Feb. 5, 2008

Senior Jeff Thomas will be blogging throughout the season about his experiences as a member of the Huskie baseball team. The outfielder from Loves Park, Ill., has made 91 career starts and was the starting leftfielder each of the past two seasons. Thomas' initial posting follows the official start of practice this past weekend as Northern Illinois counts down to its Feb. 22 opener at Texas Tech.

First practice

Hey what's up? I'm Jeff Thomas, a.k.a. JT or Tommy, for my friends back home. Our team has been eager to get back to business and start another season after coming so close to a MAC championship last year. We have most of our starters coming back, so we feel like we have a chance to field a strong team.

Our first early practice of the year was on Saturday morning, yeah a Saturday morning. It did feel good to be with the whole team instead of doing small group work like we do during the off season. I've got love for the OF (outfield group) but sometimes it is good to be around the whole team.

I would say that our first practice went well. I think I'm most excited to know that we'll be playing games in three weeks. I'm not going to lie, though, it didn't take long for me to loose my breath during the "j-drills" that the outfielders go through. Those drills will get you - ask any of the outfielders and they'll tell you.

I'll be looking forward to hearing what the Texas Tech fans have to say about this blog. They have a group called "the hecklers" that sits in the front row next to the visiting dugout and ride you pretty good, but that is part of what makes college baseball fun.

Until next time ...

JT