Gene's Blog: No Rolling Stone, but Sports Illustrated is OK, too

June 05, 2009

It seems like the coverage of St. Thomas’ 2009 baseball championship has made it everywhere but the cover of Rolling Stone. Which is odd, since the winning pitcher in the NCAA title game is named Stone.

On Thursday, after I found another nugget in the myriad of online, print, video and audio stories and images, I sent this e-mail to athletic director Steve Fritz and University Relations vice president Doug Hennes:

If there's a better photo of Tommie sports not taken by Mike Ekern, it would either be the Star Tribune photo from men's basketball of bench celebrating (see below), or this shot from first-base dugout of the winning play in Appleton:

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=U0&Date=20090526&Category=APC0206&ArtNo=905260808&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

It turns out, Sports Illustrated agrees on the winning play from Appleton. Yes, that Sports Illustrated.

This week’s SI magazine arrived in the mail Thursday and is available for purchase today. It features a version of the above remarkable photo -- this one taken by Wooster photog Matt Dilyard -- in a two-page spread near the beginning of the issue in its “Leading Off” section. Click here to view a copy of the image: http://www.wooster.edu/athletics/base/ncaa09/gallery2/index.html

SI has three million subscribers and lists a readership of 23 million. The magazine's website, which is available for purchase today, didn’t link to the photo but has this cutline: 

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1156220/index.htm

The other version of the photo referenced in the above e-mail, shot a split second earlier, was taken by free-lance photographer Wm. Glasheen, and appeared previously in color in the May 27 sports section of the Appleton Post Crescent.

Less than 48 hours after a long day shooting graduation ceremonies, UST photographer Mike Ekern and videographer Brad Jacobsen drove five hours on Memorial Day to the baseball tournament. They woke up Tuesday morning, ate breakfast, then worked at the field from 10 a.m. until after 7 p.m., then came home that night. Mike sent back a dozen of his best action photos -– including some memorable celebration shots -- that appeared here on Tommiesports.com as well as one front of the sports pages in the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press and NCAA.com. Several national baseball publications and other local newspapers have called to request the photos.

While Mike drove, Brad edited film on his laptop so he could have highlights available by Wednesday for an on-campus press conference. Brad also drove a copy to the Metrodome so a clip could be played that night on Fox Sports North’s Minnesota Twins game telecast. He made a copy for each local TV station, and those were used by Channel 5, 9 and 11 in Wednesday night reports. One clip was used last Sunday night by WCCO TV as the “Play of the Week” on Rosen’s Sports Sunday.

Brad’s video highlights from the Tuesday championship games can be viewed here:

http://www.tommiesports.com/bsbl/news/Video-Title.html

If you missed it, here a link to all the outside media accounts of the baseball title:

http://www.tommiesports.com/bsbl/news/CWS6_May26.html

Ekern, you’ll recall, did the Monday Morning Quarterback features on selected Mondays last fall with UST football coach Glenn Caruso. His cutting-edge work is on display in the new edition of the St. Thomas magazine and on the magazine’s website. His photos from May 26 championship day will be added to the UST Photostore soon. Click here to read's Mike's account of recording the final day action:

http://www.ustphoto.com/2009/05/29/18-hours-and-a-championship/

The Star Tribune basketball photo referenced above was taken by Carlos Gonzalez as part of a Feb. 6 story on Fritz’ No. 1-ranked Tommie basketball team:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/39179442.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

A new full-time photographer, Thomas Whisenand, joined the St. Thomas staff in late April. You can find Thomas and Mike’s work at the UST Photostore: http://photostore.stthomas.edu/

As a bonus, St. Thomas has been fortunate to have a longtime partnership with David Bank Studios for selected team and individual photos which can be purchased, as well as a bounty of action shots also available for purchase taken over the last two years by free-lance photographer Greg Smith (www.gsmithsports.com)

Tommiesports.com is coming up on its two-year anniversary, and the photography and video work has been instrumental in its growth and success.

Congressional Record

The Tommies may not get invited to the White House, but on Wednesday their baseball accomplishments were read into the Congressional Record via a resolution that Congresswoman Betty McCollum read on the U.S. House floor.

Click here to access a condensed version of the remarks:

http://www.mccollum.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=583&Itemid=92

Coach Dennis Denning’s team will be honored in a pre-game ceremony at the Metrodome by the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday June 16. Denning will throw out the first pitch and the players will be introduced.

Later this month, CBS-TV will air a 60-minute highlight wrap show of Division I, II and III baseball, softball, tennis, golf and track and field championships. It’s yet to be determined whether the Tommies will make the cut with baseball or their 4x100 and 4x400 relay victories, but producers interviewed Matt Olson after he scored the winning run in perhaps the most exciting finish of any NCAA championship.

PHOTOS: Mike Ekern action shots from College World Series

Director's Cup

It appears that St. Thomas will post another top-15 national finish out of 400 eligible institutions in the Division III Directors Cup all-sport scoring. St. Thomas has placed in the top 40 all 14 years the format has been in place, with 10 top-25 finishes.

Final standings will be announced in two weeks, but it looks like the Tommies will have a record point total of 596.5 with points from 11 of 20 sports and will take 14th or 15th. The total is buoyed by 100 points for its baseball championship, 85 points for the men’s track and field third-place finish, and a large chunk for men’s basketball’s berth in the NCAA quarterfinals.

St. Thomas also scored with NCAA playoff appearances in men’s swimming and diving plus seven women’s sports -- cross country, soccer, volleyball, golf, softball, swimming and diving, and track and field.

It looks like UST will be among eight schools from Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin in the Division III top 25, including Gustavus, Wartburg and UW-Stevens Point, Whitewater, Oshkosh, Eau Claire and LaCrosse.