Missing at the UW

by J. Patrick Reilly

Breaking news.

A new facility is being proposed for UW-Madison that will cost an estimated $200,000,000 and will be used mainly for football. Seems the old shell is not great as a recruiting tool so we HAVE to upgrade.

A couple weeks ago I attended the annual Dugout Club-Brewer banquet, a fundraiser for the organization behind helping fund UW Madison baseball.  Problem is we have not had baseball at the UW since 1991.

Baseball was one of the sports eliminated due to budget problems by then UW Athletic Director Pat Richter who incidentally played baseball at the UW, along with football and basketball.  He vowed then that baseball would come back.

Following suit at the same time and with the same financial problems were UW-Claire and UW-River Falls. UW-EC reinstated its program two seasons ago and UW-RF is back this year.

That leaves the UW as the lone college in the UW system without baseball.

I realize baseball is not an income producing sport but with the success of amateur baseball and collegiate league baseball in the state, it would be a great idea to reintroduce baseball at the UW.

Along with the $200,000,000 proposed building project and the fact that alcohol sales are now in force at most UW sporting events, there has to be revenue to reintroduce baseball.

I know Title IX comes into the picture but I am sure there are women’s sports that could be added too.

It is sad our top athletes have to go out of state for Division 1 programs. It is time to at least create a study group to try and bring back America’s Pasttime.

It definitely is time.