I’ll be the first person to tell you I’m not the biggest baseball fan. In fact, I usually dread April-October because I hate waking up in the morning to see the same catch made by different players dominate the Sports Center highlights.
It wasn’t until the spring 2012 semester that I truly appreciated baseball for what it was.
I work as a sports reporter at the Times Record News during most high school sports season, and that semester was the first time I had to cover a Wichita Falls High School baseball game.
I got to watch then local pitching prospect Griffin Russell, now playing in the MLB farm system. Griffin was a dominant pitcher, and he clearly was the reason for the Coyotes’ success last season. The game I watched him pitch, he was up against Denton High School on a cool March evening.
He struck out quite a few players, but his team was still down 5-4 going into the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and a strike away from losing, the Coyotes were able to get an RBI single to tie the game up. The next pitch, Denton’s pitcher threw a wild pitch that bounced off of his catcher’s mask.
While the catcher scrambled to find the ball, a WFHS base runner on third started his trek toward home.
He ran as fast as he could and slide right over home plate just before the catcher finally found the ball and turned around and tried to tag him.
The Coyotes narrowly escaped with a 6-5 win, and it was absolutely the most exciting, confusing and breathtaking finish to any sports game I’ve witnessed – in person or on television. From that point on, I was hooked.
I say all this, because in the next year or two, MSU may bring baseball back to campus, $3 million stadium and all. While some will argue that this is a bad idea, especially with the budget cuts going on around campus, MSU needs baseball.
Those involved with the committee to bring baseball back have cited the potential to bring in more students to campus to help with the university’s enrollment problems. While this may merely be a pipe dream, bringing baseball back to campus would do wonders for the university.
I was born and raised in Burkburnett. Aside from the high school team, Burk also plays host to the Blacksox, a traveling team that brings in more than 100 players from all over the world each summer to compete with teams across the country.
I’ve met many of the guys that aren’t from this area throughout my life. All of them, at some point during their summer, end up asking the same question when they see MSU – why isn’t there a baseball team?
Several times I’ve asked these same players if they would consider coming back and playing here if we had a team. Nine times out of ten, they said yes. While I know saying something and doing it are two different things, it wouldn’t hurt the university to attempt to tap into this talent pool, along with the flourishing talent pool of both WFHS and Rider High School. At best, baseball only has the potential to solve one of the numerous problems on campus that bringing a sport as expensive as baseball will cause. At the rate this university is going, however, MSU should take a chance on something that continues to gain support.