There’s a saying that "you don’t tug on Superman’s cape."

Someone might want to tell that to Milwaukee reliever Carlos Villanueva. On Wednesday night, Villanueva got out of a big jam by getting St. Louis rookie Joe Mather to pop out with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.  As you can see from the photo, Villanueva was pretty happy with himself and taunted the Cardinals’ dugout.

When you’re Francisco Rodriguez or even Jose Valverde, you’ve earned the right to get a little excited about things, but Villanueva isn’t anywhere near their category. He’s part of a bad Brewers bullpen. A bullpen that if it was any better might have the team contending with the  Cubs for the National League Central title instead of having to fight for the wild card.

Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols nearly stormed out of the dugout after Villanueva’s act. He was held back, but the Cardinals used the little show as motivation for a rally that night.

It temporarily put the Cardinals back in the wild card mix. But it’s obvious, the Cardinals don’t have the horses to stay in that race.

Hopefully, the next time they see Villanueva, they’ll send him a little message.

Click on the logo above to take part in our newest contest. It’s a high school/college pickem game. You can win $20 in Buffalo Wild Wings dough each week and get in the running for a wings party at the Quincy Buffalo Wild Wings.

Here is this week’s rundown. If you want to listen in, join Josh Houchins and I around 8:20 or so Wednesday on ESPN 1440, home of WGEM SportsCenter presented by Hardee’s:

A — Kevin Duckworth. Say what you will about the portly former Trail Blazer, but he had some game. He helped Portland get to the NBA Finals twice during his career. He was the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 1988 and had the best NBA career of anyone who graduated from Eastern Illinois University. For a school that rarely produces NBA players, Duckworth was someone EIUers could root for. His death Monday at age 44 was certainly a shock to those who followed his career.

B — Quincy Raceways. How about the finishes to the points season? One tiebreaker needed and two other classes decided by just one point. Stevie Dirt is still glowing about it. He may never come down off this exhaust-induced high. He’s already counting down the days until next year’s points chases start.

C — LPGA Tour. With all of the other sports news (Olympics, baseball races, football’s start, local sports starting up), this little bit of news slipped through the cracks. The LPGA is requiring all of its players to know how to speak English. Some might not like the move, but it makes sense. With so many South Koreans on tour, many of which can’t speak English, it makes it hard for the LPGA to promote those young stars. The LPGA needs these players to be able to sell the game not only to fans but to sponsors as well.

D — Cuban taekwondo athlete Angel Valodia Matos. The picture to the right shows Matos taking out an Olympic official after he disqualified Matos during the bronze medal match of the +80 kilogram division. It didn’t take long for the Cuban government to get behind Matos. Even Fidel Castro is screaming "We got robbed" or something similar. And shouldn’t Matos have swept the leg?

F — Baseball parents in New Haven, Conn. Seems there is a boy in the league a little bit better than everyone else. The league has banned a 9-year-old from pitching because he threw too hard. They’ve tried to break up his team, which was dominating the league thanks to him. Maybe if they did this in Major League Baseball, the Cubs wouldn’t be looking for their first world title in 100 years.

The Hannibal Cavemen took another step toward its first season in the Central Illinois Collegiate League next summer by hiring former Hannibal High School and Hannibal-LaGrange College men’s basketball coach Mark Sanders as their general manager on Friday.

The gathering at the Mark Twain Cave was the latest in a growing line of press conferences put together by the Cavemen. This one was much different than the others as a small group of people were on hand to hear Sanders’ announcement. (Sadly, neither Rascal nor Shoo-Less Joe, the team’s mascots, were in attendance.)

One of the dozen or so people gathered near the cave’s entrance was former Major League Baseball player Brian McRae. The former Kansas City Royal coaches an 18-year-old traveling team in the Kansas City area and hopes to work out an agreement with the Cavemen to send players to Hannibal when they become eligible.

"He’s on a little scouting mission," Hannibal Baseball Group member Bob Hemond said of McRae, who visited Hannibal for the first time on Thursday and Friday.

Hemond is hopeful of working something out with McRae, whose father, Hal, was a member of successful Kansas City Royals teams of the 1970s and later managed the Royals — and Brian — in the 1990s.

"We’re all about bringing in the best people to help us on and off the field," Hemond said.

Looking for players

One of the most important times of the season for CICL teams comes directly after the season’s finished as teams try to stock their rosters for the following summer.

Hemond said the Cavemen already have verbal agreements from players to play at the refurbished Clemens Field next season. They have already sent out contracts to those players.

“It’s moving forward very nicely," Hemond said of player recruitment. "We hope to make some announcements in the next 10 days."

Getting in the field

The summer flood kept workers off Clemens Field, but work will begin at the Cavemen’s new home soon.

“Ther are some behind the scenes things going on," Hemond said. "Our architects are working hard.

"We think by Labor Day is when we’re really going to start some work. The sod is ordered, and we have all of our blueprints for the field done."

It’s one thing to name your dog or cat when you’re a little kid. Sure, you can go with Whiskers or Spot. The last cat I got to name was Holtz, after the former University of Notre Dame football coach.

Those names can be funny or cute. It really doesn’t matter. It’s not like the other dogs in the yard are going to beat your pooch down because he’s named Buttons.

Naming your children is a whole different ballgame. Unfortunately, it’s a job that some mess up.

Enter one 7-year-old from suburban Chicago named Wrigley Fields.

Yes, his parents named him after a ballpark. Next week, he’s going to throw out the first pitch at the park he’s named after.

From the Associated Press:

CHICAGO — Even years before 7-year-old Wrigley was born, his father
Jerry Fields says he’d already decided what he’d do. Coming from a
family of Cubs fans and with his particular last name, he decided to
name his first son after the Friendly Confines.

Kathy
says when Jerry first told her he wanted to name his first son Wrigley,
she initially thought he was joking. But Jerry later stood firm when
they found out they were having a boy.

Shame on the parents for saddling their son that name. What happens if they have a girl? Will they name her Strawberry? If mom likes to shop, maybe their next son can be named Marshall.

It’s not like there haven’t been other goofy parents out there. There’s a kid in the Toledo, Ohio, area named Joe Louis Arena.

And shame on the Cubs, too. Now that they’ve let Wrigley on the bump, what about all those poor little girls named Addison (and I’m sure there is a boy or two out there named Clark Addison for the streets that  dissect the stadium’s entrance)?

It’s the first day of school for the kids in the Gem City. They’re only in session for a half day though. Here’s a full week’s worth of grades for the sports world. Listen in each Wednesday at 8:20 or so as Josh Houchins and I break down our Mid-Week Grades on WGEM SportsCenter presented by Hardees on ESPN 1440.

A — As I promised last week, American’s new Golden Boy, Michael Phelps, gets the nod here. You know when my 4-year-old son can point at his picture in the paper or when he’s on TV and scream, "There’s Michael Phelps" that he’s crossed over into the mainstream. Will he train for another four years and swim in London in 2012? We can only hope.

B —I used this spot last week to give the Rays a little love. This week, I’ll give a high mark to another surprise in the American League — Chicago’s Carlos Quentin. He may be an even bigger surprise than the Rays. With Arizona last year, Quentin hit .214 with all of five home runs and didn’t even make the D’backs’ postseason roster. This summer, he’s hit 35 homers and driven in 96 runs with a batting average just shy of .300. He’s a legitimate candidate for American League MVP honors. Should the White Sox win the AL Central, he should probably win that award.

C — Lovie Smith’s decision to go with Kyle Orton as the Bears’ starting quarterback. It’s not like he was choosing between Joe Montana and Steve Young here. Because he doesn’t make as many mistakes (i.e. turning the ball over), Orton got the call over Rex Grossman. Who know how long Orton will last in the saddle. According to Sporting News Today, Tampa Bay may send Chris Simms to Chicago. If no other options work, they can always try to see what Vince Evans is doing these days.

D — So much for taking a stand. Earlier this year, the Cincinnati Bengals dumped wide receiver Chris Henry after he was arrested for the FIFTH time since 2005. The club wanted to take the high road, get rid of the trash. Now that they’re hurting a bit at receiver, the Bengals have re-signed Henry. Boy, that sure showed him. "I just have to be smart and handle myself like a professional at all times," he told ESPN. Yeah, right.

F — Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang. A packed house filled the Bird’s Nest earlier this week to watch him try to capture gold again in the 110-meter hurdles. He pulled up lame before the race even started. (Liu and his coaches knew he was hurt, but they didn’t bother to tell anyone. Can’t TMZ open a bureau in Beijing or something to get us these scoops?) People were crying in the stands as were Liu’s coaches. It’s a wonder they didn’t just bring out the horse ambulance and euthanize him on the spot. According to this ESPN.com article, Liu is looked in China like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are here. The difference is Jordan and Woods play hurt, Liu didn’t.

This week’s Slap of the Week is like an onion with many different layers.

It centers on the "age manipulation" controversy surrounding the China’s women’s gymnastics team. A lot of people are up in arms because the Chinese were dominant in gymnastics after using athletes who didn’t reach the sports minimum age of 16.

Anyone who watched NBC’s coverage of the event could tell many of the Chinese team members had yet to hit puberty. The Associated Press was able to find a report Xinhua, which is the Chinese government’s  news agency, that said He Kexin, shown at left, was just 13 years old. He was one of the athletes who helped the Chinese win the team gold medal.

It just so happened that after the AP reported the story, the link to the original story was taken off the Xinhua Web site. Not that should be surprising after you read this quote:

"It’s definitely a
mistake," said Zhang Hongliang, an official with China’s gymnastics delegation. "Never has any media outlet called me to check the athletes’
ages."

Asked whether the federation had changed their ages to
make them eligible, Zhang said: "We are a sports department. How would
we have the ability to do that?"

"We already explained this very clearly. There’s no need to discuss this thing again."

Whatever.

But credit the U.S. gymnastics team for not making a big deal about it.

"This is not a USAG issue," said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. "The FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) and IOC (International Olympic Committee) are the proper bodies to handle this."

Look this isn’t Danny Almonte we’re talking about here. I can see where a sanctioning body like NASCAR might have an age minimum (18) before it allows anyone to drive on its top circuits. The NBA age minimum makes no sense to me. Neither does this age minimum for Olympic gymnastics.

If the kids can do the stunts needed to win gold, then why should they be stopped?

So slaps go to those who are bent out of shape about this (and you know who you are.) A slap goes to the Chinese government for trying to cover the controversy up. And a slap goes to the IOC or FIG or whoever makes up the rules for having an age minimum.

Former Quincy University athletic director Jim Naumovich is a busy guy these days. He’s in his ninth year as the commissioner of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, one of the premier Division II athletic conferences.

In addition to talking a little football with Naumovich earlier this week, we also looked at possible conference expansion and what will happen with the GLVC basketball tournaments next March.

The GLVC athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives will hear final pitches from Illinois-Springfield and Maryville University in St. Louis at their fall meeting next month in Indianapolis. Both schools would like to join the league. UIS is in the process of joining the Division II ranks, while Maryville is making the move to Division II from Division III. At 13 teams after the departure of SIU-Edwardsville to Division I, the league is looking to add at least one member.

If given the green light by the ADs and FARs, the league’s council of presidents would vote on expansion at its October gathering. Either school could join the league for the 2009-2010 school year.

"When you talk about a 15-team league, you have to wonder what a schedule would look like," Naumovich said. "Our challenge is to put together 14-team schedule like we used last year and see what a 15-team schedule would look like."

Neither UIS nor Maryville sponsors football. The league is looking for another football member so that it could make football the 18th championship it offers.

There’s a chance that the GLVC Tournaments could be going back to a neutral site. Naumovich is scheduled to meet with SIUE Athletic Director Brad Hewitt about holding the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments at the Vadalabene Center. With the Cougars unable to participate in conference tournament play next year as part of its transition to Division I, Hewitt offered up the arena as a possible conference tournament site.

Naumovich said the men’s and women’s basketball coaches voted unanimously to play the league tournament at a neutral site after playing the event at league sites last season.

Edwardsville would be a central location for nearly every tournament team. It would benefit QU from a travel standpoint. The Hawks usually draw their best road crowds at SIUE over the years.

After a two-week break, the Mid-Week grades are back (and better than ever). You’ll notice a slight tweak in this week’s listing. We’ve dumped the I grade and will go from A through F. Who gets I’s anyway? You can listen in to WGEM SportsCenter presented by Hardee’s at 8:15 or so every Wednesday to hear Josh Houchins and I hand out our grades. (Note: The guy who makes all the girls swoon, Tyler Tomlinson, will be sitting in for me today.) Catch the program on ESPN 1440 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

A — We’ll save Michael Phelps’ ‘A’ for next week after he finishes his golden dips at the Cube. This week, Padraig Harrington earns the top mark for winning back-to-back majors. No one enjoyed his PGA Championship victory more than I did. He beat the sinister Sergio Garcia, taking out Sergio’s heart and stomping on it with the clutch par putt on the 72nd hole. Some have compared Harrington to the 1994-95 Houston Rockets, the team that won title when Michael Jordan was out shagging fly ball between the Chicago Bulls’ three-peats. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. I’m just glad he kept Garcia major-less in his career.

B — Raise your hand if you figured that the Tampa Bay Rays would still be a factor in the American League East in the middle of August. If your hand is raised you’re a liar or are one of the few in the Tri-States who has an Evan Longoria jersey (something I have seen so there’s at least one of you out there telling the truth.) Injuries to Longoria and Carl Crawford will test the Rays over the final six weeks of the season, but it’s refreshing to see someone break up the monotony of the Red Sox-Yankees battle in the division.

C — The Quincy Gems probably deserve a C-minus for their 2008 Central Illinois Collegiate League season. The Gems never really got on track this summer and missed the CICL postseason for only the second time in team history. Had it not been for a sensational season by Jon Myers, right, who hit a club-record 14 homers, the Gems’ likely would have received a ‘D.’ With Hannibal ready to come into the league in a big way next season, the pressure’s on the Gems to build a winner. (And has anyone figured out what’s up with the Hannibal Cavemen’s spelunking mascot "Rascal?")

D — Argentina is the defending Olympics gold medalist in men’s basketball. They laid an egg in their opener, losing to Lithuania on a last-second 3-pointer by (of all people) former Mizzou player Linas Kleiza. Nothing is more frustrating than fast forwarding through three hours of badminton and other stuff that was tacked on to the seven-hour window of programing on USA to find out Andres Nocioni, top left, and his crew lost. They bounced back against Australia on Tuesday. Still, with no bench and star Manu Ginobili at less than 100 percent, the Argentines don’t pose much of a threat to the dominant U.S. team.

F — Didn’t I tell you about this whole Brett Favre thing more than a month ago? Tell me you didn’t get sick of the entire soap opera. It was as if ESPN was held hostage by Favre. At least it’s finally over. He can move on in New York and we can watch Aaron Rodgers crumple under a Vikings defender in the Packers’ season opener.

With the Springfield Rifles and Danville Dans set to start the best-of-three Central Illinois Collegiate League championship series tonight in Springfield, I thought I’d look back at the best team the Quincy Gems have fielded on the 10th anniversary of their run through the league:

For as good as the Springfield Sliders were to start this season in the Central Illinois Collegiate League, going 20-4 in the season’s first half, they pale in comparison to the best team the summer wood bat league has ever produced — the 1998 Quincy Gems.

In the Gem City, the summer of ’98 will be remembered for much more than the chemically enhanced Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race that year.

It was the year people packed QU-Stadium like they never have before — or have since — to watch a bunch of college kids play baseball. The ballpark on the corner of 18th and Sycamore was the place to see and be seen.

Those people were treated to the best baseball to hit town since the minor leaguers left in the early 1970s.

Quincy started the season by winning 23 of its first 24 games, including an 18-game winning streak. There were a few one-run wins in there, but the majority of those games were absolute beatdowns. The Gems scored 15 or more runs in five games that season, including two during that league-record winning streak. To put that in perspective, Quincy teams have only reached the 15-run mark three times since.

The Gems had power in Triple Crown winner Ryan Duncheon (shown at left), who hit .398 with 10 home runs and 53 runs batted in. The Illinois State product’s slugging percentage was an otherworldy .690.

Four players hit better than .300 and the team pounded out 38 home runs and scored a CICL-record 369 runs that season, an average of 7.38 per game. Two players from that lineup — outfielder Josh Rabe and infielder J.J. Furmaniak — eventually reached the major leagues.

The Gems had a cult hero in Butler (Kan.) Community College first baseman Les Graham. In his second year with the team, Graham used to bring fans to their feet when George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone,” blared over the loud speakers when he came to the plate. He scowled on the field thanks to his mustache and beard, but was a teddy bear off of it, signing autograph for every kid (and adult) who came his way.

The Gems had speed in Mississippi’s Chad Hill and Carson-Newman’s Shap Stiles. Hill swiped 33 bases, while Stiles added 22 more as the Gems easily led the league in stolen bases with 117.

The Gems had plenty of strong arms on the mound. A staff that included two eventual first-round draft picks in left-hander Jeff Urban and right-hander Blake Williams limited foes to a .230 batting average. The staff’s earned run average (3.19) was just over half that of the opposition’s (6.27). Several pitchers on that staff played minor leagues with Urban getting two calls up to the major leagues but never getting a chance to pitch for the San Francisco Giants. The staff struck out 407 batters, another one of the seven CICL records the 1998 team still owns.

Ironically, the best pitcher on that staff never pitched an inning in the minors. Ball State’s Chris Cabaj, a 6-foot-10 right-hander, went 9-1 with a 2.05 ERA to win CICL Pitcher of the Year honors. He gave up the game after finishing his eligibility at Ball State despite being drafted by the Kansas City Royals.

It was a special season, one that was capped with a 6-4 victory over Danville in the CICL title game. The Gems had a little bit of everything, making it a magical season that may never be duplicated.

There was a buzz around QU-Stadium that is missing now. There’s still a solid fan base, but it’s nothing like it was 10 years ago when the Gems ruled the town.