Baseball Head Coach

[bison_baseball]

I just wanted to see what everybody's thoughts are on the baseball situation at SU and if Mitch McLeod will hold his coaching job now that we've gone DI. Sure, he's coming off a conference championship but does he have the recruiting abilities and coaching skills for the team to succeed at this new level of competition?

[tony]

Well, I remember when NDSU's baseball and softball teams were pretty bad - very poorly funded and with horrible facilities.

Not knowing about a thing has never stopped me from speculating so I'd guess that Coach McLeod will get several years to prove himself at the DI level.

[wfduck]

if we are competitive....why try to go out and find a coach that will automatically demand more in salary? and in softball....stick with what we got and bring it along

slowly

[bison_baseball]

The funny thing is that funding with the baseball team will never change. Because we don't bring in the fans like football, the school isn't going to put any effort into providing anything for the baseball team. Just because we play in a nice stadium, doesn't mean we have it good. On road trips it's nothing but pizza and Wendy's, oh and the Golden Coral has become a new favorite. It's 3 sometimes 4 to a room on the road and nothing but cereal in our rooms for breakfast. Compared to a basketball team that eats at the Olive Garden on game nights in Fargo, something's gotta change!

[tony]

Oh, I think it was a bit worse in the '80s. Funding and facilities have improved dramatically since then - that's not to say that baseball isn't still underfunded but at least it's going in the right direction.

I hadn't given this much thought before but perhaps going DI will help... the DI season is longer, and may get even longer, so NDSU has an opportunity of getting some home games in decent weather which may lead to bigger crowds. It'd be great if both the Bison got some RedHawk-style crowds.

Note: I must feel like being the devil's advocate today :)