Trey Mancini Earns First Major League Start

Mancini earns first MLB start

Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Trey Mancini, former star for the Notre Dame baseball team, started his first MLB game on Wednesday night for the Baltimore Orioles. Mancini, a third basemen by trade, started in right field for Buck Showalter’s crew. He went 0-3 with a strikeout. Mancini made his debut last September for the O’s, and went yard in the same game as well.

He earned a spot on the Opening Day roster due to his strong spring. In the Grapefruit League, Mancini hit .333 with three homers, 14 RBIs, seven doubles and had an OBP% of .379. Despite Manny Machado manning the hot corner for the O’s, if Mancini can carry over his hot spring to the regular season there will be a place for him in Baltimore’s lineup.

Notre Dame well represented on Opening Day

Aside from Mancini, the Fighting Irish were well represented around Major League Baseball on Opening Day. Six former Notre Dame players were on rosters including five players and one manager; Mancini, John Axford of the Oakland Athletics, David Phelps of the Miami Marlins, A.J. Pollock of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jeff Samardzija of the San Francisco Giants and Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Three of the five have seen action already. Axford is still waiting to hear his name called from the Oakland bullpen and Samardzija is scheduled to start on Thursday against the Diamondbacks.

Frozen Four begins tonight!

For the third time in 10 seasons the Irish Icers are back in the Frozen Four (only two other schools can say that by the way). This time the Irish will face the No. 1 overall seed Denver Pioneers. The Pioneers head into the matchup with a record of 31-7-4. As of now, Denver is listed as a goal and a half favorite.

Despite this, Notre Dame should virtually have a home ice advantage being that the game will be played in Chicago at the United Center. The Irish have been surging as of late. They won a game in the Hockey East playoffs to catapult them into the NCAAs and of course, they took down top seed Minnesota and UMass-Lowell en route to the Frozen Four.

Puck drop is scheduled for 9:30pm ET or whenever the first game between Harvard and Minnesota-Duluth ends. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Derek Jeter...MLB owner?

Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports

Since it’s opening week, I’m going baseball heavy this edition of Irish Links.

Last season, Miami Marlins owner Jeffery Loria expressed interest in selling his ball club. He has owned the team since 2002. And while they won the World Series in 2003, most of his time as owner has been a complete disaster. The Marlins have not been back to the playoffs since that 2003 run. He sunk a ton of money in the 2012 Marlins. But after failing to live up to expectations, he sold off everyone a year later. He did get the Marlins a new ballpark, but in doing so made the citizens of Miami pay an arm and a leg for it. And on top of that, no one goes to the games anyways.

So on Wednesday it was reported that former MLB great, and Yankee legend, Derek Jeter is potentially interested in buying the team. Jeter retired three seasons ago, but has been quite the businessman since. He’s started the The Players’ Tribune in October of ‘14. He also expressed interest in buying the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in 2014.

The Marlins might be a perfect fit for Jeter. He already lives in Florida, albeit in Tampa, but also with a face like Jeter at the front of the franchise, it may generate more fan interest for the Marlins.

According to Fox Business’ report, the timetable for this process is fluid, but a deal very well could be done by May of this season.

Others who are interested in buying the team include former Florida governor Jeb Bush.