Slammers slammed?

Word has it that an announcement will be made Thursday about the future of the Joliet Slammers. Could it be that the team will be sold?

Tarp attack

Here is a link to some amazing video of from a rain delay Friday in the game between Southern Illinois and Joliet.

A severe thunderstorm with heavy rain and strong wind gusts moved through Joliet between the sixth and seventh innings at Silver Cross Field. The ground crew put the tarp down over the infield and seemed to have it secured. The wind, however, lifted up the tarp. Some of the ground crew who returned to reposition the tarp were gobbled up in the flying tarp.

The game called after six innings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6O0XxnO_s4

Silver Cross Field

Here are some photos that Randy Gore of WJPA Radio took yesterday from Silver Cross Field in downtown Joliet, Ill. if I did this correctly, you should be able to click on each photo and get a larger image.

Goin' to the Slammer

In case you missed it on the Frontier League's homepage, the new Joliet franchise will be known as the Slammers.

Steel City Baseball officials said the name is a nod to both baseball, as in a grand slam, and Joliet’s history as being the home of the infamous Joliet and Stateville prisons.

“The obvious double entendre posed by the word Slammers was deemed a perfect fit for the team,” general manager John Dittrich said a press release.

Slammers, however, wasn't the most popular nickname suggested in a name-the-team contest. More than 1,000 people submitted suggestions and the most popular name was Jailbirds. The new ownership group decided against it because it drew the most negative feedback.

Also getting the thumbs up from fans was the Joliet Jakes, based on John Belushi's character in the film "The Blues Brothers." The only problem with that name is it's copyrighted.

The Wild Things open their 10th season May 19 at Joliet.