Grand Forks Herald reporter Tom Miller offers news, notes and comments on local sports
Tom's Take

Friday's links: Bollinger, two-a-days, Pooh Richardson

Posted by: Tom Miller on 6/19/2009 at 11:09 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

200-pitch hurlers meet again

Warroad's Lars Anderson and Thief River Falls' Cody Conners can't get enough of each other.

The two area pitchers, who each threw more than 200 pitches in a May 30th game during the high school baseball season, matched up again Thursday night in an American Legion game.

This wasn't a 13-inning marathon like their previous matchup, but Thief River Falls won 3-1 in seven innings and Anderson and Conners went the distance.

Posted by: Tom Miller on 6/12/2009 at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: prep sports, thief river falls, warroad

MSHSL plans cutbacks

Updated: 11:57 a.m.

As was discussed on this blog in March, the Minnesota State High School League has been looking at ways to save some money.

This story on the Grand Forks Herald Web site today lays out some of the planned changes. They include:

The Associated Press story was a little unclear but the Star Tribune clarifies that these changes do take place next fall. The Star Tribune also states the travel limits only pertain to travel outside of "states and provinces bordering Minnesota." Therefore, the Herald Jason Stadstad Hockey Classic in Grand Forks is cleared, which has featured teams from the Cities in the past.

Posted by: Tom Miller on 6/09/2009 at 11:25 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Tags: minnesota state high school league, prep sports

Story of Warroad pitcher has legs

The story in Tuesday's Grand Forks Herald sports page about a Warroad pitcher who threw 201 pitches over 13 innings while his Thief River Falls counterpart threw 204 has drawn national attention.

- The Star Tribune wrote about it. And Michael Rand blogged about it.

- Deadspin picked it up.

- So did MLB.com.

 

Posted by: Tom Miller on 6/03/2009 at 11:25 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Tags: prep sports, thief river falls, warroad

How many is too many?

In today's Grand Forks Herald sports page, we had a story on Warroad senior Lars Anderson who threw all 13 innings of a postseason game against Thief River Falls, tossing 201 pitches. Anderson also mashed the game-winning walk-off home run to give the Warriors a 5-3 victory.

The Star Tribune also had a clip on it.

The side story, however, is that Anderson's counterpart, Thief River Falls left-hander Cody Conners, threw more pitches than Anderson. Conners pitched 11 innings and racked up 204 pitches.

It sounds like a wild game with a wild finish.

But really, two high school kids threw more than 200 pitches in the same game. Even if Bert Blyleven would love these kids, there's something not right about that.

You can read some back and forth in the comments section on the issue at the Star Tribune web site here.

The current rule in Minnesota states that pitchers are allowed to throw 14 innings in three days. If I were a high school pitcher with my arm hanngin down at my ankles after a 14-inning outing, I might ask the rule be changed to 14 innings in three days but no more than 10 innings in one day.....something like that.

Kudos to Anderson and Conners. Sounds like they did some pretty amazing things. But someone in the Minnesota State High School League might want to take a second look at these pitching rules. 

Posted by: Tom Miller on 6/02/2009 at 10:36 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Tags: prep baseball, prep sports, thief river falls, warroad

It looks like wood bats are here to stay

On the final day of the East Region baseball tournament in Grand Forks on Saturday, I asked a handful of coaches about North Dakota's switch from metal to wood bats, which began in 2007. The original agreement was for three years, which is due up after this season.

I wrote about some of the coaches' responses here.

It sounds like every Class A baseball team in the state is pro-wood bat except Minot.

Fargo Shanley baseball coach Joel Swanson compiled some statistics from 2004-2006 (wood bats) and compared them to 2007 (metal bats).

Some of what he found: Batting averages dipped from .301 between 2004 and 2006 to .272 in 2007. Runs per game also slipped from 6.3 per game to 4.6.

There are plenty of more statistics in the above link.

The slip in offensive numbers doesn't seem to bother North Dakota Class A coaches. Any opinions from the rest of you?

Posted by: Tom Miller on 5/26/2009 at 11:01 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

Tags: prep baseball, prep sports

UND's biggest Summit gap: Third world sports?

With UND inching closer to the Summit League (we think), we can start keep making comparisons to North Dakota State....

The Forum's Jeff Kolpack, who has been covering Bison sports through the transition from Division II to D-I, boldly proclaims NDSU's softball victory over Oklahoma as the Bison's most impressive win in the move to D-I.

That's saying a lot from a guy who has penned stories on NDSU beating Minnesota in football, as well as Marquette and Wisconsin in men's basketball.

I don't bring this up to question Mr. Kolpack. It just made me wonder: In UND's quest to catch back up with the XDSUs, do third world sports (softball, vollleyball, track and field, etc.) present the largest gap?

NDSU volleyball just completed a perfect conference season, Bison softball just knocked off the No. 7-ranked team in the country on its home field in the NCAA tournament and NDSU women's track and field recently captured its second straight league title. 

UND's highlights from this season from the "third world sports department" either came from volleyball, which tied a program record for wins, or the swimming and diving teams' strong showing at the Conference USA meet or UND baseball's wins over Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Creighton and Bradley. 

It's probably worth noting the UND volleyball team played a schedule of relative unknowns; not trying to diminish anything but it's hard to use it as any measuring stick.

So, my question to readers: If UND does indeed join NDSU and SDSU in the Summit, where will UND's third world sports fall in the conference? How long will it take to be competitve? And which sport is poised to adapt the quickest?

Posted by: Tom Miller on 5/18/2009 at 10:35 AM | Comments (9) | Permalink

Tags: summit league, und sports

Hoping for a Bleacher Creature return

After nearly a month-long blogging hiatus, I'll attempt to bring this thing back from the dead. I'm sure folks all over the Information Superhighway are thrilled.

As you all know by now, the UND nickname is on life support.

I don't have any deep philosophic analysis for you. In fact, I just want to pose this very important question:

 Does that mean UND can bring back the Bleacher Creature?

For those of you who weren't blessed enough to remember the Bleacher Creature mascot of the 1990s, think a cross between the Phillie Phanatic and Mr. Met. That probably doesn't even do it justice. It truly was a 'Creature'.

The Bleacher Creature paraded around Memorial Stadium and Hyslop Sports Center, often running away from kids trying to yank out his oversized tounge. As a young sports fan in Grand Forks in those days, I loved the thing. 

In about 1994 (yeah I checked the Herald archives because this is such an important matter), it sounds like the university was under some heat because the Bleacher Creature kind of looked like a gorilla and some Native Americans thought that wasn't the best thing to associate with the Sioux name. But if there's no Fighting Sioux nickname, the Bleacher Creature isn't offensive anymore, right? Let's hope so.

An exerpt from the 1994 Herald story:

"The mascot is under review," said Athletic Director Terry Wanless.

He emphasized that "Thunder," who made his debut in the fall of 1990, would not become an extinct species before the spring semester is over in May.

And take a look at this expert from a 1990 story by the Herald's Kevin Bonham. Classic stuff. Especially when you get a mascot to say "headbutts with a bison is no easy job":
 

But it was Thunder the Bleacher Creature who stole the sideline show at the 95th UND-NDSU football game Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Thunder was a hit from the moment he broke loose from a cage at midfield just before the game began.

He pranced around the stadium all game long, He followed the halftime dance team out onto the field then fell on his rear when they sat down. He mimicked the referees. He taunted the players.

We caught up with him during a break in the game, and asked for an interview.

Q.

Is it tough work, being a Sioux in gorilla's clothing?

A.

No, not really. But my head is throbbing. Doing headbutts with a bison is no easy job.

I don't really remember the thing being called "Thunder", but that's not really important here. What is important is that, if the nickname is retired, someone needs to scoure Hyslop closets looking for that costume. It's got to be laying around somewhere.

 If the Fighting Sioux nickname is truly gonzo, UND will probably be looking for a good public relations move to distract some of the angry folks. I suggest calling a press conference to announce the return of the Bleacher Creature.

Posted by: Tom Miller on 5/15/2009 at 10:53 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

Tags: bleacher creature, sports, und basketball, und football, und sports