Now is the time...

[Argyle Pony]

For us to begin making plans to bring back the Track Team...for many of JJ's players will like to run track I'm sure...just a thot...Go Mustangs!!!

[smu diamond m]

I was in structural design last week... "You know, SMU used to have both a men's track and baseball teams! They were good! I heard z'ey might be bringing z'em back!" Maybe my structures professor knows more than us.

[jtstang]

Not sure the baseball team was ever good. Not in my lifetime as I recall anyway.

[jkflamebo]

we need baseball here

[Roach]

we need baseball here

god no. Bring back track, since that's what some football recruits want to do during the spring.

Baseball is supposed to bring about the CRACK of a bat, not a PING. Metal-bat baseball is not baseball. More importantly, track would be FAR cheaper to resurrect.

[Longtime]

Track may be cheaper, but in terms of bang-for-your buck, baseball would be a much better investment.

Schools have discovered in the last decade or so that college baseball is a very marketable sport. It's like minor league baseball without beer sales, but you can still make a lot of dough through tickets, parking, concessions, etc. And it keeps your school in the public's consciousness during the long wait between the end of basketball and the start of football.

The success of the Frisco Roughriders proves that a lot of families are just looking for a good time at the ballpark. It doesn't have to be major league baseball. Heck, the Rangers are terrible every year and they still draw amazing attendance. SMU could be an option for baseball-loving 214s who don't want the drive to Arlington or Frisco.

I have a lot of respect for our track program, but it could never come close to being the marketable product a baseball program would be. And as for the ping of the bat - every level of baseball except professional is played with metal bats. Get over it. The crowds flocking to the College World Series and college games all over the country don't seem to mind.

Baseball is a big deal at schools similar to us - Rice, Baylor, TCU. They've all experienced success in baseball. Don't see why SMU couldn't do the same. The hard part is finding a place to put a ballpark. Put it off campus and you kill your student walk-up, among other disadvantages.

[mrydel]

Good luck with baseball. When we had it in the 70's the ballpark was right in the middle of campus. I have no assurance that the 7 people that used to attend the games are still in the area or even alive.

[Corso]

Frisco plays with wooden bats.

SMU used to be among the nation's elite track programs without any sprinters on its men's team - just throwers and distance guys. If they could rebuild that and add even marginal scoring from guys like Aldrick Robinson and Emmanuel Sanders and Jessie Henderson and Bryan McCann .... we're talking about a serious contending team.

[Longtime]

I guarantee you more people would go to SMU baseball games than an SMU track meet.

Especially nowadays with the potential to market the sport. Put it in a real, fan-friendly park, promote it and people will come. Major League Baseball didn't draw all that well in the 70s either, compared to today. It's all about marketing a product.

Of course, we could do the same with our highly successful men's soccer program, but no one at SMU has ever figured out that soccer is a marketable sport, too. If we had a decent venue, there'd be no reason for Dallas families to drive all the way to Frisco to watch good soccer.

[expony18]

no one at SMU has ever figured out that soccer is a marketable sport, too.

or

[Corso]

Think the mass of fans who would turn out for baseball (like for all non-football sports) would PAY for the fan-friendly park? There are a lot of other athletic facilities on the school's/Orsini's wish list before a new baseball stadium. I don't dislike the idea, but I'd say baseball is a loooooooooong way off in the future. Track facilities already are in place, and how much would it cost to create the needed scholarships? Probably would have to add fewer women's scholarships to balance out the Title IX requirements, too.

[mrydel]

I guarantee you more people would go to an SMU baseball game than an SMU track meet.

Especially nowadays with the potential to market the sport. Put it in a real, fan-friendly park, promote it and people will come.

Of course, we could do the same with our highly successful men's soccer program, but no one at SMU has ever figured out that soccer is a marketable sport, too.

You may be right since I can not predict the future, but you are 100% wrong in reference to the past. Track has been a well followed (for SMU) and nationally pretigious sport at SMU many years. Baseball, to my knowledge, has never had a good fan base or following at SMU.

[Stallion]

just a small correction Corso-initially when SMU made a strong push for national honors in Track in the late 70s and early 1980s-they did have some strong sprinters on the team-not coincidentally they were collaborative signees from Football-remember guys like Mitchell Bennett, James Collier, Rod Jones and others. I believe Ronald Morris may have run track too for at least a year. Come to think of it-wasn't Russell Carter a top 200 Meters kid too. I think Bennett, Collier and Morris were Texas State Champions in the 100 in high school at their Class level. Of course, there were also guys like Michael Carter and Charles Waggonner in Field events. Ron Meyer used track as an asset for the Football Team. BTW all those guys were Texas Top 100 players in Football so we are talking some big time talent. I bet none of those guys would have gone to SMU w/o the track program-something to consider. You are correct that subsequently SMU's track success was more and more tied to Field Events in the mid-1980s forward.

[RGV Pony]

Think the mass of fans who would turn out for baseball (like for all non-football sports) would PAY for the fan-friendly park? There are a lot of other athletic facilities on the school's/Orsini's wish list before a new baseball stadium. I don't dislike the idea, but I'd say baseball is a loooooooooong way off in the future. Track facilities already are in place, and how much would it cost to create the needed scholarships? Probably would have to add fewer women's scholarships to balance out the Title IX requirements, too.

I agree. And as for those women's scholarships to offset the men's track, easy solution. Women's Bowling Team. I saw Ark State taking on Maryland Eastern Shore just the other day on ESPN. No new facilities needed.

[mrydel]

just a small correction Corso-initially when SMU made a strong push for national honors in Track in the late 70s and early 1980s-they did have some strong sprinters on the team-not coincidentally they were collaborative signees from Football-remember guys like Mitchell Bennett, James Collier, Rod Jones and others. I believe Ronald Morris may have run track too for at least a year. Of course, there were also guys like Michael Carter and Charles Waggonner in Field events. Ron Meyer used track as an asset for the Football Team. BTW all those guys were Texas Top 100 players in Football so we are talking some big time talent. I bet none of those guys would have gone to SMU w/o the track program-something to consider. You are correct that subsequently SMU's track success was more and more tied to Field Events in the mid-1980s forward.

Even before that, as you discussed the other day, was the Pouncey twins and some other sprinters that put us in the spotlight. Nothing more enjoyable than a trip to Memorial Stadium in Austin for the Texas Relays and watching the Mustangs run.