With the theft or vandalizing of its equipment and one-third of its budget being spent on practice facilities, EMU Club Sports Baseball is asking the Athletics Department why it is being denied access to a practice and storage facility it has used for many years, baseball coordinator Tory Caputo said.
Caputo said the Athletics Department has refused to allow the team to use the Hayward Fieldhouse, an indoor training facility used by the University Track and Field team. Previously, the baseball team was able to use the fieldhouse to practice batting and pitching. Now it is practicing at an indoor facility in Springfield, paying $140 for three hours each week, he said.
The team is partially funded by team-member dues but also received $4,258 in student incidental fees for the 2004-05 school year. Additionally, there are no outdoor baseball fields at the University, so the team spends the remainder of its budget on travel expenses.
Former Club Sports baseball coordinator Jonathan Loomis said the team’s equipment was set outside while the fieldhouse was being remodeled during summer 2004 and it is still there now. He said the team was unable to pay for storage.
“We had pitching machines. We had nets. We had all this gear that we collected over 20 years,” Loomis said, adding that the weather destroyed equipment and a pitching machine was lost or stolen.
“They never cited any reason for kicking us out of the facility,” Loomis said.
Associate Athletic Director for Compliance Gary Gray said the Athletics Department has always made an effort to work with the team, but improvements to the facility necessitated the change. He said the Athletics Department spent $50,000
remodeling last year, including $40,000 on new gas heaters. Gray said there was a potential safety hazard if a stray baseball hit a heater and dented it.
“Historically, baseball hasn’t done a good job of maintaining the area,” he added.
Gray said he was unaware of any damaged or stolen equipment related to the removal of the baseball team’s cages, nets and mounds.
Loomis said they have always been able to use the facility without impacting the track and field team’s ability to train.
“They already have a netted area set up,” Loomis said. “They wouldn’t have to change anything.”
Gray said the batting cages cannot be raised high enough to accommodate the hurdlers and pole vaulters. He added that the baseball team signed a contract that said it could lose usage of the facility.
“Every year we have them sign a contract that says if we remodel, you are out of there,” Gray said.
Each year copy of this facility-use agreement was signed by Club Sports Director Sandy Vaughn and the baseball coordinator for that season.
ASUO Senator Jack Crocifisso has been working with the baseball team to try to resolve the issue.
“This is kind of frustrating for
me because the facilities exist on our campus, and they’ve been working out for the last how many years,” Crocifisso said. He said
he hopes the team can come to some sort of compromise.
“We obviously want to keep baseball alive on this campus,” Caputo said. “We are the last thread of baseball on this campus.”
Baseball was the first team sport recognized by the University. The first game was played in 1877, and the game has had a presence on campus since then. In 1981, funding for varsity baseball was cut by the Athletics Department. Club Sports
absorbed the team and it became funded by student incidental fees and player dues.
The team has been a contender for national titles in recent years, including the National Club Baseball World Series last year.
“We went to nationals last year, and want to maintain that caliber of play,” Caputo said.
Head coach Brad Ficek said the weather has impacted the quality of practices, which take place on the turf fields next to the Student Recreation Center. Because the team has no field and no indoor facilities, the team is at a double disadvantage, Ficek said.
Caputo said he isn’t trying to start a war with anyone, he just wants to continue playing baseball at a high level.
“If we could work something out, it would be better than nothing,”
Caputo said.

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