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Touching all the Bases

Catcher U.

Posted by: Jeff Huth

Monday, August 4, 2008 11:30 AM

Understandably, much of the focus during last week’s first-of-its-kind minor league game at Wrigley Field was on former Cubs great Ryne Sandburg.
Now in his second year as manager of the Peoria Chiefs, Ryno’s return to his old stomping grounds was a nostalgic treat for anyone who saw the Hall of Fame second baseman in his prime.
But there was a Chicago area native in the other dugout who undoubtedly was just as thrilled as Sandberg to be managing at the Friendly Confines.
Former Illini Aaron Nieckula is in his third season at the helm of the Kane County Cougars.
Although nothing was settled on the field that night — the game was suspended by rain in the ninth with the score tied 6-6 and completed the next day in Peoria — we’re guessing a Midwest League record crowd of 323.103 got its money’s worth.
The presence of Nieckula got me to thinking about the long list of outstanding Illini catchers I’ve seen during the past 28 years of covering UI baseball for The News-Gazette.
The greatest hitter in Illini history, Darrin Fletcher, leads this roll call. Others that stood out are Greg Iavarone (good enough defensively to keep Fletcher at first base for at least one season, I recall), Sean Mulligan, Nieckula, and Canada’s gifts to Illini backstopping: recent high draft picks Chris Robinson and Lars Davis. Current catcher Aaron Johnson — another of the Canadian Clubbers who found their way to Champaign — showed enough last season that he might be worthy of inclusion on this list before his UI career ends.
Certainly, any historical list of great Illini catchers would be more expansive. Two names that immediately come to mind are 1947 All-American Lee Eilbracht, who went on to coach the Illini to a school-record 515 victories, and major league All-Star Tom Haller.
You could argue — and I will — that if the UI is known as Linebacker U. in football, then UI baseball merits the label of Catcher U.