Oct. 3, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
With the Major League Baseball playoffs starting Tuesday, Illinois State baseball head coach Jim Brownlee is getting his team into the playoff mode, with a three-game series of intra-squad scrimmages dubbed the Redbird Baseball Media World Series beginning Tuesday, October 3, and running through Thursday, October 5. Each game starts at 3:30 p.m. at Redbird Field on the Illinois State campus.
Members of the Bloomington-Normal media have offered to come on board and fill in as managers for the series. Scott Robbins of 99.5 The Eagle will face off against his long-time friend Scott Laughlin of 1230 AM WJBC in Tuesday's game. WJBC news director Colleen Reynolds will assist her broadcast partners Laughlin with his managerial duties in this game as well. Wednesday's game forces Pantagraph co-workers Randy Reinhardt and Randy Kindred to compete against each other and Thursday's game will pit Greg Halbleib and Jim Williams of 1230 AM WJBC against each other.
Head coach Jim Brownlee is excited about what the Media World Series does for ISU baseball and the media.
"This event is a great way for our media to get a first look at this year's team," said Brownlee. "They are going to be the people who cover this team and it's always interesting to see how much they really know about the game of baseball when you put them in charge as managers."
The senior baseball players chose the teams and will also serve as captains for the three scrimmages. Jay Molina and Chris Frank will lead one squad, while Blake Schoonover and Kris Jenkins will lead the other. Overall, Brownlee thinks the games this week are a good way to begin preparations for the spring 2006 schedule.
"It's fun to watch the whole draft process develop and see how competitive the guys get with their teams," said Brownlee. "Both teams will fight hard in order to gain bragging rights for the fall and games are usually very competitive. Because we don't play in any real games in the fall, these games are a great way to wrap up our fall practice."
