Aggie Baseball: The Ignored Stepchild

Carolina Baseball Stadium
In an article we posted earlier today we chronicled the success of the NMSU baseball program in sweeping this year's NCAA Division I Baseball Champion, the University of Arizona on the road in Tucson back in March. Arizona just completed a two game sweep of the University of South Carolina last night in Omaha to win the national title. The U of A went 10-0 in the post season. Above right is an ariel view of Carolina Baseball Stadium. This is the facility that University of South Carolina baseball program calls home. It is a legitimate college baseball facility capable of hosting an NCAA Regional Championship. The University of Arizona plays at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson. Hi Corbett is a former minor league park and spring training home of the Colorado Rockies. It is now a decent college baseball facility where an NCAA regional tournament can be hosted.
Presley Askew Field
Below is an ariel view of the dilapidated Presley Askew Field where the NMSU baseball program plays. Notice the differences in the press box and seating. The Carolina Stadium is designed to handle a large working press contingent, including multiple radio broadcast teams, television coverage, and the print media. The stands extend far down both foul lines. The stadium can accomodate large enthusiastic college baseball crowds. Presley Askew Field's press box is an embrassment (it is the small shack at the top of the home plate bleachers with the orange roof). Presley Askew will not support two radio broadcast teams let alone any print media. And instead of being able to seat thousands of fans, the never completed bleachers at Presley Askew (note the empty dirt space just to the left of the first base dugout) seats only a few hundred.
For the second time in five years the NMSU baseball program earned two road wins over the eventual national champions (Fresno State 2008 and University of Arizona in 2012). No major Division I athletic program in the nation delivers more for less than NMSU baseball. The Aggie Baseball program deserves a new facility.

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1 comments:

Jaxon said...

The Aggie baseball facility is a monumental disgrace considering the awesome results of the Aggie coaching staff. Needless to say, the Ward's posses a genuine genius in their recruiting methods. I mean, their only chance to build a successful program MUST be focused on their baseball accomplishments and not the current facility. The current facility is anything but an asset in their recruiting strategy. In fact, arranging for potential recruits to visit the current facility is a detriment to their recruiting efforts. Clearly the program's success resides in their intuitive eye and innate ability to recognize talent and athletic ability in less traveled circles while the top baseball school recruiters focus on the more obvious and more highly recruited prospects. Combine the Ward's ability to identify diamonds in the rough and then teach their enduring battle tested baseball philosophy and you have the perfect recipe for a winning program. Naturally, these are the winning components Gary Ward used to develop future major league players like Robin Ventura, Pete Incaviglia, Jeromy Bernitz, Doug Dascenzo along with a host of others who once played for Ward at Oklahoma State. Build a dynamic state of the art baseball facility on the NMSU campus and the Wards will make Aggie baseball a perennial national power. Weather wise and geographically, Las Cruces is the perfect venue to build a nationally recognized NCAA baseball program. The Ward's success merits such an investment.

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