Dec. 15, 2006

University of Illinois Baseball and the Fighting Illini Dugout Club will host the annual Hot Stove Banquet to kick off the 2007 season, and this year a Major League executive will be joining the festivities. Chicago White Sox Executive Advisor to the General Manager Roland Hemond will be the featured guest at the banquet, which will be held Saturday, February 17, at the Round Barn Banquet Center. The banquet time and ticket information will be announced in the coming weeks.

Hemond is one of the most respected executives in the game today, having won Major League Baseball's Executive of the Year award three times. He has 54 years of professional baseball experience, including 23 seasons as general manager of the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox, and five as a senior executive vice president with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Currently, Hemond advises and assists White Sox General Manager Ken Williams.

He is president of the Association of Professional Ballplayers of America, a non-profit organization that helps former and current players and baseball personnel in need. He also helped found the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation, which provides assistance to long-time scouts who are in need of special support. In addition, three annual awards are named in his honor: the Roland Hemond Award, the Baseball America Award and the Society of American Baseball Research Award.