Game Day: Purdue @ Simmons Field

■ Purdue is 11-9, with a 0.439 Psuedo-RPI (Boyd's Word), ranked 234th

■ Purdue 2010 stats

The Boilermakers have a surprising team batting average of .339 . . . to go with a team ERA of 3.99. Of course, this is against a Strength of Schedule ranked 248th (out of 300) in D-1 baseball (according to Boyd's World). Look for a 2-game slugfest, unless MU's mid-week starters can contain the PU punch.

■ Purdue Baseball Preview (HammerAnd Rails.com, 2/11/10)

Purdue, however, is still far away. If Miami is one of the gold standards of the sport, Purdue is a mid-major at best. We have one NCAA Tournament appearance ever (23 years ago), we went two and done in that appearance, and we have a Cubs-like streak of 101 years without a conference championship. We have come close to breaking those streaks in the past decade. In 2001 the Boilers started the season by upsetting #1 Rice. They then lost the Big Ten by a half game and probably would have made the NCAA Tournament had we one at least one game in the Big Ten Tournament. In 2008 we were the Big Ten Tournament runner-up, failing to take the automatic bid against Michigan in the championship game.

■ Big Ten Pitcher of the Week (BigTen.org, 3/15/10)

Matt Bischoff picks up his second career Player of the Week honor after throwing eight shutout innings in Purdue’s 3-0 win over LeMoyne on Friday. The right-hander struck out a season-high 11 batters without allowing a walk, scattering just five hits for a WHIP of .63. He retired the side in order in four of his eight innings and did not allow a base runner to reach second until the seventh. With the win, Bischoff’s record improves to 2-1, while his season ERA of 1.35 is second in the conference

■ To review: Mizzou to the Big Ten? Not if you're a baseball fan (SimmonsField.com)

The Big Ten is a 2nd-tier baseball conference at best. I'd rather be in the Missouri Valley than the Big 10, when it comes to baseball. But I'd really rather be in one of the top 2 or 3 baseball conferences in the NCAA: The Big 12.

■ Search Google for "purdue baseball", and this is - predictably, for Purdue - what you get: Students design Boilermaker baseball complex (Engineering.Purdue.edu)

Nam Nguyen: The challenge was that I did not know baseball at all. I am from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The project helped me understand the sport better.

■ And on another note entirely: If this keeps up I may have to start paying attention to college baseball (Uniwatchblog.com)

The real revelation was Missouri — yabba dabba do! Not only do the socks feature some killer stripes (okay, so they’re not stirrups, but I think trading ’rups for striped socks is an equitable deal), but the uni fabric has a very flannel-like look.

You really need to click the link to read this guy's ode to the Mizzou uniforms - especially the socks. Plus links to some great photos. And he's right, THIS may indeed be one of the all time best money shots.

Thanks to long-time MU Baseball follower Kegger for tipping me off to this story on Tigerboard.com.