Marshall BASEBALL

[CarolinaHerdzilla]

Baseball at Marshall has long been handicapped by a lack of facilities, being the only SPORT at the university without a proper facility on OR near campus. JUST NOT RIGHT! It saddens me to travel around the Carolinas and see baseball facilities that are located at Div. II schools much smaller than Marshall... with excellent stadiums.

This years team, after losing two out of three @ Western Kentucky over the weekend are currently one team from the bottom in CUSA. I have not had an opportunity to watch them play this year but plan on catching them in Beckley or when they visit the Charlotte 49ers, May 11-13. BTW, Charlotte has risen from a field that did not have seating in the 1990's to a beautiful ballpark that opened in 2007 and seats around 3,000. It is named Robert & Mariam Hayes Stadium.

Hope I live to see a baseball park in Huntington near campus.

HerdZilla22 in Charlotte

 

[Herdmeister]

Baseball at Marshall has long been handicapped by a lack of facilities, being the only SPORT at the university without a proper facility on OR near campus. JUST NOT RIGHT! It saddens me to travel around the Carolinas and see baseball facilities that are located at Div. II schools much smaller than Marshall... with excellent stadiums.

This years team, after losing two out of three @ Western Kentucky over the weekend are currently one team from the bottom in CUSA. I have not had an opportunity to watch them play this year but plan on catching them in Beckley or when they visit the Charlotte 49ers, May 11-13. BTW, Charlotte has risen from a field that did not have seating in the 1990's to a beautiful ballpark that opened in 2007 and seats around 3,000. It is named Robert & Mariam Hayes Stadium.

Hope I live to see a baseball park in Huntington near campus.

HerdZilla22 in Charlotte

Mike Hamrick came and sat with me most all morning Saturday at football practice. That subject came up. The real holdup, according to him, is suitable land. The ACF property would take millions to clean up even if available. The parking lot across 3rd Ave by itself isn't big enough for all they want. You would need to go all the way over to 5th Ave. Then you are dealing with contamination again. There doesn't seem to be a great solution.

 

[The Real SamC]

We have the baseball thread every year.

- Someone always posts about the vaunted CUSA ballpark standards. In reality, the standards could be met at anyplace, including HHS or the YMCA, for less than $100k. The only thing really needed is locker room facilities. There is nothing in them about seating,

- Thus, what is holding us back is not the $$ needed for CUSA standards, but either the desire and/or $$ needed for something far more elaborate.

IMHO,

- The ACF property is a non-starter. Too much toxic whatever. Since they don't have to clean the place up as long as it is still standing, the place will be left to rot over the centuries.

- The ACF lot, across the street, is indeed too small for the deal they want. However, MU needs to get ahold of this place anyway. Most football programs make $$ on parking and we don't as probably 70% of our crowd is parking on other's property.

- There are at least a dozen groups around town that would love to be in minor league baseball. Either the real minors or those phony "independent" leagues. If only Marshall would build them a ballpark and then rent it to them for $1 all summer. As Marshall is all that stands between Huntington and absolute economic colapse, it should be the other way around. The local high and mightys should build the park and lease it to us for $1.

- APP will be sans its minor league team soon. The mayor, who makes a sweetheart deal with the team because his boyfriend is a super fan (although he hates Marshall and thankfully does not attend our games) is gone after this year. The crowds (for the Power) are dwindling, and the ads on the walls and scoreboard are becoming so faded you cannot even read them. Several are for places that are out of business, which means no one else is willing to buy the spot and the team does not even care to take them down. Sure sign they are moving on to the next sweetheart town. When APP is just for MU and the state HS tournament, is MU going to be asked to upkeep the place? No thank you.

- I don't see why the park has to be on-campus. Anywhere nearby would be fine. What if the park were in Barboursville? MU fans would not drive to Barboursville? If it was not for the legal complications relative to liability, Cheseapeke?

- I believe Mike was promised a ball park deal in return for not squawking about the 100% taxpayer funded WVU ballpark. But everybody else that was in that conversation is now either out of office or dead.

Within the next 5 years we have to come up with a solution. Either actually get the $$ and land for a genuine baseball park for MU and a minor league team (with the minor league team subsidizing MU, not v-v), or admit that will not happen and get the YMCA, HHS, CMHS, or a new facility up to standards, or drop baseball and pick up an indoor sport, probably wrestling, that can be done in existing facilities.

 

[Marine03]

Is St Cloud on west end still standing? I never understood why that land couldn’t be made into the stadium?

 

[The Real SamC]

Is St Cloud on west end still standing? I never understood why that land couldn’t be made into the stadium?

The way the flood control system works, the creeks will back up when the Ohio is running high. This floods the place anything you have a rainy early spring, AKA college baseball season.

I never understood what was wrong with the field that was at what was then called "university heights", the old married student housing on US 60. The field was fine, there was sufficient parking and they could have tossed up a clubhouse for not much $$.

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

I never understood what was wrong with the field that was at what was then called "university heights", the old married student housing on US 60. The field was fine, there was sufficient parking and they could have tossed up a clubhouse for not much $$.

Where do you want to start?

The field was jammed into a valley. As a result, the center field fence was about 370 feet away from the plate. The left field fence was jammed in about 315 feet from the plate. It didn't have the necessary space for college baseball.

There was no area for a locker room facility. The parking lot was already quite small; adding in a locker area (which, by C-USA rules, would also require the same for visiting teams) would reduce the already limited parking area.

It is a 15 minute drive from campus. Are you paying the car/gas expenses for each athlete to have to drive 30 minutes roundtrip, six days a week to/from the field. That's $100/month in travel for each player to get to/from the field. That's also an extra 30 minutes each of them has to invest in their day at minimum. Are you paying the daily bus charge to get them to/from the field?

Where do you plan on fans sitting? The five rows of seats were routinely packed on conference game weekends. There is nowhere else to build any type of legitimate seating without taking out a hill, which would not be a reasonable expense.

 

[GreenDuke]

If Marshall starts a varsity carp fishing program St Cloud will be a great venue.

 

[TwolfHerdfan]

What about the land behind the softball field? The curvature of the RR tracks would make a great outfield fence line.
You have one building to demolish and clean up.

 

[Marine03]

With CSX business declining you would think the fields at the loco shop would be negotiated for sale with them. There’s already one field there to begin with

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

My personal opinion, if they want to be a legit D1 program, then they need to have a stadium on campus. Figure out a way to get it done, or just drop the sport.

 

[CarolinaHerdzilla]

My personal opinion, if they want to be a legit D1 program, then they need to have a stadium on campus. Figure out a way to get it done, or just drop the sport.

AMEM AMEM AMEM AMEM...BASEBALL at Marshall has ALWAYS gotten [rhymes with TRUCKED] I recall that day in 2009 when I drove to Huntington to meet with Dr Kopp. He said over & over...."Sweeney, show me the LAND." I was working with Coach Jeff Waggoner to help raise $$$$ to help build a Baseball field. I meet with a guy in NC that pledged a few million dollars, however, he was more interested in building a Stadium located near a new shopping center [near Huntington High School...off I-64] with retail tenants. Mike Hamrick met with me & Waggs and simply said..."Wags you stick to coaching...and Sweeney, I will raise the money! Thus, we were both shut down!

It was an easy-Kopp-out then---it's an easy HAM-out now.....as in Hamrick!

HerdZilla22 in Charlotte

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

I recall that day in 2009 when I drove to Huntington to meet with Dr Kopp. He said over & over....

There it is!

In reality, he said "listen, guy, security has already been called and we are moving forward with an order or protection."

 

[caliherd]

My personal opinion, if they want to be a legit D1 program, then they need to have a stadium on campus. Figure out a way to get it done, or just drop the sport.

It seems that Hamrick wants an on campus stadium but it sounds like the land may be the issue with doing that.

 

[jdf12550]

There is already a ballfield behind the old dye company on 5th ave. Close to campus. Would it be suitable to develop?

 

[old buzzard]

-
- I believe Mike was promised a ball park deal in return for not squawking about the 100% taxpayer funded WVU ballpark.

Sam, just one question...........how many of YOUR tax dollars went into building Monongalia County Ballpark ?

 

[bbneutralfan]

Who says the old ACF property is so contaminated that it would take “millions” to clean up? My? Well hell he needs to strike right now if the EPA is the problem. Get it done before our President (Trump not Gilbert) fires his EPA Director.

 

[bbneutralfan]

“My” supposed to have been “MH”

 

[HerdFan54]

It’s all about money... carolinas.. think about all the money that is down there... we can’t make any money because of the epidemic Huntington is in these days

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

Well, if you cannot afford a field, that's usually a problem when it comes to fielding a team. One has to wonder what the impact of not having a field has on recruiting a team worthy of winning a conference championship.

 

[Herdmeister]

Well, if you cannot afford a field, that's usually a problem when it comes to fielding a team. One has to wonder what the impact of not having a field has on recruiting a team worthy of winning a conference championship.

In talking to players in the past, playing in Charleston is a positive, They wouldn't expect to play in a better facility than that.

 

[GreenDuke]

In talking to players in the past, playing in Charleston is a positive, They wouldn't expect to play in a better facility than that.

Here is your correct answer.

 

[TwolfHerdfan]

In talking to players in the past, playing in Charleston is a positive, They wouldn't expect to play in a better facility than that.

Maybe some do but in all honesty, what would you expect them to say? That it sucks and they hate it? It's nice making a 90 mile round trip to play a baseball game? I spoke with a Herd pitcher on a flight from Charlotte 2 years ago about this. He admitted Power Park was nice but most of the players hated the trip and preferred playing in Huntington. It can't be much of a positive in recruiting either.
I still say behind the softball field; or now that BASF has closed, the land beside it's physical plant may be available.

 

[Dreh_Nagi_HC_IM]

In talking to players in the past, playing in Charleston is a positive, They wouldn't expect to play in a better facility than that.

I'm sure they like playing in a minor league facility, but I'm guessing they would prefer to play in a decent facility within walking distance from their dorm room, one that has the Herd logo on it. I may be wrong, but I think most would prefer that scenario, as opposed to getting on a bus to Charleston or Beckley to play.

 

[i am herdman]

Mike Hamrick came and sat with me most all morning Saturday at football practice. That subject came up. The real holdup, according to him, is suitable land. The ACF property would take millions to clean up even if available. The parking lot across 3rd Ave by itself isn't big enough for all they want. You would need to go all the way over to 5th Ave. Then you are dealing with contamination again. There doesn't seem to be a great solution.

Closer than Charleston last time I checked. They have been talking this for 3 decades or more at Marshall.

 

[i am herdman]

Call Barboursville up and build it out at the park there. Would be better than Charleston. Barboursville has the money. Great baseball town.

 

[TeenWolfChubby]

It is a 15 minute drive from campus. Are you paying the car/gas expenses for each athlete to have to drive 30 minutes roundtrip, six days a week to/from the field. That's $100/month in travel for each player to.

15 WHOLE minutes? That is definitely a major problem

 

[TeenWolfChubby]

Call Barboursville up and build it out at the park there. Would be better than Charleston. Barboursville has the money. Great baseball town.

You can't go to barboursville. YAG said it needs to be built in the center of campus because student athletes don't travel to get to practice.

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

You can't go to barboursville. YAG said it needs to be built in the center of campus because student athletes don't travel to get to practice.

Student-athletes should not be expected to foot the bill for driving to/from practice that far away from campus. That is a 30 minute drive roundtrip at minimum. Are their parents supposed to buy all of them cars? Are their parents supposed to pay the $100/monthly gas charge simply for traveling to practice?

This isn't a case of athletes choosing to live off-campus, thus having to travel to practice near campus. This applies to those who live on campus yet are forced to spend even more money getting to/from practice. Many of these athletes don't have their own cars. Want to know what happens when they have late classes and show up close to the beginning of practice? They don't have rides.

Unless the athletic department wants to foot the bill for car/bus service to take them to/from practice and campus, it is bullshit. It's unfair to the student-athletes . . . and that's not to mention the additional time expense they have to invest after already lifting for an hour, practicing for 2.5 hours, working on the field for 30 minutes, having mandatory study hall, etc.

 

[TeenWolfChubby]

Student-athletes should not be expected to foot the bill for driving to/from practice that far away from campus. That is a 30 minute drive roundtrip at minimum. Are their parents supposed to buy all of them cars? Are their parents supposed to pay the $100/monthly gas charge simply for traveling to practice?

This isn't a case of athletes choosing to live off-campus, thus having to travel to practice near campus. This applies to those who live on campus yet are forced to spend even more money getting to/from practice. Many of these athletes don't have their own cars. Want to know what happens when they have late classes and show up close to the beginning of practice? They don't have rides.

Unless the athletic department wants to foot the bill for car/bus service to take them to/from practice and campus, it is bullshit. It's unfair to the student-athletes . . . and that's not to mention the additional time expense they have to invest after already lifting for an hour, practicing for 2.5 hours, working on the field for 30 minutes, having mandatory study hall, etc.

This falls under the category of: every school has disadvantages somewhere.

 

[oldeherd]

If Marshall starts a varsity carp fishing program St Cloud will be a great venue.

Or maybe a Coed, spring rowing team without having to face the hazards posed on the Ohio River!

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

This falls under the category of: every school has disadvantages somewhere.

No, disadvantages for schools include not having as many sets of different jerseys, not having as new of facilities, not being located in a fun city/environment, etc.

Disadvantages do not include forcing the student-athletes to pay money out of their own pocket without giving them an option to do their job (be able to be at practice).

 

[TeenWolfChubby]

No, disadvantages for schools include not having as many sets of different jerseys, not having as new of facilities, not being located in a fun city/environment, etc.

Disadvantages do not include forcing the student-athletes to pay money out of their own pocket without giving them an option to do their job (be able to be at practice).

I stand corrected- I didn't realize every scholarship player across the country has all of their facilities of their sport directly on campus. I guess if there are any schools in the future where they move them off campus to practice, those student athletes will need to be aware of that when considering their recruitment and choice of school.

 

[sluggo72]

I stand corrected- I didn't realize every scholarship player across the country has all of their facilities of their sport directly on campus. I guess if there are any schools in the future where they move them off campus to practice, those student athletes will need to be aware of that when considering their recruitment and choice of school.

for the record, when MU football played and practiced at Fairfield stadium back in the olden days, under a worse budget then what MU currently has, a bus was provided to take the players back and forth for practice and games, they didnt have to pay anything.
I would guess similar arrangements could be made for baseball.

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

for the record, when MU football played and practiced at Fairfield stadium back in the olden days, under a worse budget then what MU currently has, a bus was provided to take the players back and forth for practice and games, they didnt have to pay anything.
I would guess similar arrangements could be made for baseball.

You don't build your daily practice facility 30 minutes away roundtrip at The Heights or 40 minutes away roundtrip in Barboursville. It is asinine and unfair to the student-athletes.

There are a handful of D1 schools that do have their GAME facilities at least 15 minutes away from campus. Those game facilities are also not the practice facilities. Those game facilities also don't require the student-athletes to foot the bill to get to/from. USF's football stadium could take 45 minutes to get to from campus on some gamedays. Athletes don't have to pay for that travel. Their daily practice facility is on campus. Bethune-Cookman's baseball stadium is five minutes from campus. The students don't have to pay to get there each day if they don't choose to.

You don't build a daily facility that is 40 minutes roundtrip from campus and expect student-athletes to pay for that six days a week out of their own pocket.

 

[sluggo72]

You don't build your daily practice facility 30 minutes away roundtrip at The Heights or 40 minutes away roundtrip in Barboursville. It is asinine and unfair to the student-athletes.

There are a handful of D1 schools that do have their GAME facilities at least 15 minutes away from campus. Those game facilities are also not the practice facilities. Those game facilities also don't require the student-athletes to foot the bill to get to/from. USF's football stadium could take 45 minutes to get to from campus on some gamedays. Athletes don't have to pay for that travel. Their daily practice facility is on campus. Bethune-Cookman's baseball stadium is five minutes from campus. The students don't have to pay to get there each day if they don't choose to.

You don't build a daily facility that is 40 minutes roundtrip from campus and expect student-athletes to pay for that six days a week out of their own pocket.

other than you, who is expecting them to pay?

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

other than you, who is expecting them to pay?

For many years, the baseball team had daily practices and games at the Heights. That is a 15 minute drive from campus. The players had to find (pay) their own way to/from practice and campus.

What makes you think that an extra 5 minute drive to Barboursville is going to somehow change that?

 

[sluggo72]

I guess it proves football is > than baseball

 

[Y.A.G Si Ye Nots]

I guess it proves football is > than baseball

No, it proves that you're a moron who will illogically argue against any stance I take.

 

[sluggo72]

No, it proves that you're a moron who will illogically argue against any stance I take.

Well I will dumb it down for you
MU paid for a bus to take football players back and forth from Fairfield to campus
MU made baseball players find their own way to practice off campus
How could you not conclude football is > than baseball

 

[The Real SamC]

Umm, I'm not really the one to be pointing this out, but:

WVU baseball park - located in a shopping center across the river in another town from the 'hole proper.
WVU basketball and other indoor sports, plus soccer - located on what can only be called an edge of its secondary campus, more than a mile from the nearest dorm, not on the PRT line that connects its spread out twin campus mess, beyond walking distance from all but a couple of campus buildings.
WVU women's soccer practice field - separate facility from stadium, on US 19 as you enter town, unconnected to any other state property, also not actually in the 'hole proper.
WVU football, stadium and (smallish) IPF - located between the med school and the law school (neither of which any of the football players would be attending) which are both really off the undergraduate campuses, and which is not on the PRT line.