Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Baseball's Backyard Brawl Resumes Tonight
April 11, 2018 02:10 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - There will be a bus full of Pitt Panthers pulling into Monongalia County Ballpark sometime later today. It's the Backyard Brawl, the 195thplaying of one of the oldest-running college baseball games in the tri-state area.
Depending upon which school's game notes you read, West Virginia has won 106 and Pitt has won 88.
The Panthers don't count some of those Mountaineer wins because they were against Western University of Pennsylvania and not the University of Pittsburgh, which is about the same as West Virginia not counting anything that happened around here before 1863.
Pitt's solution is to promote its record against the Mountaineers since 1939, which is 73-82.
Why 1939? Not really sure but it does seem kind of arbitrary. That was the year Britain and France declared war on Germany, which started World War II, but the U.S. didn't join in until two years later so I'm not really sure.
If we're going to do that, then why not only count the games back to 2012 because West Virginia is 8-3 against the Panthers since then?
You see, you can never fully trust a cat. You can feed them, pet them and take care of them, and they might even purr a little bit for you and be nice, but eventually they are going to scratch you - or worse.
Around here, they used to tell the story about a young Jack Fleming, sitting on his mother's lap on their front porch right next to old Mountaineer Field, watching the Pitt Panther football players enter the stadium.
"You see those guys there, Jackie," his mother began, "those are the Pitt Panthers and WE HATE the Pitt Panthers.
"You are going to learn to hate the Pitt Panthers for the rest of your life!"
And he did. If he was required to say something complimentary about Pitt, it was usually followed by a wisecrack or a sarcastic remark.
When the two schools were still together in the Big East and playing annually, the games were always spirited and meaningful to the players, no matter the sport - baseball included.
Usually, there were never a lot of fans at these WVU-Pitt baseball games, particularly in Pittsburgh, but that has been a longstanding trend that has encompassed all Pitt sports. The Panther baseball team used to play at old Trees Field, stuck down below a massive parking garage behind where the Petersen Events Center now sits.
There was a 25-foot-tall leftfield fence erected about 300 feet away from home plate that always made lazy fly balls an adventure. The Panther players used to have a giant boom box in their dugout, and they would blast hip-hop songs as they launched majestic 325-foot fly balls out of their tiny ballpark during batting practice.
Then, when the games began they usually had some wise-guy public address announcer sitting behind the backstop who always seemed to mispronounce the West Virginia players' names. An upset parent might walk over and tell him he was saying it wrong, but it never really mattered because that was how the name was pronounced in Pittsburgh - yinzer style!
Of course, Pitt probably felt the same way about coming down to Morgantown to play at old Hawley Field, which was basically stuck in a swamp behind the Shell Building.
There was a reason why the WVU Coliseum was built where it was built (on the site of the old baseball field); why the Shell Building and outdoor track were built where they were built; why the soccer stadium was built where it was built and why the baseball field was shoved all the way in the back of the lot.
Once, an enthusiastic assistant coach got the bright idea of shoveling all the snow off the infield and piling it along the third-base line so the Mountaineers could play an early-March game. It worked out well that afternoon, but it also canceled the rest of the month when the snow finally began to melt.
Otherwise, afternoon WVU baseball games were typically cold and barren, even when Pitt came to town, with most of the back-and-forth banter coming between the players' girlfriends of the two teams.
One time, the late Dale Ramsburg was in a conundrum because he couldn't find any umpires to call an early afternoon game against the Panthers. After all, umpires have day jobs and Wednesday afternoon starts sometimes make it tough to get the competent ones, so Ramsburg was forced to get WVU assistant basketball coach Butch Haswell to work the plate.
When Pitt's coach, the late Bobby Lewis, saw the well-known Haswell emerge from the Shell Building wearing a chest protector and umpire's gear and walking down the left field line toward home plate, Lewis yelled over to Ramsburg, "So Dale, who do you have working the bases today, Gale Catlett?"
Catlett, of course, was West Virginia's head basketball coach at the time.
Whenever the two teams couldn't play nice together in the litter box, sometimes they decided to compromise and play on neutral sites.
On one occasion, West Virginia and Pitt met in what was basically an abandoned field someplace outside of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, about halfway between Morgantown and Pittsburgh. The lights weren't very good that evening, which is probably why a couple of midweek pitchers with 10-plus ERAs were able to hold both offenses down.
I believe West Virginia won, 2-1, but it may or may not be counted that way in Pitt's records. You might need to check the Uniontown newspaper for proof the Mountaineers actually won the game.
Another time, somebody came up with the great idea of playing the Backyard Brawl in cavernous, 59,000-seat Three Rivers Stadium, which had about 58,900 more seats than was required that day.
Actually, I counted about 15 people sitting in the stands that sunny afternoon, and you could hear everything they were saying - good and bad.
But not all of the games have been like this, and with the two new ballparks the teams now use, the atmosphere is considerably better. Pitt's Petersen Sports Complex is near where old Trees Field used to sit with the parking garage in the foreground now instead of the background.
The baseball stadium seats about a thousand with a nice press box and a modern playing surface more suitable for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the league with which Pitt is now associated. I haven't been to a game up there lately, but I presume the old boom box has since been retired.
The Panthers also put their home games on WATCH ESPN, which makes the overall experience much nicer.
West Virginia, now members of the Big 12, recently christened Monongalia County Ballpark, a professional-grade facility with all of the amenities baseball fans have come to enjoy, including beer.
The WVU marketing people have not had any Disco Demolition Nights there, yet, but the in-game promotions are always fun and entertaining.
And the WVU-Pitt games in Morgantown have been well-attended in recent years, including the more than 2,800 who showed up to watch West Virginia blank the Panthers, 2-0, last year.
"It's the Backyard Brawl," West Virginia coach Randy Mazey said following his team's 3-2 win over Penn State in Pittsburgh last night. "You don't have to say much more than that. What team can't get motivated for this one? If they don't, they don't have any business wearing a Mountaineer uniform.
"It's the game you dream about all year long - get excited about all year long - and we've got a chance to get back to .500, so there is every reason in the world for these guys to play hard," Mazey concluded.
The weather is finally beginning to act like it's supposed to around here in April with tonight's forecast calling for temperatures in the high 50s, which is far better than what we've experienced lately.
So, come on out and catch a little college baseball at 6 o'clock.
Pitt (17-12) is having a fine season under veteran coach Joe Jordano, and the Panthers recently took two out of three against Virginia and won an ACC game at Duke.
It should be a fun one to watch, plus, you might see a couple of the players' girlfriends argue a little bit, too.
And, Mazey won't be needing to use any of Bob Huggins' guys to call tonight's game either!
Depending upon which school's game notes you read, West Virginia has won 106 and Pitt has won 88.
The Panthers don't count some of those Mountaineer wins because they were against Western University of Pennsylvania and not the University of Pittsburgh, which is about the same as West Virginia not counting anything that happened around here before 1863.
Pitt's solution is to promote its record against the Mountaineers since 1939, which is 73-82.
Why 1939? Not really sure but it does seem kind of arbitrary. That was the year Britain and France declared war on Germany, which started World War II, but the U.S. didn't join in until two years later so I'm not really sure.
If we're going to do that, then why not only count the games back to 2012 because West Virginia is 8-3 against the Panthers since then?
You see, you can never fully trust a cat. You can feed them, pet them and take care of them, and they might even purr a little bit for you and be nice, but eventually they are going to scratch you - or worse.
Around here, they used to tell the story about a young Jack Fleming, sitting on his mother's lap on their front porch right next to old Mountaineer Field, watching the Pitt Panther football players enter the stadium.
"You see those guys there, Jackie," his mother began, "those are the Pitt Panthers and WE HATE the Pitt Panthers.
"You are going to learn to hate the Pitt Panthers for the rest of your life!"
And he did. If he was required to say something complimentary about Pitt, it was usually followed by a wisecrack or a sarcastic remark.
When the two schools were still together in the Big East and playing annually, the games were always spirited and meaningful to the players, no matter the sport - baseball included.
Usually, there were never a lot of fans at these WVU-Pitt baseball games, particularly in Pittsburgh, but that has been a longstanding trend that has encompassed all Pitt sports. The Panther baseball team used to play at old Trees Field, stuck down below a massive parking garage behind where the Petersen Events Center now sits.
There was a 25-foot-tall leftfield fence erected about 300 feet away from home plate that always made lazy fly balls an adventure. The Panther players used to have a giant boom box in their dugout, and they would blast hip-hop songs as they launched majestic 325-foot fly balls out of their tiny ballpark during batting practice.
Then, when the games began they usually had some wise-guy public address announcer sitting behind the backstop who always seemed to mispronounce the West Virginia players' names. An upset parent might walk over and tell him he was saying it wrong, but it never really mattered because that was how the name was pronounced in Pittsburgh - yinzer style!
Of course, Pitt probably felt the same way about coming down to Morgantown to play at old Hawley Field, which was basically stuck in a swamp behind the Shell Building.
There was a reason why the WVU Coliseum was built where it was built (on the site of the old baseball field); why the Shell Building and outdoor track were built where they were built; why the soccer stadium was built where it was built and why the baseball field was shoved all the way in the back of the lot.
Once, an enthusiastic assistant coach got the bright idea of shoveling all the snow off the infield and piling it along the third-base line so the Mountaineers could play an early-March game. It worked out well that afternoon, but it also canceled the rest of the month when the snow finally began to melt.
Otherwise, afternoon WVU baseball games were typically cold and barren, even when Pitt came to town, with most of the back-and-forth banter coming between the players' girlfriends of the two teams.
One time, the late Dale Ramsburg was in a conundrum because he couldn't find any umpires to call an early afternoon game against the Panthers. After all, umpires have day jobs and Wednesday afternoon starts sometimes make it tough to get the competent ones, so Ramsburg was forced to get WVU assistant basketball coach Butch Haswell to work the plate.
When Pitt's coach, the late Bobby Lewis, saw the well-known Haswell emerge from the Shell Building wearing a chest protector and umpire's gear and walking down the left field line toward home plate, Lewis yelled over to Ramsburg, "So Dale, who do you have working the bases today, Gale Catlett?"
Catlett, of course, was West Virginia's head basketball coach at the time.
Whenever the two teams couldn't play nice together in the litter box, sometimes they decided to compromise and play on neutral sites.
On one occasion, West Virginia and Pitt met in what was basically an abandoned field someplace outside of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, about halfway between Morgantown and Pittsburgh. The lights weren't very good that evening, which is probably why a couple of midweek pitchers with 10-plus ERAs were able to hold both offenses down.
I believe West Virginia won, 2-1, but it may or may not be counted that way in Pitt's records. You might need to check the Uniontown newspaper for proof the Mountaineers actually won the game.
Another time, somebody came up with the great idea of playing the Backyard Brawl in cavernous, 59,000-seat Three Rivers Stadium, which had about 58,900 more seats than was required that day.
Actually, I counted about 15 people sitting in the stands that sunny afternoon, and you could hear everything they were saying - good and bad.
But not all of the games have been like this, and with the two new ballparks the teams now use, the atmosphere is considerably better. Pitt's Petersen Sports Complex is near where old Trees Field used to sit with the parking garage in the foreground now instead of the background.
The baseball stadium seats about a thousand with a nice press box and a modern playing surface more suitable for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the league with which Pitt is now associated. I haven't been to a game up there lately, but I presume the old boom box has since been retired.
The Panthers also put their home games on WATCH ESPN, which makes the overall experience much nicer.
West Virginia, now members of the Big 12, recently christened Monongalia County Ballpark, a professional-grade facility with all of the amenities baseball fans have come to enjoy, including beer.
The WVU marketing people have not had any Disco Demolition Nights there, yet, but the in-game promotions are always fun and entertaining.
And the WVU-Pitt games in Morgantown have been well-attended in recent years, including the more than 2,800 who showed up to watch West Virginia blank the Panthers, 2-0, last year.
"It's the Backyard Brawl," West Virginia coach Randy Mazey said following his team's 3-2 win over Penn State in Pittsburgh last night. "You don't have to say much more than that. What team can't get motivated for this one? If they don't, they don't have any business wearing a Mountaineer uniform.
"It's the game you dream about all year long - get excited about all year long - and we've got a chance to get back to .500, so there is every reason in the world for these guys to play hard," Mazey concluded.
The weather is finally beginning to act like it's supposed to around here in April with tonight's forecast calling for temperatures in the high 50s, which is far better than what we've experienced lately.
So, come on out and catch a little college baseball at 6 o'clock.
Pitt (17-12) is having a fine season under veteran coach Joe Jordano, and the Panthers recently took two out of three against Virginia and won an ACC game at Duke.
It should be a fun one to watch, plus, you might see a couple of the players' girlfriends argue a little bit, too.
And, Mazey won't be needing to use any of Bob Huggins' guys to call tonight's game either!
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