Sunday, September 24, 2006

EMU's Long And Winding Road Trip

In surfing for college baseball information, I came across the 2007 schedule for Eastern Michigan University. The Eagles not only have a daunting pre-MAC schedule, but I'm hoping they have frequent flyer miles. EMU faces, in successive three game weekend sets, Tennessee, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Arizona and Coastal Carolina.

A quick preview of the Eagles' road trip looks like this:

Ypsilanti, Michigan to Knoxville, Tennessee (433 miles)
Knoxville, Tennessee to Lubbock, Texas (1,030 miles)
Lubbock, Texas to Columbia, South Carolina (1,194 miles)
Columbia, South Carolina to Tucson, Arizona (1,729 miles)
Tucson, Arizona to Conway, South Carolina (1,844 miles)

If my math is correct, and that's always questionable, the Eagles will travel 6,230 miles to play in these five series. 6, 230! This supposes, of course, that EMU doesn't head home between each series or add dates to their 2007 schedule. The latter seems most likely as this is college baseball and schedules are not always worth the paper they are written on. Regardless, EMU will have a ton of mileage under their belts before taking on a single MAC opponent.

EMU also has three Big Ten opponents on it's schedule for next year. The Eagles will travel to Columbus to visit Coach Todd and Ohio State. David Grewe will bring his MSU Spartans into Oestrike Stadium in May. The Eagles will also have two games against the defending Big Ten Champion, Michigan. The Wolverines (in April) and Eagles (in May) will each host one game.

No comments: