For years, AU students have longed to hear the traditional sounds of the metallic ping of aluminum bats hitting cowhide baseballs that signal the return of spring at college campuses across America. Those baseball fanatics will have to wait no more, as AU has finally returned the great American pastime to campus this spring.
"After seeing the Washington Nationals return Major League Baseball to the nation's capital, we thought we might as well bring a team to the place that has American in our name," said AU Athletic Director Kevin Gileth.
Baseball as an AU sport has had a roller coaster history in the past, as the sport has been held and removed multiple times of the years. However, many felt that it was time to bring back a popular sport now that the school has seen its athletic profile increase in the past couple seasons.
"With the men's basketball team enjoying success in the last two years, we thought we might as well add another team that could make our school even more popular," Gileth said. "The more teams we have, the more chances we have to make NCAA tournaments."
The task to form a brand new team now falls to newly hired head coach Joe Torre, who was selected after his great success with the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers in past seasons. Torre realizes that after winning championships based on the amount of money spent by ownership, it will be much harder to win here at AU.
"With the Yankees and Dodgers, I often had ownership to just buy me players so that we could win championships," Torre said. "Of course, in college, the NCAA kind of frowns on that kind of activity, so it will make my job much harder having to get players who are actually talented to come to AU."
The team will start play in a next week and play on Jacobs Field next to the lacrosse and field hockey field. Home games will be played against local schools such as University of Maryland and Georgetown University, as well as national programs such as UCLA and Tulane University.
Although the team does not expect to have much success in its first year against these strong schools, the attitude amongst students is still strong, who claim they will still have the best team in the city.
"I mean come on, we have to do better than the Nationals," said Roberto Schwartzman, a senior in the School of Pubic Affairs. "They only won 36 percent of their games last year. If we just win eight out of our 20, that is still amazing."
You can reach this staff writer at hjall@thealbatrossonline.com.
