Jeremy Burgard at NAIA World Series

It's always good to see a North Dakota kid doing good in sports at the college level. For Dickinson's Jeremy Burgard, he's helped lead Jamestown College to their second-ever trip to the NAIA World Series in Idaho.

Burgard is one of those guys who has been honored with individual awards, but he has struck me as a team-first kind of guy and it's a joy to watch him succeed.

The Dickinson Press sports editor Dustin Monke put together a feature/WS preview on Burgard, definitely a good read. Click here to read it.

DP State Track Previews

The Dickinson Press sports writer Chris Aarhus is one track writing machine as he cranked out three state track previews for one edition. That my friends is a good day's work.

To read the Aarhus story on Dickinson High's Skyler Beaudoin click here and to read the Aarhus story on Marcus Sickler click here. If you want to read the Aarhus story on Richardton-Taylor's Jadon Messer click here.

2008 State Track Meet - Day 1

To view full results from the state track and field meet, click here.

A couple of highlights:

From Class A

South's Fargo Roesler posted the fastest times in the 100, 200, 400.
West Fargo's Ellie Grooters has the fastest times so far in both hurdle events.
Bismarck's Jason Duscherer posted the fastest times so far in the 100, 200 and 400.
Bismarck went 1-2 in the mile as Joash Osoro won (4:27.38).
Century's Karl Effertz (6-3) out dueled Jamestown's Brian Sinner (6-2) in the high jump.

From Class B

FLPRAE's Adrienne Thomas has the fastest times in the 100 and 400 so far.
Benson County's Lindsay Anderson won the 1600.
Maple Valley-Enderlin's Kristen Killoran has the fastest times in the hurdle events, and finished an inch shy of the state record in the long jump, winning by about half a foot.
Lisbon's Kali Olson went 5-3 to win the high jump.
Griggs County Central's Katie Gruman won the discus (136-0).
Hazen's Brian Sorenson had the fastest times in the 200 and 400.
Rugby's Dylan Yoder won the 1600 (4:35.84).
Glenburn's Seth Wisthoff won the discus, tying Jim Kleinsasser's state record of 183-11.

The state meet concludes on May 24.

Sun Class B State Baseball Primer

A shorty from the Jamestown Sun, providing a bit of background on the field of teams for the 2008 state Class B baseball tournament.

Click here for the read.

MDN Velva-Drake State Baseball Preview

Velva-Drake should be considered one of the favorites when it comes to the upcoming state Class B baseball tournament. The team has been to state repeatedly and even if some of the kids on the roster haven't played in the state tournament, they have watched, they have learned and they know the drill.

Also, Mike Thingstad does a pretty good job heading up the team and when I've seen them play, they sure appeared to be a pretty salty team.

Mike Linnell delivers the state preview. Click here to give it a read.

Feature on GFC's Colin Parrish

When it comes to quotes, I don't know if it gets any better than this:

"I've I've been left high and dry. Too many runner-ups. I've got to put my big boy pants on now."

Yes sir, Grand Forks Central runner Colin Parrish can deliver a sound byte like few others.

To read Tom Miller's complete story, click here. I'm not hugely interested in long-distance running, and I found it worth a read. Great stuff.

Class B All-Region Teams

The Grand Forks Herald ran the All-Region baseball teams for Regions 2, 3, 4 and 5.

From those regions listed, the upcoming state tournament may showcase a potential pitching matchup of region SPOY in Dakota Prairie's Seth Nichols and Grafton's Anthony Kliniske, 13 All-Region players, and three region COY. Good stuff.

To give it a read, click here.

Chris Coste Book Signing

If you enjoy reading a book about athletes, I highly suggest picking up The 33-Year-Old Rookie, a book spun from the experiences of Philadelphia Phillies catcher Chris Coste. It is probably going to cost you 20 or 25 bucks, but if you are from North Dakota and you dig on baseball at all, this book should be on your shelf.

I'm a huge fan of Coste. His break into the majors and my start in sports journalism kind of happened at the same time. I remember hearing about him going to the Phillies spring training and absolutely tearing it up, and I remember being completely shocked when he didn't make the 25-man roster that spring. But, as the book will demonstrate, it isn't the first time Coste has had to remember patience, it isn't the first time he's been told he was too old and too slow, and it isn't the first time Coste had to deal with failure.

I think that is what draws me to the game of baseball. The game is built on failure and the players' ability to overcome that constant failure. In a way, the game is very much like life. You go out there every day (well, 182 regular season games, plus spring training, plus the postseason) and you see what you can do. If you have an average day (we'll say 1-for-4) it is just that, an average day. But some days, you are unstoppable (we'll say 2-for-3 with a two-run homer, a walk and 3 RBI). Eventually you are going to have to wear the collar of an 0-for-4 or 0-for-5 day and you are going to strikeout. But tomorrow you are going to go right back out and take a hack.

And that is what Coste has done with his career. In it he talks about some of his early baseball memories, his high school, college, minor league and major league career. It is funny, sad, everything in between.

If you are in Fargo on July 15 (and Coste isn't named to the National League All-Star team I'm assuming), swing by Barnes and Noble. Coste will be there selling and autographing his book, starting at 7 p.m.

In a time where some professional athletes that aren't truthful, aren't approachable, aren't anything you want your kid to grow up and be, what Coste is can be what saves professional sports long-term. Also, if you want to check out his website, click here.

B Baseball Region Championship Stories

Here's a chance to brush up on the teams that make up the field of the 2008 state Class B baseball tournament in Jamestown.

Region 1 - LaMoure-Litchville-Marion (Forum story) (Sun story)

Region 2 - Central Valley-Hillsboro (Forum story)

Region 3 - Dakota Prairie (Sun story - scroll down)

Region 4 - Grafton

Region 5 - Munich-Starkweather-Cando

Region 6 - Velva Drake (Daily News story)

Region 7 - Minot Ryan (Daily News story) (W.Herald story)

Region 8 - Steele-Dawson

Darin Erstad - May 21

Major League Baseball's pride of Jamestown, Darin Erstad, recently passed a career hit total of 1600 recently. Gotta say, that is a pile of hits. No, we aren't talking about breaking the MLB record in hits or anything like that, but Ersty has had one heck of a career.

Considering he spent parts of a couple of seasons on the disabled list, his career numbers probably will never reflect the offensive impact he's had over his career. And, because he was such a standout defensive player (the only major league player to get gold gloves in the outfield and infield) a lot of his offensive contributions will likely be overlooked.

For his career he's played in 1,448 games and is a .284 hitter (1602-for-5633). He has 300 doubles, 31 triples, 119 home runs (a .751 career OPS), 668 RBI and 178 stolen bases.

As a part-time player and pinch hitter for Houston this season he's found a bit of a revival in his career. Take the last 10 games he's played in for instance: He's hitting .375 (6-for-16) with 7 RBI, 1 HR, 2 runs, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. Of hose 10 games he's started three of them, pinch hit in five of them and was a defensive replacement in two without an at bat.

On the season he's hitting .308. Split that between righties and southpaws, he's hitting .300 against right-handed pitching and .400 versus lefties. He gives you quality at bats, drives in runs, and doesn't look foolish with the glove.

Injuries have been his one bugaboo, and it remains to be seen if he'll play throughout the entire season, but he's off to a fabulous start in 2008. Here's to him continuing to provide solid production throughout the entire season.