Friday April 22, 2016 Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; Louisville pitcher Brendan McKay (38) dives back to second base with Boston College infielder Johnny Adams (8) in position for a pickoff throw during a game between the Boston College Eagles and the Louisville Cardinals. BC won the game 6-1 at Shea Field.
The top program from the Northeast over the last couple of seasons with wins and losses has been the Bryant University Bulldogs. But are they really the top program in the Northeast?
This past season, Boston College advanced to the Super Regionals and took the University of Miami right to the brink in the Coral Gables Super Regional, losing in Game 3. Featuring a first round pick this season in Justin Dunn (19th overall), the Eagles had multiple other players selected. This was the second straight season with a first round pick, after Chris Shaw was the 31st overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft.
If you look at the BC program from the outside, they play in the highly competitive ACC while being in an area of the country which hasn’t had a team make Omaha since 1986 when Maine made the trek. But the Eagles have become a respectable program, finishing with a 35-22 overall record and 13-15 in the highly competitive ACC in addition to the Super Regional appearance.
So is Boston College head coach Mike Gambino doing a good job at Boston College? In the beginning of his coaching tenure, there was some rough seasons going 37-66 in the first two seasons. But things got worse, as they had an abysmal 2013 season going 12-40 as the team took their licks with underclassmen playing every day. It worked out, going on a steady rise since going 22-33 in 2014 and 27-27 in 2015, before heading back to the NCAA Tournament this season for the first time since 2009 with a 35-22 record. The key part of this 2016 squad was the upperclassmen who took their licks during the 2013 season to develop into excellent players.
The Eagles winning the Ole Miss Regional as a three seed is interesting thing to look at. If the Eagles would have won a couple of more regular season games or gotten to the ACC Championship game, they could have been in position to host an NCAA Regional or Super Regional. If Long Beach State had won the Coral Gables Regional, you would of had two teams with identical seeds trying to host the regional. Boston College couldn’t host based on their facility.
As of right now, the team plays on a field with has a large parking deck on the first base line, no lights, and bleacher style seating which holds 1,000 people according to BC’s site. During the fall, the outfield doubles as a parking lot for Eagles football games, which means the team does not have the outfield walls up for fall games. They also do not have any indoor batting cages, helpful for player development during the harsh Boston winters.
How do they make things better? Build a better facility to support the team!
In the fall of 2015, BC announced that they were putting aside $200 million dollars to improve the athletic facilities including new baseball and softball stadiums. According to a BC Alumni magazine, the new baseball stadium is supposed to have 1,500 seats which would put it second to last in the ACC in capacity behind Pittsburgh. I have not seen the plans, but the pictures that were included in the Boston College alumni magazine (LINK) do not show batting cages and an indoor facility for either the baseball or softball programs.
This isn’t the first time we have heard about BC trying to build a new facility which has been rumored for the last ten plus seasons. If they are going to build one, they should make sure it can host an NCAA Regional. This means having batting cages, locker rooms, lights, and 3,000 seats, plus a press box with the ability to stream or broadcast your games. BC is currently the only team in the ACC that does not have a live video stream of home games.
My question is, “If you are going to put a shovel into the ground, why not make the facility the best as possible?” Is Boston College going to become a powerhouse program nationally year in and year out, like Louisville who plays in a very similar climate and in the ACC? We don’t know but why hinder them with a facility that isn’t up to par with the rest of the conference and the country?
If this facility isn’t up to caliber, you will see likely more unsettled times of the BC program having a good year and then crashing back down as it is tough to sustain an ACC program having a facility which isn’t even good enough for some Division 3 schools. So Boston College has a choice right now to either support the baseball program to support their school motto of “Ever to Excel” or continue to see little bursts of success.
11 comments
This is all fair, but a few things. The IMP is far from a finished project. Just as an example, the space to the right of the FB stadium will most likely be the location of the new indoor football practice facility, rather than the planned dorms that were to go there.
As to the baseball stadium, I completely agree that they need to get it right. However, BC has been very vague in regards to the plans or timetable to the stadium(s). I don’t think it’s fair to take much from a rough architects sketch in an alumni magazine. My personal opinion, is BC will include a full facility on the appropriated land (offices, locker rooms, cages, etc). I also think the size of the facility is fine. You need to understand e dynamic/demographics of BC. It’s a small and transient alumni base, with not many alumni staying in Boston (at least not enough to warrant a larger baseball stadium). I think staring at 1500 is perfect, and if demand warrants expansion, addition of bleachers can expand capacity, however, BC just would never be able to support anything bigger.
I didn’t get into the situation that BC is doing to the tennis, fencing, and swim programs and short changing them.
The swim team will be the ONLY ACC program without a 3 meter diving board.
The tennis team will go from 10 tennis courts (4 indoor and 6 outdoor) to three indoor courts. Far below anyone else in the ACC.
The Fencing team facility is also shrinking.
The point is this season the baseball team with a couple of bounces going the other way either in the regular season could have had a better seeding or if Long Beach had won the Coral Gables Regional, BC would have had to go on the road for the Super Regionals due to the lack of the facility. Should the team be punished by the school by heading on the road all the time?
You (or I) have no idea of the conversations or restrictions that surround the new rec facility, only what the swim coach took to the globe in the hit piece on BC. If those are the sports that are affected, then excuse me for not caring. If that means tennis has to get on a bus and take a 10 minute trip to an external facility, then big deal. If it means BC can’t host a swim meet, I’m not going to lose sleep over it. What do you expect, a school in a major city with limited space and resources, to allocate specific space for a fencing program ? Be realistic. I personally think the two projects (baseball and Rec Center) are independent of each other (and also think BC will be cutting a number of varsity sports like the ones you mentioned). I assume your point is that BC is setting a precedent for underwhelming with their plans for the rec center, when the reality is, they are generally very meticulous and calculated with any building on campus.
You reference BC having to go on the road all the time. You realize that is because of the New England weather right. Does your magical facility include the ability to change when it’s cold and/or snowing ?
Going on the road for the NCAA Tournament in June? I am pretty sure the weather is fine in June to be hosting Regionals and Supers.
I misread. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s one season and they barely got into the postseason. I think you need to pump the breaks a bit before talking about hosting regionals.
I’m not trying to pick a fight. I just think you need to have a better understanding of the dynamics in place at BC and not get caught up in the one liner bullet points in a Boston Globe hit piece
Not fighting with you…Just having a discussion. I wouldn’t respond if you took it to a personal level. I have seen what has gone on in the past at BC for 12 straight seasons. There has been talk about this facility and now they are on the third coach since they joined the ACC. I think the facility and the lack of commitment has something to do with that.
You’re comment about “12 years” is very valid. This has been rumored for a long time, and I agree that BC needs to commit. However, I think it plays to a much larger issue. You touched upon the non-committal nature of BC, but my personal view is that the department is stretched way to thin. There is no reason that BC needs to sponsor the # of sports that they do (I think they sponsor 31 and the average ACC school sponsors 18), and should rather fully commit to a smaller number of sports. They are regionally out of their element for a number of sports (golf, tennis, swim/dive, track) and sponsor too many small pointless sports (rowing, fencing, skiing). You could make an argument that they even face an uphill battle in baseball regionally, but there should be enough talent in the NE to be competitive.
The reason I came out like an A-hole earlier was because of the mention of the quotes in the Globe article which are non sensical points made by Bob Hoehler. That is a hit piece, plain and simple, and for some reason the Globe loves doing them on BC.
My main point, is that in normal BC fashion, they are being as anti-transparent as possible. None of us know what really happened and nobody knows the details and/or restrictions of the building (maybe there is a reason they couldn’t add a diving well that would allow BC to host 1 particular event). With that being said, The baseball field is going to be built on completely independent, partitioned land, and should hopefully not face any space issues that are apparent on the main campus. Hopefully the building gets started quickly, and based on the work they have done in the past (in general campus construction), I have little doubt they will build a nice facility.
As to the regional issue, should it ever get to that point, and seating is the issue at hand, then a temporary solution can be made (bring in temp bleachers). But to build a larger facility, with the hopes of hosting a 3-day regional at some point, and one that will struggle to reach even its planned capacity of 1500 normally, just seems like an aggressive use of funds. If BC’s capacity of a new facility is towards the bottom of the league, it’s only because the demographics are dictating that. I just don’t personally see the point in building additional capacity when it will realistically never be utilized. BC already has a bball/hky arena that is too large for its demo an a football stadium that some could argue is too large for average crowds. I just personally think starting small and expanding down the road is the way to go.
They had 2,033 people this year for the Wake Forest game on May 7th but yea that is an outlier as that was the ALS game which they promote a ton.
They finished one game in the loss column in ACC play behind Regional host Clemson while having three less ACC wins (so I think that is 2.5 games back?). Just saying let’s not tie their hands behind the back and if they have a good year, oh you don’t have a facility so you will be heading on the road which is a disadvantage.
And BC lost home games this year for not having a field turf facility against Florida State. If you have field turf, plow the field off and play ball.
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