 
 
 
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