Baseball is America’s pastime, an iconic sport conjuring up images of lazy summer afternoons where you grab a hotdog and a beer and sit down to nine innings of a classic competition.
The Cain Sports Complex is a fully-functional baseball complex, but, unfortunately, Texas A&M University-Commerce has never seen an NCAA baseball game played there.
Baseball would not be a new sport to A&M-Commerce. According to an article written in the Special in Spring of 1998 by Jeff Wisdom, the university sponsored a baseball team three times, the last time being in 1949-50. If you look at the plaques on the wall of the field house you can find athletes recognized for their baseball achievements.
A&M-Commerce has also had a club baseball team in recent years according to Neil Harris, the program assistant for Intramural and Club Sports, but does not have one this semester due to a low number of athletes.
In the Lone Star Conference 13 of the 15 teams have baseball teams, so A&M-Commerce is an exception rather than the norm when it comes to baseball. But this is not due to a lack of talent or energy concerning the sport in the area.
“The support from the university and from the recreation center has been amazing,” Harris said in regards to the club baseball team. “We actually went to SOAC (Student Organization Activities Council), and they gave us funds to help us travel. They’ve just helped us as a student organization in the past. We’ve never had any trouble getting any kind of help from the university (for the club baseball team).”
Harris said a lot of students are on board for the idea of Baseball.
“We’ve had, I know, a lot of football players that want to play football and then, in their offseason, play baseball,” Harris said. “[The athletics department] is all for it. Athletics is on our side on those types of things.”
Northeast Texas is rich with baseball talent, as evidenced by successful junior college teams in the area. Richland College, Eastfield College, Grayson County Community College and Tyler Junior College have all won national junior college baseball championships in recent years.
Richland College won the title in 2002, 2003, 2004, and was runner-up in 1999 and 2000. Tyler Junior College won in 2007, Eastfield College in 2001 and 2006 and Grayson County Community College was champion in 1999, 2000, and 2008.
The interest is here. The players are near. Now, the only question is, why isn’t a team here?
In our next article, we’ll explore the nuts and bolts of adding a baseball program, as well as potential roadblocks in building a new programand making it competitive in the sports arena.