From the Sideline — Why Alabama Baseball Benefits from Hoover Home Games

The day of the first Alabama Baseball scrimmage, I left my house, drove to the Hoover Met, parked, walked into the stadium and up to the batting cage where head coach Mitch Gaspard was watching his team take cuts at their home for the 2015 season.

My greeting to him was simple: “Ten minutes, 45 seconds…6.45 miles.”

Gaspard laughed, because he knew exactly what I meant.

After 15 seasons of driving about an hour to Sewell-Thomas Stadium, from my home in Hoover, I finally get a full season of “home” games myself.

Selfish reasoning aside, I think this is going to be great for the Crimson Tide Baseball program. While there are obvious inconveniences that come with the drive to Hoover, it also brings Alabama to the state’s largest city – and a major portion of its fan base.

In addition to the added media attention that will come with being in the Birmingham area, it also provides a chance for Coach Gaspard’s program to play in front of a segment of the Bama Nation that may never have seen the Tide on the diamond.

The hope is that they will enjoy the product, get behind the program, and want to come back to Tuscaloosa next year when Alabama re-opens Sewell-Thomas Stadium – which, by then, will likely be one of America’s finest college baseball facilities.

I remember the days when Alabama Football played half its home games at Legion Field, and how much of a buzz it created in town. While hockey is officially just a club sport at the University of Alabama, fans pile into the Pelham Civic Complex to watch the Frozen Tide compete.

Having an Alabama team calling Birmingham (or Hoover) home still means a lot to the Tide fans of the area. I’m hoping they will have a lot to be excited about this spring, and turn out in large numbers at The Met.

And for those of you that can’t make it from Tuscaloosa to Hoover, I’ll gladly make the short drive from my home to the press box, and broadcast the games back to you on Tide 99.1.