Sorry again for lack of posts this month. The wife and I are preparing for our first baby, and there is a LOT of stuff that needs to be done.
Anyway, the thought of baseball got on my mind today. Baseball is maybe my favorite sport of all. And the idea that my alma mater does not have a baseball team while the other school up the road is winning national championships doesn't sit well with me at all. The big question is why?
We all know that UO cut baseball back when title IX went into effect. I do not fault UO for this, and am not here to attack title IX, which has been a great thing for extending opportunities in sports for women. However, isn't about time that Oregon seriously considered bringing baseball back? College baseball is only rising in popularity, and it makes sense for UO to get into the game now.
There are practical matters to be considered. The first being is that no new projects whatsoever will be considered until after the new basketball arena is built. That's fine by me, we need to put an end to this basketball saga before we open up a new project.
We would have to add additional women's sports to make the scholarships match. Either rowing, gymnastics, or field hockey would accomplish this without having to build additional facilities.
And, of course, there is the issue of a stadium. Howe Field is certainly softball-only. However, I think that an interesting idea would be to see if a partnership could be done with the city of Eugene. Eugene is going to have to build a new minor league stadium in the next decade or so if they want to hold onto the Emeralds. Build a new stadium that both teams could play in is a common sense solution. Such partnerships have been done in other college/minor league cities.
So what do you think? Would you support baseball at UO?
GO DUCKS!!!
--Dave