SPORTS
Play ball
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Also by Joe Ziemer:
- UW returns for spring largely intact (March 31, 2005)
- Business as usual for Mike Wilkinson (March 10, 2005)
- Perimeter shooting woes doom OSU comeback attempt (February 28, 2005)
- 7th time charm for Izzo, Spartans (February 25, 2005)
- Stanford ends UW's NCAA tournament run in regionals (December 13, 2004)
Related Stories:
- UW club baseball to compete in NCBA playoffs (May 7, 2003)
- Club team keeps Wisconsin's baseball tradition alive to this day (May 3, 2006)
- Baseball not dead on UW campus (April 15, 2004)
- America's pastime returns (March 28, 2003)
- Up in da club (April 15, 2003)
by Joe Ziemer
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Well, the snow is slowly beginning to melt and throughout America, college baseball players are dusting off their caps and gloves to begin the non-conference season. That is not the case in Madison, however, because in 1991 the University of Wisconsin dropped its varsity baseball team.
The current club team has had its share of success in its place, turning out current Brewers prospect Vinnie Rottino and reaching the National Club Baseball World Series last year. No disrespect to all the guys on the club team, but it’s just not the same. Wisconsin needs a baseball team.
Before everyone goes and places the blame solely on Title IX, there are plenty of other factors that should be considered. First and foremost is the lovely Wisconsin weather, which is awful this time of year, as any student who had to walk to class a few weeks back would attest to. It is just not possible to play baseball in this state until April. Trust me, I spent many a spring waiting on Mother Nature so I could bust out the Wiffle ball and bat as a kid.
As a result of our state’s lovely climate, all non-conference games would have to be played in the south, incurring large travel expenses in addition to the everyday costs of running a team.
But, while these are viewed as major problems by the University of Wisconsin, every other school in the Big Ten Conference sees them as mere obstacles. That’s right, Wisconsin is the ONLY school in the league without a baseball team.
Although I have never visited them in March, I’m pretty confident sunny Minneapolis and tropical Ann Arbor are not the perfect settings for baseball either. How do those schools manage? Well, David Hrncirik and the Golden Gophers are on their way to Boca Raton, Fla., to take on Florida Atlantic, while the Michigan Wolverines are punching their tickets to Gainsville for a date with the Gators. The Midwest weather is not stopping them from playing ball.
What I find even more disconcerting though is these are the exact same problems faced by another current varsity sport: softball. Let me be perfectly clear here: in no way am I suggesting Wisconsin should cut its softball program, it deserves varsity status as much as any other current sport on campus. What I am arguing is that if the softball team can plan around the crummy spring weather, so can a baseball team.
Then, of course there is the issue of attendance. Most people cannot imagine sitting in the cold, early-spring weather to watch a baseball game. Basing a program’s existence on attendance, however, is downright absurd. How many people go and watch the No. 5 UW women’s hockey team? Sadly enough, not too many. Should that team be dropped? Of course not. It is a good sport, and a very good team.
I have seen first hand that the city of Madison will indeed support a baseball team, and a collegiate team at that. This summer, the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League — an NCAA-sanctioned summer ball league — packed Warner Park game in and game out, averaging 4,411 fans per game.
Now I know there is a big difference between the environment at a Mallards game (the result of a lot of hard work by the team’s front office and staff) and what fans would expect at a Wisconsin game, but it goes to show that the support for baseball is there. And I’d also be willing to bet that the student population and the city in general would appreciate having a Badger baseball team a heck of a lot more now that they have been without one for 13 years.
So, correct or incorrect, this leads to one conclusion: Title IX and Title IX alone killed the University of Wisconsin’s baseball program.
If indeed it is the death of programs like Wisconsin and Iowa State, then Title IX is nothing more than a well-meaning policy, similar to a young child. For example, in one episode of “Full House,” Michelle decides to give the family goldfish a bath (I don’t remember the fish’s name, if you do you should be congratulated and informed that you are a bigger dork than I am). She proceeds to put the fish in the sink with the dirty dishes and washes it in the sink, killing the poor pet. Even though fish do live in water and are probably relatively clean, I guess that was a noble intention, it just did not work out for everyone involved — namely the fish.
Title IX was designed to keep women from being discriminated against in collegiate sports, a pretty darned good goal in my book. The problem is that while it seeks to promote certain collegiate sports, it is doing so at the expense of others. Women’s sports should be promoted and protected, but in doing so they should not be pitted against men’s sports.
Whatever the cause may truly be, for a major Division I athletic program not to have a baseball team is downright absurd. In fact, I would dare to say it is un-American. How can a public university not offer the American pastime?
No one has ever made this argument better or more eloquently than James Earl Jones, so I am going to let him bring this one home:
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”
