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Play ball now: UW deserves baseball
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The University of Wisconsin is the only Big Ten Conference school that does not have a Division I baseball program. Baseball is America's national pastime, yet one of the nation's premiere universities boasts no baseball team. How can that be? UW had a baseball program until 1991. In accordance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the university chose to discontinue the baseball program in an attempt to balance the values of men's and women's scholarships being offered each year. But why baseball? Wisconsin offers many athletic opportunities ranging from football, hockey and basketball to spirit squad, golf and crew. Wisconsin even has a softball team to go along with its twenty-two other athletic programs. Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal said, "It’s wrong that almost every Wisconsin high school has baseball and yet the state’s signature university doesn’t." As it stands right now, the only school to offer Division 1 baseball in the state of Wisconsin is Horizon League UW-Milwaukee. There is a lot of baseball talent within this state that must go to places like Minnesota, Illinois or Michigan to play at the Division 1 level. There is obviously talent within the state UW could draw from, as UW-Whitewater won the Division 3 National Championship in 2005. But often this talent is forced out of state. The problem that arose in equalizing the number of scholarships offered came about because there is no female counter to the football program. Thus, the university chose to have baseball eliminated. While cutting any men's sport to equalize scholarship offers doesn't sound good, couldn't the university have chosen a sport other than baseball? Beside being the national pastime, baseball is also one of the "Big Three" (baseball, basketball, and football). Baseball also would bring more revenue into the school than would many other sports. In no way do I mean to take anything away from any of the great sports programs at UW, but baseball would certainly draw much more attendance than sports such as golf, cross country or crew. For example, The University of Minnesota sells admission to their baseball games, charging $8 for adults and $5 for children and students. It certainly couldn't hurt for UW to have revenue like that coming in, and baseball would most definitely generate more revenue than most other sports selling admission to their events. When Wisconsin had a baseball program, it was not the standout program of the Big Ten Conference, but it certainly was not the worst. It actually produced twenty-six future Major Leaguers, including former manger of the 1982 American League Champion Milwaukee Brewers, Harvey Kuenn. Surprisingly, UW still sits at sixth in the Big Ten for most conference championships, with five. Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota have dominated Big Ten baseball, winning 33, 28 and 21 conference titles, respectively. Ohio State has turned in 14 championships. Indiana owns four titles, Michigan State has three and Northwestern has two, while Penn State and Purdue round out the bottom of the list with one apiece. Unfortunately, the chances of bringing baseball back are relatively slim. It is unclear how much it would cost to revive baseball, but normal operating costs alone would require several hundred thousand dollars. The university would also have to finance the construction of a new baseball stadium and either cut out some other men's sports or add a women's sport of similar size to satisfy the Title IX requirement. While the likelihood of seeing the Badger baseball team playing at the College World Series in Omaha in the next few years is pretty low, there is still hope for Badger baseball fans. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, groups such as the Dugout Club, which promotes youth baseball in the Madison area, are willing to help. Robert Wilson, a former UW baseball player and Major Leaguer, has gone to work getting donations from other baseball alumni for the sole purpose of reviving UW baseball. It will no doubt be a long road back for Badger baseball, but it is not impossible. With the support of the student body, alumni, and other donors, bringing baseball back to Madison could someday be a very real possibility. Joe Trovato (jtrovato@wisc.edu) is a sophomore majoring in journalism and political science.
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Title IX = no men’s baseball
It’s a simple equation.
The reason that UW doesn’t have baseball is not because of Title IX. It’s because Pat Richter was a lousy athletic director who couldn’t figure out how to make the scholarship numbers work while every other athletic director in the conference somehow managed. Richter could have added an inexpensive women’s sport if he cared about keeping baseball, but he chose otherwise. (To be fair, this was the era in which the UW athletic department was hemmoraging money due to its lousy football team.)
Baseball is an expensive sport, infrastructurally speaking. Other sports that you cited that could have been cut, like cross-country, require hardly any incremental infrastructure beyond basic athletic department administration. The university’s golf course generates revenue outside of atheltic event ticket sales, so it is also not a significant infrastructure cost. A baseball stadium, however, is expensive to build and maintain. Furthermore, it is specific to one sex. Most other sports facilities like basketball courts, hockey rinks, and soccer fields, can be used by both sexes equally thereby reducing the cost per sport.
Unfortunately, I don’t really see that Alvarez is any better of an administrator than Richter was, so I don’t think any progress will be made on that front. Not that it really matters. After the brief novelty wears off and people realize that college ball is nothing like the Mallards, it’d soon go back to getting a hundred or so fans a game.
Furthermore, Wisconsin’s climate doesn’t lend itself to supporting a college baseball team. The season starts at the end of February. You cite Minnesota as an example, but they play their first several home games in the Metrodome. Wisconsin has no such facility in which to play. The only thing they could hope to do is play the first month of the season entirely on the road.
The last College World Series champion to come from a cold-weather city is Ohio State in 1966. Since then, the CWS champ has come from a handful of states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, or Texas. Not one of those states has a climate anything like ours. Oregon has a similar latitude, but Corvallis is close enough to the ocean to get a moderating influence on its climate. Cold weather campuses can’t be successful in baseball, if for no other reason than quality recruits won’t want to practice and play there.
to those who think baseball isnt conducive to the wisconsin environment then why did they have a team until 1991? also…you say that minnesota plays in the metrodome to solve its weather issues…true…but what about Michigan? they pull it off, and they get more snow than we do. In addition, the women’s softball program still manages to play ball during wisconsin winter. Granted they don’t play here until it gets warmer…but I’d be willing to wait.
furthermore…while I agree building and maintaining a baseball facility would be expensive…how come the softball team gets its own single sex facility with no questions asked?
BRING BASEBALL BACK!!!!
although we may be in a fight right now I agree full-heartedly that we should have a baseball team. Powder Puff anyone?
Bring Back Badger Baseball http://www.myspace.com/bringbackbadgerbaseball
This will happen and we need your help!
BringBackBadgerBaseball.com needs support from those who want to see Men’s Baseball return to the University of Wisconsin!
hi my names rick from hartland mmaine, i played i yr in hischool, i to nokomis regional high school, in newport maine, i am a catcher i m willing to play but i need help finding out were i can take my sat’s u know i didnt take them yet ok i wanta play i know i can be great if u can help me get in touch with me ok thx