Ahhh, the signs of spring. Birds chirping, warm weather returning and, of course, the high-pitched, reverberating metallic ping of an aluminum bat colliding with the leather husk of a baseball.
Well, at least we don't have that problem in Madison.
Nineteen years ago the Badger baseball team was cut, and, despite the annual complaints, whines and moans, it doesn't need to make a return. Simply put, college baseball is something that Wisconsin fans want only because they don't have it, and if they did, they'd take it for granted.
We'll put aside the Title IX implications for a moment (though it should be noted that Oregon had to do away with its wrestling program to add baseball, so sacrifices
could be required). The first big barrier is facilities, specifically an expensive, nice field.
The Athletic Department is not exactly rolling in cash (they've put at least one big project on hold recently), nor are there wide expanses of space on which to build it, especially in areas easily accessible to the campus community.
Beyond that we have to look at the potential quality of such a team, which in the first few years would be low at best. They would basically be an expansion team, and Badger fans, especially student fans, have little patience for bad games played by bad, or even good, teams.
Want proof? Look at football attendance in 2008. When things started going south or the games weren't against big-name opponents, the fans persistently showed up late and left early. Similarly, whenever the basketball team played even a bottom-half Big Ten team, or even (gasp!) a crappy nonconference team, the students were noticeably absent.
And those are the two flagship programs of Badger sports.
But those reasons are just the side dishes, the fries to a burger, the potatoes alongside a steak. The central reason Wisconsin does not need baseball is that college baseball is mildly overrated as a sport in the minds of many.
Let that sink in.
It just isn't that big of a sport, especially in the Midwest. Weather plays a big factor in this, since the fields are not particularly usable until, at best, late March.
Looking at the numbers, we find the top Big Ten baseball team in terms of home attendance was Ohio State with 1,769 fans per game, and no other team averaged more than 1,200 (it makes sense to stick with Big Ten teams because teams like LSU, Clemson, Fresno State and everyone above OSU compete in more favorable weather conditions).
That number sits below the 4,000 per UW volleyball game, the 5,635 who showed up for women's basketball home dates and even the 2,227 in attendance of each women's hockey game.
So let's review. The best team in the conference does not outdraw Wisconsin's top three women's sports, which the student body at large pays no attention to.
Yeah, we really need this sport.
""But it's baseball,"" the critics answer. ""Everyone loves it, and it's a great chance to get outside, slam some cold ones and enjoy the best sport there is.""
This is sort of true, but it rests on the fact that most UW students see baseball through the lens of either the Major Leagues (often the Brewers) or the Madison Mallards.
Brewer games are great, but the experience is a daylong one, with the drive down, firing up the grill and three hours of drinking in the parking lot before the game. Mallards games stand out because of the Duck Blind, where most go and, well, get completely bombed.
College baseball won't be like that because the games will become ordinary. Attending a Brewers or Mallards game is something special. You make a day out of it, make it something that steps beyond the regular rhythms of everyday life.
If fans treat a college team like that, it will languish, mostly unattended as three-plus days a week can't be set aside for that special treatment (especially when one factors in weekday contests that can start at 3 p.m. when people may still be in class). Throw in the Terrace as another outlet for good weather drinking and the team would just fade into the background.
In the end we are left with a small-time college sport that UW fans have deluded themselves into believing is big time. Between the aluminum bats and the fact that it isn't a semblance of the Major Leagues, or even Mallards, experience, a UW baseball team is just not something we need in Madison.
And that ringing ping of bat on ball will stay silent, at least in the near future.
Still want baseball? Which men's team should be dropped for it? Oregon dropped wrestling, Minnesota doesn't field a men's soccer squad. Let Ben know who you would drop at breiner@wisc.edu.
