The Hoosiers went down fighting. Good for them....
- Thread starter Bligedy
- Start date
We can thank Coach Smith (again) for cultivating a program that has brought a tremendous interest (by B1G standards) from the fans for what was once an almost moribund program. From a fan support standpoint, you have to call Neb the flagship school, but we are clearly second in the conference. With Neb previously being in a strong baseball conference, they had a big head start on us, but we are getting there.
I don't dispute that attendance is good for a big 10 school. We've had pretty good teams since '13. Everyone agrees that winning is the biggest factor in attendance. The question is, can more be done to market the team, and make home games more of an 'occasion'?
Let me give you an example.........we do get a lot of families with little kids at the games......but I see very little marketing effort in that direction. Why not make the nice-weather Sundays 'family days' where they have a big tent outside or down the hill and sell hot dogs, peanuts and cokes at lower prices? And maybe have a 'family price' of admission of $10.00 so a family of 2 adults and 2 young kids can get in for $10? Look how popular running around the bases is after the game......and having the kid's teams run on the field with the players......more of that please.
IMO they do a decent job of doing exactly what you are talking about mushroom... and this year they actually ramped up both the Bullpen Club rewards and promos in general - the bucket hat aside :0)
I think I paid somewhere around $20 for my kids season tickets... they received a mini bat, hat, shirt, mini helmet, and I'm sure I'm missing something else, to go along with all the promos and eating free every tues. even got to throw out a first pitch for attending all the games.
Kids Eat Free every tues, 2 youth baseball days (discounted group rates), 2 faith and family days (same), the egg hunt, bark in the park, a few games with all you can eat tickets, etc. With my season tickets my family of 4 attends games for $8 total.
http://admin.iuhoosiers.com/sports/2016/2/23/GEN_0223161730.aspx
They are eating money on all of these I'm sure.
They can give away food, tickets, prizes, etc... if the weather is what it was this season it won't matter. It was just brutal... and the turnout this season reflected that.
I think I paid somewhere around $20 for my kids season tickets... they received a mini bat, hat, shirt, mini helmet, and I'm sure I'm missing something else, to go along with all the promos and eating free every tues. even got to throw out a first pitch for attending all the games.
Kids Eat Free every tues, 2 youth baseball days (discounted group rates), 2 faith and family days (same), the egg hunt, bark in the park, a few games with all you can eat tickets, etc. With my season tickets my family of 4 attends games for $8 total.
http://admin.iuhoosiers.com/sports/2016/2/23/GEN_0223161730.aspx
They are eating money on all of these I'm sure.
They can give away food, tickets, prizes, etc... if the weather is what it was this season it won't matter. It was just brutal... and the turnout this season reflected that.
my point re: Oregon State is that IMO geography gets overused at times as an excuse for 'northern' baseball programs not doing better nationally. Corvallis is farther north than every B1G baseball program except Minnesota, and its winter-spring weather can be mild and sunny, or cold and damp, depending on what's happening off the coast that day. And my recollection is that, most years, the weather in Bloomington is not dramatically different from that in Louisville.
Michigan and Nebraska both have worse weather than Bloomington but both had Top 25 recruiting classes recently--IIRC, Michigan had a Top 10 class, which was the 1st time any B1G baseball program's done that. So maybe consistent Top 15 is unrealistic, but I'd like to think Top 25, tournament bids most years, even Super Regionals and occasional CWS aren't beyond reach.
But it's gonna take better situational hitting and base-running than IU consistently displayed this season. And it might well require some kind of power play by a number of 'northern school' ADs and conference commissioners in order to get the SEC and ACC to come around. And that's assuming those Ads and commissioners even care enough about college baseball to get involved in the first place.
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Thanks....that's more than I thought they had going on.
I wish IU had been decent at baseball when my kids were young....that would have been a great activity......to make it worse, my daughter played softball, and we were terrible at that.
IMO Rick Greenspan was the 1st IU Admin who truly cared enough about IU baseball (& college baseball in general) to want to do something about IU's program. Like keeping the ball rolling (that McNeely 1st proposed) on replacing Sembower, and hiring Tracy Smith.
I would hate to see all of that work (as well as Glass' and Lemonis') squandered or momentum lost. I continue to see no reason why IU can't field a baseball program that's about on a par with, say, Louisville's. Heaven knows they recruit a lot of the same kids--IIRC, Louisville had about 6-7 Indiana players on its roster this season. And would've had Schnell from Roncalli next season if the young man hadn't been a 1st round selection in the recent draft.
UL is a little different than IU because they play at NC, Clemson, FSU, Miami, Duke, and Wake in the regular season......so fewer trips like our visit to Iowa.
Thing is, if you ask any of our players about the season as a whole, probably the first thing they'd say is "it was too damn cold to play" the first 3 weeks back from the Florida trip. That kind of experience is tough to sell to a recruit.
One other thing I thought about today, re: extending the season 2 weeks or so (and knocking off 2 weeks in the Spring)-----EVERYTHING right now on BTN is a repeat---if baseball was playing they could be showing 2 games a night in prime time.....and right now, they show 0 baseball games the first 3 weeks of the season because they have some many other things going on.
Sorry, but you've been awfully critical despite not having a good understanding of what all efforts are going on. Maybe you should consider reeling it in a bit until you've got a clearer picture of what you're complaining about.
largely agree (although I contend the early spring weather overall isn't all that much greater in places like Chapel Hill, Durham and Winston-Salem--and I suspect it's even worse at places like B.C., South Bend & Pitt--but Tallahassee and Miami of course are a whole different story).
and it's not like the "farther South" SEC, Big 12 or PAC-12 schools would suffer that much if the season started and ended later. Frankly, I could see having the CWS closer to the MLB All-Star game as a win-win, especially with more and more college players getting picked higher and higher in the draft. Don't think it would kill MLB to hold its draft a tad later either--maybe in between CWS and All-Star?
I think Smith put us on the map. I think Lem is keeping us there. Yes UL had Indiana kids but we do too. I also like Indiana kids transferring back to the state, which we have. Plenty of in state kids on roster. Program very healthy. Not sure why some are so critical. I live in Alabama now. One son plays high school ball at second biggest public school in state. I always take my IU chair to games. Plenty of people take to me about IU baseball. We get much respect here. I love that.
Go Hoosiers!
Go Hoosiers!
Oh ya the people I talk to are diverse. LSU, FSU, auburn Alabama ole miss, miss state, southern miss, etc
Any time a big school takes out sec school (a&m) or acc (FSU in 2013). They notice. No other BIG doing that in last 10 years. Sorry for multipost rant but we’re well respected in the south. Ok I’m done. Go Hoosiers!
simply questioning some of the team's inconsistent hitting (and resulting LOBs) and base-running is not being especially "critical," just observing the facts. The program may very well be healthy but there's clearly room for improvement as well. No harm in pointing that out.
I strongly suspect Lemonis feels the same way, I'm just not sure if he thinks it's mostly lack of execution by the players, or something else.
And it's not just UL that recruits Indiana for baseball--Vandy's team also had IIRC 6 Midwest kids (including one from Indiana) this season--7 if you count Kansas as "Midwest." Even programs like Miss State, UVA, USC and Duke are recruiting Indiana players now.
And Tracy Smith managed to get about a half-dozen Midwest kids to follow him to ASU. Not sure how they're feeling these days about that decision; sounds like TS may have one more season to turn it around in Tempe.
The other thing is the players could have a more normal school experience if more games were in the summer.............how many days are they even in Bloomington the first 30 days of the season?
Then you give the players 3 weeks to a month to make the decision about whether to go/return to college. It's not a win/win for them.
I had mentioned, at one point, the possibility of splitting the schedule into fall and spring seasons. Not just exhibition play in the fall, but actual games. Perhaps have the conference season in the spring. Would be able to keep a similar season timeline, as far as completion. I doubt that the NCAA would want to keep students on campus playing through much of the summer (particularly in baseball where many aren't on a full scholarship), with school starting back up in August. Could probably start a few weeks later in the spring too. An advantage to this would be, if you are having conference play in the spring, when the weather is iffy, at least you are playing more regional teams, so the playing field is evened out a bit.
No idea if this is feasible, but it works in some sports (golf, etc.).
No idea if this is feasible, but it works in some sports (golf, etc.).
I think a fall/ spring schedule could work. Just think if the out of conference teams would bring their baseball teams along for the ride and play a double header on Friday then follow up with a single game at the Bart before or after the football game (whichever made since) on Saturday and offer admission for those who bought football tickets like a family package. The BIG might be able to schedule a couple of league series this way during early fall. Take advantage of the teams travel and the crowds that are already at the stadium. Plus making it possible for BIG teams to play everyone in conference. Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier.
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Those are some interesting ideas regarding cross promotion between sports. It just feels like something needs to be done to level the playing field, at least somewhat, between northern and southern teams. It feels like schools and the NCAA are losing out on an opportunity to have another really major sport. Currently, it seems to be a little bit of a niche, akin to NCAA hockey. I can't imagine a scenario of college baseball ever splitting up by region, but there are ways of improving.
With that said, as I've mentioned before in this thread, I'm not familiar with some of the details of college baseball. Not sure if there is typically a large contingent of midyear transfers, for example, which could really turn into a free agency situation.
So, generally, my proposal would be to have a fall training camp starting at the same time as other fall sports camps, play until somewhere around late October (about the time that the MLB season ends), then start a spring camp around the end of February, with games starting in mid-late March.
This thing isn't really broken. I guess I don't see the benefit of any of this.
At what point do you want these baseball athletes to train and get better? Or get ahead academically? Or. Or. Or......
In this scenario IU would travel to Miami for 3 games 3 weeks after class starts. Would they come a month early for "fall camp" too? At what point would they need to leave their summer teams? When do the pitchers rest and rehabilitate their arms? Work on mechanics?
I guess I don't view the current setup as broken. These ideas are out there and make changes that don't bring up quality of play even a little bit.
Just my opinion.
