The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

How does Coach Gernon still have a job? Broncos improve to 1-9 today with a 12-4 win over Georgetown. Isn't this a make or break year? Thoughts? BroncoBen, DIP????

Are we even paying him at this point?

Fleck pays his social media snoop more than we pay our baseball coach.

I suspect if it wasn't for the Dugout Club and people like Don Finnefrock, we wouldn't have a Baseball program at all.

(03-10-2016 10:01 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  I suspect if it wasn't for the Dugout Club and people like Don Finnefrock, we wouldn't have a Baseball program at all.

Personally if they aren't willing to fund it correctly I just as well they turn Hymes Field into a tailgate area and dump baseball. As it is baseball is a totally mismanaged sport by the NCAA. 50% of the home games for northern schools are cancelled do to cold weather.

College baseball starts WAY too early. Teams are playing games that count before MLB even reports to spring training.

(03-10-2016 03:32 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(03-10-2016 10:01 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  I suspect if it wasn't for the Dugout Club and people like Don Finnefrock, we wouldn't have a Baseball program at all.

Personally if they aren't willing to fund it correctly I just as well they turn Hymes Field into a tailgate area and dump baseball. As it is baseball is a totally mismanaged sport by the NCAA. 50% of the home games for northern schools are cancelled do to cold weather.

High school baseball is the same way. My son plays, and we have yet to play the first scheduled game. Every year it is cancelled. Not because of cold or any current weather condition, but because the fields are not close to being playable. The past two years we litterally had kids from the entire program shoveling snow on and around the field for two days before we could play, and it was still sketchy at best.

It's just the way it is in Michigan, and how early you need to play in order to get a season in before the school year ends. But baseball is a fantastic sport, and I would never vote to eliminate it at wmu or in high schools.

Northern teams have a significant disadvantage, but it is all relative, and should be taken into consideration when the NCAA picks schools tor post season.

Wmu can certainly be competitive in the MAC in baseball. Just takes the right guy running the program.

(03-10-2016 12:37 AM)DiaperHead69 Wrote:  How does Coach Gernon still have a job? Broncos improve to 1-9 today with a 12-4 win over Georgetown. Isn't this a make or break year? Thoughts? BroncoBen, DIP????

One Kalamazoo-area alumni said to me, "Billy's more concerned with his son's travel team than he is with the Broncos."

I don't know the guy or his program much at all, so I can't say, but this alumni was pretty unimpressed with him.

(03-10-2016 03:32 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(03-10-2016 10:01 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  I suspect if it wasn't for the Dugout Club and people like Don Finnefrock, we wouldn't have a Baseball program at all.

Personally if they aren't willing to fund it correctly I just as well they turn Hymes Field into a tailgate area and dump baseball. As it is baseball is a totally mismanaged sport by the NCAA. 50% of the home games for northern schools are cancelled do to cold weather.

As long as the NCAA continues to mismanage baseball and screw over northern schools to the benefit of southern and western schools, I recommend WMU drop baseball.

The $ can be better spent elsewhere.

My son plays travel ball and I took him to a Western camp. It was horrible. Only thing he got out of it was a t-shirt. He goes to the Ohio State camp every summer and there is no comparison.

(03-11-2016 08:51 AM)Bada Bingo Wrote:  My son plays travel ball and I took him to a Western camp. It was horrible. Only thing he got out of it was a t-shirt. He goes to the Ohio State camp every summer and there is no comparison.

Had a similar experience with my daughter in softball. Went to UM camp and they couldn't have been nicer or more well-organized. WMU acted like they were doing us a favor.

The coaches have to run camps to make up for virtually no recruitment budgets, but they have no budget for camps either. They run them on a skeleton crew.

My nephew went to a WMU camp, was not impressed.

He said the camp at Cornerstone was far superior.

This needs to get back to KB.

(03-12-2016 07:54 PM)broncofan1 Wrote:  This needs to get back to KB.

KB is in retirement mode, leave her alone

Gernon, who’s on a two-year contract with a $72,000 annual salary, is used to rolling up his sleeves.

You will not get great coaches with that type of salary, Gernon needs to go and we need to invest money into the program and hire a great manager.

(03-12-2016 10:59 PM)DiaperHead69 Wrote:  Gernon, who’s on a two-year contract with a $72,000 annual salary, is used to rolling up his sleeves.

You will not get great coaches with that type of salary, Gernon needs to go and we need to invest money into the program and hire a great manager.

For what? To hear 20 scores of away games in the south, or to hear 6 home games have been canceled do to weather? What do we get in a good year, 3 home stands with tolerable weather attended by a few hundred.

Baseball might as well be like hockey. Northern schools embrace and succeed with hockey, Southrrn schools with baseball.

(03-12-2016 11:41 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(03-12-2016 10:59 PM)DiaperHead69 Wrote:  Gernon, who’s on a two-year contract with a $72,000 annual salary, is used to rolling up his sleeves.

You will not get great coaches with that type of salary, Gernon needs to go and we need to invest money into the program and hire a great manager.

For what? To hear 20 scores of away games in the south, or to hear 6 home games have been canceled do to weather? What do we get in a good year, 3 home stands with tolerable weather attended by a few hundred.

Baseball might as well be like hockey. Northern schools embrace and succeed with hockey, Southrrn schools with baseball.

Unless the powers that be move the start of the season back, I agree.

I always assumed the reason was not to go way past the spring semester, but the CWS is well into June as it is so idk if that holds water.

Scotty Wilson told me that one reason we had such great crowds back in the day, outside of being the beast of the Midwest in Baseball was a simple difference in the semester system...
Kids were on campus into June...That made a hell of a difference in attendance

(03-13-2016 01:52 PM)broncojohnny Wrote:  Scotty Wilson told me that one reason we had such great crowds back in the day, outside of being the beast of the Midwest in Baseball was a simple difference in the semester system...
Kids were on campus into June...That made a hell of a difference in attendance

If Scotty said so - it was true.

Never been a better man who played for, graduated from, represented WMU.