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Points East
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - South Florida might be better known for other things, but the Miami area is definitely baseball country. Drive up and down U.S. 1 between West Palm Beach and Key Largo, and you'll see nearly as many diamonds along the highway as Cuban sandwich shops. U. of Miami unsung
king of college diamondsOne of these fields is Mark Light Stadium, home of the Miami Hurricanes.
Unless you live in Miami or follow college baseball very closely, you've probably never heard of Mark Light Stadium. But to its sport, "The Light" is hallowed ground just as much as The Swamp is to football or Pauley Pavilion is to basketball.
This is where Ron Fraser built a dynasty, retired, and is still king of Coral Gables. He's even got a street named after him.
Jim Morris is the coach now. He has guided the 'Canes to the College World Series all six years at UM, and won it all last spring.
But in college baseball, not even the defending national champions - make that three-time national champions - get much respect.
Over the weekend, the Hurricanes played an in-state rival, the Florida Gators.
UF liked its chances, especially after opening its season with a three-game sweep at Hawaii. But in the Florida-Miami series, the visiting team hadn't won in the last 16 meetings.
Now that number is 18.
The Miami Pound Machine was definitely out of tune going into the two-game set, coming in with a .160 team batting average four games into the season.
But the Hurricanes turned Florida's pitching into a national disaster area, rapping 36 hits in outscoring the Gators, 33-9.
A crowd of 4,004 - pretty good by college baseball standards - saw UM complete the sweep with a 17-1 rout on Saturday. But in the overall scheme of the area sports scene, it didn't draw much attention.
Two stories involving the University of Miami football team received much more media play, even though they had nothing to do with anything happening on a playing field. One was about a former player, Ray Lewis, in trouble with the law, and another about a possible future player who signed letters-of-intent to attend Miami and Florida.
And yesterday, the front page of the Miami Herald sports section featured stories on horse racing, the Dolphins, senior golf and . . . are you ready for this? . . . hockey.
Perhaps college baseball is an oxymoron. Most of the great players go straight to the pros out of high school, or don't stay long (cases in point: UM's biggest-name players, Mike Piazza and Greg Vaughn, played there only one year each), and aluminum bats make the game something closer to slow-pitch softball than real baseball.
Regardless, you'd think a program whose tradition includes Jimmie Foxx as a coach and Roy Firestone calling games would get a little more attention.
ON a personal note, this is the final installment of Points East. As you read this, I am headed back to Hawaii to start work for the Star-Bulletin sports department.
While Mark Light Stadium is beautiful, I can't wait to get back to my three favorite places to watch baseball: Hans L'Orange, Rainbow Stadium and Mid-Pacific.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii
from 1977 to 1998, is a sportswriter at the
Gainesville Sun. E-mail reardod@gvillesun.com
