Randy Smith: Someone Needs To Be Ashamed

I imagine it's time to gripe once again about the status of historic Engel Stadium. The City of Chattanooga transferred the property to the University of Tennessee Chattanooga in 2008...that's 17 years ago. When it was first acquired by UTC It was still in decent shape, though it needed a lot of work to still be a baseball venue. There have been rumors of tearing down the "Grand Old Stadium" and building a park with a walking track or other ideas that would at least be a way to honor a piece of our city's great history. I repeat...it's been 17 years and absolutely nothing has been done.

There are trees and bushes growing in the stands, there is rust everywhere and it looks nothing like it did in 2012 when the movie "42" was filmed there. There was a Facebook post this week that showed a recent picture of the stadium and it drew a lot of criticism from readers. I've written many articles about the condition of the stadium as well as the fact that it's been 45 years since UTC fielded a legitimate baseball team. There is a non-scholarship club baseball team and I applaud their efforts but it's not the same.

Even though I've chastised UTC for not having baseball and the way they have allowed Engel Stadium to deteriorate, they have never responded. It's like the University is ignoring the problem so that it might go away. Just do something. Hold a meeting with baseball supporters and explain the reasoning behind not fielding baseball. Or...list some plans for the future of Engel Stadium. Anything but continuing to do nothing at all. 

The recent popularity of college baseball lends a perfect scenario for the return of the game to our city. There have been a lot of changes in college sports in the last couple of years, in fact, just this week a judge approved a settlement worth more than $2.8 billion to be divided among all athletes who played from 2016-2025. Colleges will begin to write checks to student-athletes on July 1st.

Come on UTC. Title IX  has been with us for more than 45 years. Though the resolution was responsible for dropping baseball in the first place, this " do-nothing " attitude by school administration is not appropriate. Just do something....anything but crickets.