Notre Dame top seed in ACC; Indiana State No. 2 in MVC

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Notre Dame (29-10, 25-10) has earned the No. 1 seed for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. 

The event is slated for May 25-30 in Greensboro, N.C.

The Irish meet No. 12 seed Virginia Tech in Tuesday’s second game. ND’s current four-game win streak includes a three game weekend sweep at Virginia Tech.

Penn High School graduate and Notre Dame first baseman Niko Kavadas heads to Carolina with 16 home runs and 49 runs batted in.

Missouri Valley Conference tournament play begins and Indiana State (27-17, 14-10) goes in as the No. 2 seed while Evansville (28-26, 11-16) is No. 7 and Valparaiso (14-33, 9-19) No. 8.

Games will be played May 25-29 at Southern Illinois-Carbondale.

The Sycamores receive a first-round bye to Day 2 while UE (vs. Illinois State) and Valpo (vs. Missouri State) play on the first day.

Indiana State overcame an 8-0 deficit to win 13-10 at Evansville Saturday to secure the No. 2 seed in the eight-team tourney behind Dallas Baptist (33-15).

Left-hander Geremy Guerrero is 9-1 with a 1.92 earned run average and catcher Max Wright has 14 homers and 37 RBIs for the Sycamores.

Ball State (34-18, 25-11) won its first two games then lost two in a Mid-American Conference series at Ohio. The Cardinals wrap the MAC season May 28-30 with four games against Miami (Ohio) in Muncie.

Nick Powell (.353) leads BSU in hitting. Right-hander John Baker (7-3, 2.45) has been the No. 1 starting pitcher.

Indiana (24-16, 24-16) has lost the first three games of its Big Ten Conference pod series, dropping two to Nebraska and one to Ohio State in Bloomington. The Hoosiers host the Buckeyes again today (May 24).

A 9-8 loss for Purdue (14-25, 14-25) at Minnesota Sunday kept the Boilermakers from a four-game sweep of the Golden Gophers. 

A three-team pod (Purdue, Penn State, Minnesota) in West Lafayette is slated for May 27-29.

The 2021 season came to a close for both Butler (14-23 overall, 8-13 in the Big East Conference) and Purdue Fort Wayne (11-35 overall and 8-28 in the Horizon League).

The five-team finals of the NCAA Division III Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament saw Transylvania emerge as champions.

Transy bested Earlham (25-20, 21-18) in the final game. Bluffton knocked out Anderson (23-19, 20-17). A loss to Anderson eliminated Franklin (25-14, 23-12).

Indiana Tech (35-27) and Indiana Wesleyan (44-14) both bowed out in NAIA Opening Round play in the Marion Bracket.

Vincennes (24-31) saw its slate finish in the junior college Mid-West Athletic Conference tournament.

Of the state’s 38 college baseball programs, eight are still playing. There’s seven in NCAA Division I and there’s one in NAIA.

Indiana University Southeast (48-14) earned its first trip to the NAIA College World Series, which is May 28-June 4 in Lewiston, Idaho.

More on the Grenadiers’ special season can be found here.

INDIANA COLLEGE BASEBALL

Records Through May 23

NCAA Division I

Ball State 34-18 (25-11 MAC) 

Notre Dame 29-10 (25-10 ACC) 

Evansville 28-26 (11-16 MVC) 

Indiana State 27-17 (14-10 MVC) 

Indiana 24-16 (24-16 Big Ten)

Purdue 14-25 (14-25 Big Ten) 

Butler 14-23 (8-13 Big East) 

Valparaiso 14-33 (9-19 MVC) 

Purdue Fort Wayne 11-35 (8-28 HL) 

NCAA Division II

Indianapolis 27-21 (19-13 GLVC) 

Southern Indiana 24-20 (18-14 GLVC) 

Purdue Northwest 11-22 (5-19 GLIAC) 

NCAA Division III

Franklin 25-14 (23-12 HCAC) 

Earlham 25-20 (21-18 HCAC) 

Rose-Hulman 23-14 (23-12 HCAC)

Anderson 23-19 (20-17 HCAC) 

Hanover 20-20 (20-18 HCAC) 

Manchester 19-22 (19-20 HCAC) 

Wabash 18-15 (9-6 NCAC) 

DePauw 15-21 (8-8 NCAC) 

Trine 6-28 (6-17 MIAA) 

NAIA

Indiana University Southeast 48-14 (26-1 RSC) 

Indiana Wesleyan 44-14 (28-4 CL) 

Taylor 37-20 (24-12 CL) 

Indiana Tech 35-27 (16-6 WHAC) 

Saint Francis 34-22 (23-13 CL) 

Huntington 33-16 (23-13 CL) 

Indiana University-Kokomo 28-20 (16-10 RSC) 

Marian 25-29 (17-19 CL) 

Indiana University South Bend 24-24 (19-11 CCAC) 

Oakland City 17-27 (10-17 RSC) 

Bethel 15-39 (12-24 CL) 

Grace 12-31 (9-23 CL) 

Calumet of Saint Joseph 7-29 (7-20 CCAC) 

Goshen 3-34 (2-26 CL) 

Junior College

Ivy Tech Northeast 31-25 

Vincennes 24-31 (11-21 MWAC) 

Ancilla 6-29 (2-18 MCCAA) 

Conferences

NCAA Division I

Big Ten

Atlantic Coast (ACC)

Big East 

Horizon (HL)

Mid-American (MAC)

Missouri Valley (MVC)

NCAA Division II

Great Lakes Valley (GLVC)

Great Lakes Intercollegiate (GLIAC)

NCAA Division III

Heartland Collegiate (HCAC)

Michigan Intercollegiate (MIAA)

NAIA

Crossroads League (CL)

Chicagoland Collegiate (CCAC)

Wolverine Hoosier (WHAC)

River States Conference (RSC)

Junior College 

Mid-West Athletic (MWAC)

Michigan Community College (MCCAA)

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Notre Dame, Southern Illinois professors author book that connects baseball and the law

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Stated simply, a law is a rule or set of rules.

Baseball is governed by a set of rules.

The connections between the two disciplines are many as evidenced in a book authored by two law professors — Ed Edmonds of the University of Notre Dame and Frank G. Houdek of the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

“Baseball Meets the Law: A Chronology of Decisions, Statutes and Other Legal Events” (published by McFarland & Co., 2017) highlights many interesting intersections of jurisprudence and the Grand Old Game.

While it was produced by two men who once directed their respective school’s law libraries and provides exhaustive footnotes and a subject index for legal scholars who wish to dig deeper into a topic, the 336-page book is intended for a general audience.

“Baseball & The Law: Cases and Materials,” written by Louis H. Schiff and Robert M. Jarvis and published by Carolina Academic Press in 2016, is a 1,040-page book aimed at law school students.

Edmonds says the chronologically-based “Baseball Meets the Law” uses vignettes to tell stories like “A League of Their Own” being the only baseball movie selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, an annual list that recognizes 25 films for historical and aesthetic significance.

The earliest sighting of baseball meeting the law comes from 1791 in Pittsfield, Mass. It was ruled that no bat and ball games could be conducted within 80 yards of the meeting house.

Why?

Too many broken windows and too much noise.

“It was an early attempt at zoning,” says Edmonds, who started teaching sports law at the College of William & Mary 35 years ago and taught the subject for 11 years at Notre Dame (he was an ND undergraduate from 1969-73). “We show how that incident connected baseball and the law.”

The book combines research with Edmonds’ teachings with Houdek’s large bibliography of sports law articles.

Did you know that Pennsylvania passed a blue act in 1794 prohibiting baseball on Sunday? Philadelphia was the last city to host a legal Sunday baseball game in 1934. “Sunday Baseball: The Major Leagues’ Struggle to Play Baseball on the Lord’s Day, 1876-1934,” authored by Charles Bevis and published by McFarland & Co., is devoted to the subject.

Wonder why baseball and other sports have so many “throwback” uniforms?

“It’s to protect that trademark,” says Edmonds.

Trademark law is also the reason the South Bend Cubs and Chicago Cubs have similar but distinguishing logos.

“We bring awareness that these issues exsist,” says Edmonds. “It goes beyond antitrust, strikes and labor organizations.”

Edmonds notes the law’s hand in starting the Negro National League in 1920 and that journalists from the Indianapolis Defender and Indianapolis Freeman newspapers had a hand in drawing up the league constitution. The Indianapolis ABC’s were a charter member of the NNL.

A Society for American Baseball Research member, Edmonds attended the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Harrisburg, Pa., in July. He also went to his first SABR national convention in New York in June and belongs to the society’s Baseball Card Committee. He knows about the legal fights between card companies and the players who were signed to exclusive contracts.

Edmonds is very involved with the tracking of Major League Baseball salary arbitration and the Collective Bargaining Agreement. His findings are found on in the scholarship repository of the Notre Dame Law School’s Kresge Law Library.

In delving in antitrust and labor issues in baseball, Edmonds has written about U.S. Supreme Court cases (Federal Baseball v. National League, Toolson v. New York Yankees and Flood v. Kuhn).

Edmonds has spoken at the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture and the Annual Spring Training Conference on the Historical and Sociological Impact of Baseball sponsored by Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture.

As part of the Jerome Hall Law Library’s Annual Welcome Week activities, Edmonds and Houdek will discuss their book at noon Monday, Aug. 28 at Indiana University Maurer School of Law’s Moot Court Room.