Gopher baseball gets no respect; plans indefinite leave of absence
by fanoverboard on Feb 2, 2011 2:21 AM CST
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PrintWith no home field to host games, unranked in the preseason coaches poll despite winning the Big Ten last year, unable to warrant even a column inch of coverage in The Daily Gopher on the eve of the new season, the University of Minnesota baseball team is climbing aboard the bus and leaving town. Word on the street is that they're heading for Florida, then to North Carolina, then Arizona, and if the gas money holds up, it'll be on to California for an indeterminate time period (the Cal Poly games may have to be moved from the Metrodome to SLO, and then who knows, maybe the games with Bakersfield will have to be played in California, as well).
If they have a winning record on the road-trip-to-end-all-road-trips, they'll return to Minnesota in April as conquering heroes, ranked in all the polls, their victories lauded in the press, full of confidence as they take the field, under a new roof and sparkling lights, before cheering throngs of fair weather fans, to defend their conference title. If their road record is undistinguished, their efforts will be unappreciated, their return will be unheralded, and they will play in a near-empty dome. This isn't southern California, where college baseball fans turn out in droves to soak up the rays and breathe in the salt-scented breeze off the ocean, while applying tanning lotion and picking jalapeño peppers out of their nachos, no matter what the records of their Trojans, Bruins, or Titans may be.
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be patient
TDG will cover baseball a bit. My “preview” is in process but hoops and national signing day will take precedence.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
Ya gotta hand it to Big Ten baseball players
They don’t get as much attention from fans or pro teams as players in the South or West, so they’re obviously in it for their love of the game. Hopefully, Gopher baseball will do so well this year that they can’t be ignored. Whatever happens, it would be nice to read about it in TDG. I’m looking forward to your upcoming “preview.”
We should Celebrate our baseball team..
At least were not Wisconsin…they cant find 20 men on campus that are not afraid of the baseball to field a team.
isn't it more about
Title IX and $$? Overall it is great for us as our recruiting “home-state” is double.
Matyas, Lubinsky and Sexton are some of our better pitchers; all from Wisconsin. Matt Nohelty was a stud two years ago, also a Wisconsin kid.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Feb 4, 2011 10:47 AM CST up reply actions
Will the Gophers play at a big-league park this season?
There are reports that the Twins have offered Target Field as the venue for Gopher home games, mutual schedules permitting. That would be a terrific showcase for Gopher baseball. Let’s hope this deal gets done to allow a huge turnout for the first home game of the season, the conference opener on April 1st against Purdue.
St. Paul stadium in the bonding bill
Dayton submitted a request to the legislature for a new minor league ballpark in St. Paul. Do the Gophers have any interest in this project?
I hope the Gophers will eventually play on campus again
The proposed site of the new minor league park in St. Paul is too far from the main campus, IMHO. A season of home games at Target Field will be fun, but in the long run, college baseball draws better on campus. At UCLA, for example, which plays off-campus at Jackie Robinson Stadium, even though 2010 was the best season in history for Bruin baseball (51 wins, finished 2nd in CWS), the team averaged only about 1,100 at home. Elsewhere in the Southland, Cal State Fullerton, which plays on campus at Goodwin Field, had a good year, too (46 wins, hosted a regional), and drew nearly 1,900 a game. I think playing on campus gave the Titans a big advantage in attendance. That’ll be even more important for the Gophers, since college baseball is less popular in Minnesota than in California.
Couldn’t the difference between attendance at UCLA and CS-Fullerton also be attributed to the importance of the sport at the respective schools? At CS-Fullerton baseball is king. At UCLA it’s a distant third, at best.
oops, the comment below was supposed to be a reply to agwbl’s comment above
by fanoverboard on Feb 18, 2011 2:50 AM CST up reply actions
Yeah, baseball has a lower profile at at UCLA than Fullerton, which even doesn’t compete in football. On the other hand, the highest average home attendance in baseball is at schools in the South, where football is king, e.g., #1 LSU = 10,655; #2 Arkansas = 7,704, and #3 Texas = 6,571 (all 2010 stats). Those facilities are scaled down major league ballparks, with luxury suites, upscale concessions and restaurants, etc.
Realistically, Gopher baseball is not going to attract big crowds whether it’s on campus or off, but I do think it would do better on campus.
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