Dear Editors-in-Chief,
I would like to know why Whitman has a baseball team. According to their web site, over the last 10 seasons, the team has a record of 65-297, or a winning percentage of 17.95 percent. Over the last five years, their record is even worse: 21-168 or 11.11 percent.
It seems there are better ways the college could allocate resources. I can only imagine the expense of sending the team to Arizona for four games, like they did just last week. Travel, lodging, staff salaries–all for a team that barely wins one out of 10 games? Are you kidding me?
Sincerely,
Bill Huntington, Archives Assistant
Christine • Feb 26, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Bill- You need to think about the “big” picture more than just about the wins and losses. It is about the experience, team work and the willingness to never give up. Most of these kids have played their whole lives and it really has taught them many lessons on life itself. I beileve that Whitman needs baseball. Win or loose like Cak says above they are proud to represent Whitman and will continue to work hard and improve.
Cak • Feb 24, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Let’s watch the alumni support disappear. . . just like what happened when we lost the football team. . . or Alpha Phi. . . or Delta Tau Delta. Sports programs bring money. Alumni support them, even if they are unsuccessful. The basketball team went 10,000 over budget last year when they were not playing particularly well. No one talks about it now that they’ve turned them around. Before this year we hadn’t beat Whitworth in like 15 years. I know that none of these students go pro, but if we had about putting money into programs that foster “unsuccessful” students then we should stop doing the theatre program or the music program or the art program as they bring in significantly less money than the Chemistry and Bio and Economics departments. But we go to a liberal arts college where we foster people trying new things and pursuing their goals without constraint of “success”. If the baseball players lose a 100 games in three years at least they tried and have something to be proud of. That’s worth something to me.