Picture this setting: It's Friday, April 20, 2007. UW students are getting out of class, but oddly, the bars on State Street are relatively empty. The FAC specials are useless against today's competition.
Over on the far west side of campus, however, the streets and parking lots are filling up. It's sunny and 69 degrees at 5 p.m. and the smells of charcoal and brats fill the air. Most are drinking beer and playing bags by their cars. There hasn't been this much tailgating since the fall.
What's all the excitement about?
It's Friday night and the Badgers are playing Iowa at Paul Quantrill Field. It's April and that means the UW baseball season is in full swing.
Come on, this doesn't sound appetizing? We go to school at a university whose fan base hibernates from late March to September. That's because there isn't anything to be excited about. On football Saturdays and basketball game days, Madison is rocking. I could only imagine what a baseball game on a Friday night would be like if it was done right.
Now this picture I have painted might be a fantasy because when we did have Badger baseball, the support was less than stellar.
I've seen what Brewers fans are like, though. In fact, one of the most pleasant surprises of living in Madison has been the support of a team that never wins championships and plays in another city an hour away.
But that support remains because baseball is about more than just winning. The NBA is a place where a game is just a game. It is played during a season we call winter. Baseball, however, is played in a season that we call baseball season. Because, yes, baseball is centered on the daily grind of actual games, but it flourishes because of the culture around it: the beer, the brats, the charcoal and the beat-up glove that has had a funny smell to it since 1994.
I know that this town and the campus could support a Division I baseball team right now. The weather sucks in March, but for the most part we enjoy nice April days. A baseball gameday would have to be a legitimate event like the seven football games we get every year. There is no way it would or could be as big, but even if there was just a quarter of the excitement we share during football games, Badger baseball could flourish.
The amount of people on this campus that yearn for a baseball team would fill up half the stadium. Add beer in the parking lots and the stadium is full.
There has been a void in my life since Alando and company lost to UNLV in March. Baseball can fill that void.
In a lot of ways, it already has, but listening to White Sox games on the radio and watching the scoreboard on my computer can only take me so far.
For now, my dreams of a Wisconsin baseball team will take me the rest of the way, but I hope that one day a younger Badger fan will be able to enjoy what I can only fanaticize.
Hoge is a junior majoring in journalism. He can be reached at hoge@dailycardinal.com.
