SLU Baseball 2024

[Westy03]

Nm

[TheA_Bomb]

32 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

you are ignoring the cost of these items and realty of what "fans" will pay and how long that payback would be.   i dont know the answer to this, but judging by the horrible attendance for free baseball and the extreme cost of the above, i would be a long long time.   i also bet that with the business men and women that are on our BoT (you all should read the names and backgrounds of our BoT.  It is quite impressive) if there was a way to do it without donations they would have already did it is my guess.   

again, i would love for us to get the creighton gift of a ready made supreme college stadium.  but let's be real.   for the time being, imo, we need to concentrate finances on men's basketball as that success is the key to everything.  

Maybe if the AD of the year didn't over pay Ford by $1.9mil (yeah I think $600k would've been a reasonable salary).  Or if the AD of the Year didn't unnecessarily extend a coach who no other school wanted, there would've been some money for the lights 8 years ago. 

Also if that revenue sport is all that matters and it's propping everything else up. Which I agree to some extent, ya probably outta make sure a whole decade isn't wasted. 

It's called mismanagement. It's called lack of vision.  His name is Chris May.  He needs to go.

[slu92]

From what I know about Chris May and many conversations with former coaches is that behind closed doors he isn’t the same person the old blue haired donors know or slu leadership praises or Fake Hair Frank sucks off. He’s the opposite. He makes staff go to a gratitude retreat and it’s basically a big ego fluff exercise for the AD and dog and pony show for Slu leadership. Basically is one big gratitude trap. Insecure, manipulative, weak leaders are infamous for stuff like this. It fits everything that former staff and coaches have said over the years AND my personal experience with the guy. He’s a bully who uses gratitude as a means of control and deflection. Agree with ABomb he needed to go 15 years ago! 

Again thank god for Chaifetz and Kavanaugh otherwise slu athletics under Chris May would be on par with Harris Stowe. He’s profoundly stupid. 
 

Baseball program has no chance with Chris May in charge. He can’t raise money. Only shot is chaifetz or Kavanaugh wanting a baseball stadium otherwise forget it. Guy couldn’t figure out how to pay for donated lights by alumni to get installed. 

[slu92]

52 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Maybe if the AD of the year didn't over pay Ford by $1.9mil (yeah I think $600k would've been a reasonable salary).  Or if the AD of the Year didn't unnecessarily extend a coach who no other school wanted, there would've been some money for the lights 8 years ago. 

Also if that revenue sport is all that matters and it's propping everything else up. Which I agree to some extent, ya probably outta make sure a whole decade isn't wasted. 

It's called mismanagement. It's called lack of vision.  His name is Chris May.  He needs to go.

Amen. What other profession or industry wouldn’t hold a middle manager like Chris May accountable for such a huge multi million dollar mistake over 8 years not to mention not getting into Big East over Butler and Creighton!!!! That alone should’ve gotten guy fired years ago. 10000% true he dropped the ball. 

[slu92]

Do any of the people on the board know how bad the dugouts, lack of seating, and no press box actually are? Do you think soccer would enjoy playing at Forest Park with steal bleachers or MBB play at a gym on par with a crappy local high school? No way. Plus I know baseball isn’t a “revenue” sport but come on….the whole department loses millions and millions a year overall. Honestly, athletics is the biggest marketing tool for a university. It should be used accordingly and strategically. It’s not at slu. That’s on AD and President. Baseball is St. Louis is bigger than basketball hands down in community. Hard to recruit local kids from Vianney and Chaminade who have better facilities than local D1 program. Not hard to understand. 
 

WBB is a “revenue” sport and loses the most money in department by far each year, people have no idea. So that argument that baseball doesn’t deserve anything is not gonna work. If baseball charged admission with a nice stadium, it would make more “revenue” than all women’s sports combined in St. Louis. 

[JMM28]

13 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

you are ignoring the cost of these items and realty of what "fans" will pay and how long that payback would be.   i dont know the answer to this, but judging by the horrible attendance for free baseball and the extreme cost of the above, i would be a long long time.   i also bet that with the business men and women that are on our BoT (you all should read the names and backgrounds of our BoT.  It is quite impressive) if there was a way to do it without donations they would have already did it is my guess.   

again, i would love for us to get the creighton gift of a ready made supreme college stadium.  but let's be real.   for the time being, imo, we need to concentrate finances on men's basketball as that success is the key to everything.  

It isn't about having some sort of taj mahal. We're talking about table stakes here. You can't be taken seriously as a Big East level department when your baseball team plays on the sandlot. 

[billikenfan05]

11 hours ago, slu92 said:

Do any of the people on the board know how bad the dugouts, lack of seating, and no press box actually are? Do you think soccer would enjoy playing at Forest Park with steal bleachers or MBB play at a gym on par with a crappy local high school? No way. Plus I know baseball isn’t a “revenue” sport but come on….the whole department loses millions and millions a year overall. Honestly, athletics is the biggest marketing tool for a university. It should be used accordingly and strategically. It’s not at slu. That’s on AD and President. Baseball is St. Louis is bigger than basketball hands down in community. Hard to recruit local kids from Vianney and Chaminade who have better facilities than local D1 program. Not hard to understand. 
 

WBB is a “revenue” sport and loses the most money in department by far each year, people have no idea. So that argument that baseball doesn’t deserve anything is not gonna work. If baseball charged admission with a nice stadium, it would make more “revenue” than all women’s sports combined in St. Louis. 

I disagree with this. But it's not about revenue, it has never been about revenue or non-revenue. It's about competing. If you're not going to at least keep your facilities operational, what are you doing? Imagine if the lights over on the soccer field failed and they just decided to play day games this fall... 

 

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

It isn't about having some sort of taj mahal. We're talking about table stakes here. You can't be taken seriously as a Big East level department when your baseball team plays on the sandlot. 

This has been Roy's MO for a decade now, not a single person in this thread or any other baseball thread has asked for anything close to Creighton's field. He knows that everyone in here has been asking for something akin to SIUE below, but has no intention of having a reasonable discussion. 
 

Seriously, a simple naming rights deal could secure the funds to build this sort of facility. It's not about focusing on basketball, it's about effort. It's always been about effort, it's why there's never been an ADA ramp added to the bleachers. Zero effort. 

[OkieBilliken]

11 hours ago, slu92 said:

Do any of the people on the board know how bad the dugouts, lack of seating, and no press box actually are? Do you think soccer would enjoy playing at Forest Park with steal bleachers or MBB play at a gym on par with a crappy local high school? No way. Plus I know baseball isn’t a “revenue” sport but come on….the whole department loses millions and millions a year overall. Honestly, athletics is the biggest marketing tool for a university. It should be used accordingly and strategically. It’s not at slu. That’s on AD and President. Baseball is St. Louis is bigger than basketball hands down in community. Hard to recruit local kids from Vianney and Chaminade who have better facilities than local D1 program. Not hard to understand. 
 

WBB is a “revenue” sport and loses the most money in department by far each year, people have no idea. So that argument that baseball doesn’t deserve anything is not gonna work. If baseball charged admission with a nice stadium, it would make more “revenue” than all women’s sports combined in St. Louis. 

Agree with a lot of this.  The crazy thing is we don't have to wishcast.  "Maybe if we built a nice baseball complex, we could get a good coach and entice good local players in this baseball crazy city"    We actually have a great coach who amazingly continues to get terrific players.   (see 2024 MLB Draft)     The current state of the facilities is embarrassing and should be addressed.     Chris May did excellent things this year when properly pushed.   Keep the pressure on!   

[billiken_roy]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

This has been Roy's MO for a decade now, not a single person in this thread or any other baseball thread has asked for anything close to Creighton's field. He knows that everyone in here has been asking for something akin to SIUE below, but has no intention of having a reasonable discussion. 
 

Seriously, a simple naming rights deal could secure the funds to build this sort of facility. It's not about focusing on basketball, it's about effort. It's always been about effort, it's why there's never been an ADA ramp added to the bleachers. Zero effort. 

Of course siu-e is funded by the state of Illinois and couldn't care less about budgets.  Zak you to continue to demonstrate a total lack of business sense.   I wish I lived in your Dreamworld 

[billikenfan05]

17 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

Of course siu-e is funded by the state of Illinois and couldn't care less about budgets.  

Like I said, you're not looking to have a reasonable discussion. You're talking budget, I'm talking soliciting naming rights. Is Chris May a fundraiser, or not? Was the Champions Center a part of the "budget" or was it paid for by soliciting donations and naming sponsorships? 

[Box and Won]

Maybe Cardinals Care could adopt our poverty field.

[DirtyRican]

3 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

Maybe Cardinals Care could adopt our poverty field.

Maybe Mark McGuire can build us a gem.

[slufan13]

If funding is an issue, why isn't Chris May, who has had a ton of success raising funds at SLU, working on raising funds for a clearly problematic baseball/softball complex

[billiken_roy]

11 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

If funding is an issue, why isn't Chris May, who has had a ton of success raising funds at SLU, working on raising funds for a clearly problematic baseball/softball complex

As I said at the beginning of this thread, we with NIL being at the inset of the change in its influence of the revenue sports, imo all efforts for sports fund raising with big-time donors should be directed in SLU's case to maximizing what we can do in Men's Basketball.   Anything that will take away from that is going to only lessen our ability to compete and ultimately succeed.

[JMM28]

2 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

As I said at the beginning of this thread, we with NIL being at the inset of the change in its influence of the revenue sports, imo all efforts for sports fund raising with big-time donors should be directed in SLU's case to maximizing what we can do in Men's Basketball.   Anything that will take away from that is going to only lessen our ability to compete and ultimately succeed.

Multiple things can happen at once. There are donors who aren't interested in mens basketball whatsoever. 

[billiken_roy]

11 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

Multiple things can happen at once. There are donors who aren't interested in mens basketball whatsoever. 

Where they been?   Haven't come forward in the near 50 years I've been a Billiken.

That said, I suspect that's what got this latest improvement.   

[OkieBilliken]

53 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

Maybe Cardinals Care could adopt our poverty field.

Maybe we could get an RBI grant

 

[billikenfan05]

21 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

Where they been?   Haven't come forward in the near 50 years I've been a Billiken.

That said, I suspect that's what got this latest improvement.   

It’s your boy’s job to find them and sell them on a vision. 

I think you misspelled replacement. 
 

 

[TheA_Bomb]

32 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

Maybe we could get an RBI grant

 

Ha my kid played RBI Baseball this Summer. Really nice program by MLB, very affordable with reduced fee for kids from underprivileged school districts. 

Despite the underprivileged school district the HS field they play on is 1000% better than SLU's.  

 

[billiken_roy]

18 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

It’s your boy’s job to find them and sell them on a vision. 

I think you misspelled replacement. 
 

 

No his job is to maximize the potential of SLU athletics as a whole.   

And even if finding funding to upgrade non revenue sports was his top priority, why wasn't that a priority for any previous athletic director that left the facilities even worse?

Your personal vendetta for May is painful. 

[OkieBilliken]

Honestly this is the most baseball related talk that has ever happened on this board.  I love it.    There is a big percentage of posters on this board that care almost exclusively about MBB.   They are happy when another SLU team does well, but any advancement from another team that could be perceived as at the expense of MBB is not worth it.   I love SLU MBB.  Some of the greatest days of my childhood watching the Bills at old Kiel with my dad, yelling and sweating so much that my shirt would stick to the back those strange, antiquated leather chairs.   But I believe our other sports can be a tremendous amount of fun and with the proper investment, successful as well.   I want us to win conference championships in every damn sport.   Why the heck not?

There are now a bunch of people on this board that really care that our baseball team is suffering because of substandard facilities.   That's a huge improvement.   Several years ago, I think entire baseball seasons went by without a mention on this board.  Keep the pressure on!     I'm sure Chris May is tired of my emails and probably deletes them, but I keep sending them, respectfully of course.   

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

No his job is to maximize the potential of SLU athletics as a whole.   

And even if finding funding to upgrade non revenue sports was his top priority, why wasn't that a priority for any previous athletic director that left the facilities even worse?

Your personal vendetta for May is painful. 

Your inability to see reality is painful. You're willingly stubborn and uninformed...You're really doing a "well what about Levick or Woolard?". Are you serious? It absolutely should have been. Why would you not ask your athletics director to do better than those who came before them? Continual improvement should always be the goal. 

You continue to speak as if I'm asking the world of Chris May, I have done nothing but move the baseball facility goalposts closer to where Chris May is kicking from. Forget the press box, forget the lights, forget the spectator seating. We are now explicitly talking about making the bleachers at the baseball field wheelchair accessible and you'll find some reason why in the last 15 years Chris May couldn't find the money for sheet metal, some Quikrete and labor to make watching SLU baseball accessible to those with physical limitations. There's operating within budgetary restrictions(that he set for himself as others in this thread have mentioned by the decade of Billiken mediocrity he presided over) and then there is just plain apathy. What we have here with Chris May and SLU Baseball is apathy.

[slufan13]

No NIL argument is valid because these types of baseball/softball upgrades should have happened 10+ years ago. Plus there are large donors who legit hate the basketball program and would love to give money to anything else. 

I understand it's not at the top of May's priority list. And that is fair. But the can has been kicked so far down the road that it's not a can anymore. 

[billiken_roy]

Give me the business plan that pays for these upgrades.   Show us it will pay for itself.   Until then I continue to believe it's a dream waiting for a miracle donor that hates basketball to walk up with a blank signed check.

I do admire that you think you have made a difference in this mythical quest though.   Keep hope alive.