Chris Richardson, a former Christopher Newport football player, is one of the final 20 contestants on “American Idol.” The popular Fox network show is in its sixth season.

The 22-year old from Chesapeake, Va., auditioned in New York City.

Richardson, who played his freshman year, was listed as a 6-foot-2, 210-pound running back on their 2002 roster. He played in eight games, carrying the ball four times for five yards. Richardson also had one catch for two yards.

“American Idol” resumes tonight, Wednesday and Thursday, at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox.

For many years, people have asked when I would be doing D3baseball.com. The answer was always “never.”

Well, never say never, because we’ve opened the doors on D3baseball.com. Though it’s not a brand-new site. Like D3hoops.com was, D3baseball.com is an existing site that is coming under the D3sports.com umbrella. Jim Dixon’s Division III Baseball Online is now part of the family.

I’ve written more on the D3baseball.com Daily Dose about how the site came about, how it will be run, etc., but we hope you will stop by the site, which is probably about 85% complete.

If you’ve previously registered to comment on the D3football.com Daily Dose, you should be able to comment on D3baseball.com’s Daily Dose as well with the same username and password.

Thanks to Jim Dixon, but also thanks to Ralph Turner, who nurtured the baseball fan base on our message boards last season. Jim’s participation on those boards last year helped pave the way for this, I believe.

Over the past few years we’ve featured Stagg Bowl photos in the banner at the top of the site. The logo remains the same but we have new images each year.

Just a note to let you know that the 2007 banner is up. You may have to hit refresh on the page to see it. Otherwise it will break through your cache in a week or so — we have files cached to make the site load faster.

From left to right: Pierre Garcon leaping into the end zone for a touchdown (by RC Workman); coaches Bob Berezowitz and Larry Kehres talking to Whitewater players (by Ryan Coleman); and Justin Jacobs handing off to Justin Beaver (by Ryan Tipps).

Congrats again to Mount Union and UW-Whitewater. To the victors go the spoils. Nearly as prestigious as the trophies they took home, no doubt. 🙂