I have admitted something to myself, and I think it is time I shared it with the rest of the world. I am, and always have been, more into sports I can play or have played than those I was never any good at. Because of this, despite the fact that we are right in the middle of the season, I cannot get too excited about basketball at any level. Don’t get me wrong – I love March Madness, and when the time comes, I will be glued to my TV, hanging on every possession. I just am not as passionate about basketball as some other sports, mostly because I suck at it, which led me to a bit of a journalistic impasse.

What do I write about with football season being pretty much over – the “Super Hype” Bowl notwithstanding – and the draft three months away? Well, I am going to start by saying that Iowa State needs the baseball team back, in a big way.

I wonder how many students realize that Iowa State and Colorado are the only schools in the Big 12 that don’t have baseball teams. I didn’t know that until I decided to write this column. I may be 6 months too late in mentioning the 2005 College World Series, but it seems to me that baseball is a big deal for the Big 12. Texas, Nebraska and Baylor represented the conference in that tournament, with Texas taking home the national title. Did I mention the World Series was held in Omaha? How awesome would it have been to have the Cyclones bear down on the Omaha area to support a baseball program?

I don’t know the whole story as to why we don’t have a team anymore, but I am sure the first and foremost reason was money. I have no doubt that it costs a pretty penny to have a college baseball team, but then again, it costs a lot of money to field a college football team, and we seem to be doing that just fine. I don’t want to jump on the boneheaded bandwagon of people who want only to “blame Title IX,” but I am sure that it also contributed to the decision. Regardless of the politics surrounding the issue, there would be a lot of happy people – me among them – if new Athletic Director Jamie Pollard would at least consider discussion to bring baseball back to Iowa State.

The last time Cyclone Baseball took the field, it finished 24-29, with a .423 winning percentage in the Big 12. That was in 2001. Even if we were never to contend for a national title, it would still be fun to have another team to support. Heck, we went undefeated in conference play in 1909, and we won the Big Eight Conference in 1971 – we could be the college version of Cubs fans!

I am sure there are some good baseball players at Iowa State right now, not to mention players we could recruit. Having this team could help our enrollment, and even if it was a little at first, one never knows where the added exposure could land us.

Baseball is a wonderful game. It is the national pastime and having a team would do great things for the school and this city. Anyone who has spent a summer in Ames knows how badly the town could use some extracurricular activities during that season, and I can think of few better ways to keep kids in town than to give them a team to support. Iowa State has fielded 109 seasons of baseball – some good and some bad – but it’s tragic we may never see the 110th.

– Nathan Chiaravalloti is a junior in political science from Davenport.