The last time Arkansas State Baseball was selected to play in the NCAA Tournament, I was was an A-State sophomore totally oblivious to the achievement. My priorities revolved around beer. I wish I had paid closer attention as it is rare that history is made within walking distance of your dorm room.

That was in 1994, when you could still buy a Geo Metro and a Saturn Vue and fill them with $1/gallon gasoline. Since then, baseball at Arkansas State has been treated like a Charlie Brown fastball. The team came close to NCAA appearances a couple times – once in 1996 and later in 2012, but it’s mostly been seasons bearing the energy of an inning-ending double play.

When the Sun Belt decided to get serious about baseball and added national champion Coastal Carolina into the fold, some of us thought that it would trigger something inside the A-State community. It didn’t. When the Sun Belt became a multi-team tournament invitee, it raised a sense of urgency, but not much raising of funds from NEA’s more monied institutions, despite my sad call to action.

Exactly 30 years after Arkansas State made its last appearance in the NCAA, the Red Wolves are taking a necessary first step to polishing their tarnished diamond reputation. After 16 years of service, the legendary Tommy Raffo has been dismissed. Raffo is universally acknowledged as both a “good guy” and exemplary leader of men, but somebody had to take the fall for seven straight losing seasons, and it wasn’t going to the ones budgeting for turf, salaries, upgrades and facilities.

“We have kind of a masterplan, and baseball is a big part of that,” said athletic director Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Jeff Purinton at the recent Red Wolves Caravan in Little Rock. “We’ve had some meetings. But we’ve not gotten to the point where we’re going to roll something out quite yet. But we want to be where the stadium is currently – we want to have a footprint for all of our sports.”

Mr. Purinton went on to mention that baseball facilities needed to start with the turf (which he said that “ideally” he’d like to see put down in the off season) but that it would all come down to fundraising.

Fundraising! The lance that remains firmly buried in Arkansas State’s side! In Jonesboro, football is king, basketball is fashionable, and the baseball diamond is tended to by the heroically small and underpaid coaching staff. But as the sporting world once again mentions multiple Sun Belt programs during this year’s Road to Omaha, there seems to be motivation in Jonesboro to do something. The bouncing of Coach Raffo was that something, a move that may spur more somethings.

A capable, competitive baseball program would be a well-deserved treat for Red Wolves fans. After all, nothing lights up the Delta on Summer evenings quite like the peppering of baseball fields sprinkled liberally between the soybean and corn fields. Baseball continues to be a popular pursuit here. Build it, and we will come.

PHOTO CREDIT: A-State Athletics, with an edit from me