Gary Barta

[Row55]

It's less of an Iowa problem and more of an upper-midwest thing. It's incredibly difficult to convince kids to play baseball in cold and snow.

The B10 won't ever be a premier college baseball league, but I'm talking about Iowa relative to the rest of the B10. Our weather isn't any worse than anybody else's (maybe even better than Michigan's) unless you figure in Minnesota having access to the Hump.

Coach Blevins seems to find enough good softball players to come up and play in this weather for a lot of 30+ win seasons and NCAA tournament appearances.

(Edit - looks like I should have kept quiet about softball. They finished with only 25 wins and an RPI of 73.)

 

[djwoody98]

The Lickliter hire was a disaster, but at least Barta had the stones to pull the plug and move on.

 

[hwkwyld]

It's less of an Iowa problem and more of an upper-midwest thing. It's incredibly difficult to convince kids to play baseball in cold and snow.

Agree. Growing up in California, we played Baseball year round. This just isn't an option for kids in the Midwest.