MEMPHIS — In a move that appeared to be equal parts theater and congratulations, Class AAA Memphis manager Stubby Clapp abruptly walked to the mound in the second inning Wednesday night of Dakota Hudson’s start at Salt Lake City, handed him a ball, and commenced a parade of hugs.

Here’s a link to the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

CINCINNATI — The bullpen continued its skid Wednesday and there were scads of marooned baserunners in a 7-3 loss to Cincinnati, but as the Cardinals scuttled home from their weeklong, eight-game getaway to try to revive their season, something far more galling returned with them.

Here’s a link to the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Javier Baez wasn’t going to let the pain in his left knee stop him from reaching first base as the potential winning run.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

INA, Ill.  – What do you do when you lose a Rend Lake College Hall of Fame athlete turned head coach? You go out and bring another one in.

With former RLC women’s head golf coach Danielle Kaufman leaving Ina to helm the Southern Illinois University Carbondale women’s program, RLC Hall of Famer Jeremy May has stepped up to take the reins.

May is a product of Staunton High School where he was a standout golfer. His play caught the attention of venerated RLC men’s coach Dave Smith who recruited May to play for the Warriors during the 1994-96 seasons. To say the teams were successful would be a massive understatement.

Jeremy May

“I played on two really good teams. I think we finished 2nd in the nation one year and 3rd the other. My freshman year’s team is a member of the Rend Lake College Athletics Hall of Fame. We had great players on that team. Two of the guys I played with were also individually inducted, Matt Armstrong and Jace Bugg, who passed away,” May recalled.
Following his time at RLC, he went on to play golf at Western Illinois for a year.
He returned to Southern Illinois in 2000 to take a teaching position at Zeigler-Royalton, and has been with the school ever since. He currently serves as athletic director at the school and coaches girls basketball. He began the golf program for the Tornadoes, coaching both boys and girls for six years.

May also began helping Coach Smith with the RLC program last year.

“I had a great time. We had a really good season. We made it to the national tournament with a good finish. We’ve got some good recruits coming in, so I think we will be strong again next year. I talked to Danielle and it sounds like the women she recruited in are going to be really good too, so I’m excited to get started with them.”

The year under Smith provided May with a lot of insight into the particulars of coaching at the college level in regards to setting up tournaments and the other logistical work that goes into athletics at this level.

“Coach Smith and I fell right back in. He was a great guy to show me the ropes. He’s been doing this for 25 years. It was great to learn from him again.”
When asked about his involvement with the men’s team moving forward, May said that the current plan is for him to do both, help Smith with the men and take over head coaching responsibilities for the women.

“Danielle did a great job with the program last year, and of course Coach [Cindy] Corn before her ran a great program for years and years. So, we talked with the men’s program of building the tradition back up, that’s defiantly what the plan is for the women’s team too. We want to make sure it continues that history of excellence. We have some great recruits coming in, so I’m excited.”

May said his top priority is getting to know his new players. But ultimately, he has the goal of qualify for fifth-straight national tournament.

Illinois coach Lovie Smith preached patience during his first two unproductive seasons in Champaign

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

The value of versatile Ian Happ and perhaps David Bote to the Cubs might have been enhanced without either hitting a home run or making a diving stop.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

Five hundred through 100. Fifty and 50.

Here’s a link to the column at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

CINCINNATI — With a healthy run of starts this past week to really know and not guess, Dexter Fowler has been telling his coaches and his manager that his swing feels good, feels right, feels like it’s “starting to click.” That invited a new concern.

Here’s a link to the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

During her distinguished coaching career, Adams-Birch spent nine seasons as a collegiate head coach at Wichita State, where she compiled a school record 161 wins with three Missouri Valley Conference championships and a trio of NCAA Tournament appearances.

“We’re excited to bring Jody back to Carbondale,” SIU Director of Athletics Jerry Kill said. “Everyone I have talked to has had nothing but good things to say about her. I spoke with (Wichita State head men’s basketball coach) Gregg Marshall and he said she was as good a women’s coach that he has ever been around and that we are lucky to get her. Any one that has worked under Pat Summit knows a lot about basketball. She is a coach I’m very familiar with who comes from a great pedigree and is a proven winner.”

Most recently, Adams-Birch spent a season as an assistant coach at Derby (KS) High School, where the Panthers went 23-1 and won the Kansas 6A state title.

Before joining the staff at Derby, Adams-Birch spent nine seasons as head coach of the Shockers. Adams-Birch took over a program that had won 20 games just once prior to her arrival and had never made an NCAA Tournament appearance.  Wichita State had an unprecedented run of success under Adams-Birch, as the Shockers posted four-straight 20-plus win seasons and made six-straight postseason appearances from 2009-15, which included three-straight MVC Tournament titles from 2013-15. Adams-Birch recruited and coached Alex Harden, the most decorated women’s basketball player in Shocker history. Harden was chosen as the 18th pick by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2015 WNBA draft after a collegiate career in which she broke Wichita State’s career points record and became the program’s first-ever honorable mention All-America selection.

“I’m excited from the standpoint that I love working with people who morally and ethically I line up with,” said Adams-Birch. “I love and admire how Cindy does life. And then when I heard Coach Kill is back- he’s another person I really admire. I watched Coach Kill when I was the associate head coach (at SIU) and it was the way he carried himself, held his players accountable and his team’s played football the right way. I’m very blessed to be able to work alongside two people that I consider mentors.”

Before taking over the reigns at Wichita State, Adams-Birch spent the 2007-08 season as the head coach of the Murray State Racers. The Racers went 24-8 under Adams-Birch and defeated Eastern Illinois in the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference title game to secure the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.

Adams-Birch arrived at Murray State after serving as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator under Dana Eikenberg at Southern Illinois for three seasons (2004-07). During her time at SIU, Adams-Birch helped Southern claim its first-ever MVC regular season title in 2006-07.

Prior to her first stint at SIU, Adams-Birch was the associate head coach at UMKC under Eikenberg from 2000-04 and was named a 2003 AFLAC National Assistant Coach-of-the-Year after she helped UMKC sign some of the best talent in the Kansas City area. Among those recruits was Carlai Moore, who was named to the Mid-Continent Conference All-Freshman team and earned the league’s Sixth Woman-of-the-Year Award. Moore followed Adams-Birch and Eikenberg to SIU, where she won the 2006 MVC Newcomer of the Year award, and the following year, secured a spot on the All-MVC First Team. 

From 1997-00, Adams-Birch served as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. She was the Gophers’ recruiting coordinator and helped Minnesota sign a top-5 national recruiting class prior to the 2000-01 campaign, a class that included current Minnesota head coach Lindsay Whalen. 

Before coaching at Minnesota, Adams-Birch worked as an assistant coach at Wake Forest for one season. Prior to that, Adams-Birch was an assistant on Joe Ciampi’s staff at Auburn for two seasons that included a trip to the Elite Eight in 1996.

A 1993 graduate of Tennessee, Adams-Birch played four seasons for the Lady Vols under legendary head coach Pat Summitt, and was the starting point guard for three Southeastern Conference Championship teams. The Lady Vols advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of her four years and captured the NCAA’s ultimate prize with a national championship in 1991. She began her coaching career as a student assistant with the Lady Vols in 1993.

CHICAGO • To change their fortunes and change the vector of their season, the Cardinals changed managers and asked Mike Shildt to change what he could with a roster that remained the same.

Here’s a link to the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.