Marshall enlists planner to outline new baseball stadium

HUNTINGTON — Marshall University stepped toward building a baseball stadium Friday when athletic executive Mike Hamrick reported the school has procured a designer to plan the hotly anticipated office.

Hamrick reported the ballpark wants to in excess of 75 previous Thundering Herd baseball players amid a gathering in the Big Green Room of Joan C. Edwards Stadium.

"I know you've heard this previously, however you've never heard it from me," Hamrick said before declaring a designer had been enlisted.

Hamrick didn't disclose to the media the name of the engineer, yet showed photos of where the stadium will be situated, at the Flint Group Pigments Plant property, once in the past BASF, 2401 fifth Ave. The property was as of late acquired for $1.2 million.

The response was one of joy from previous players and mentors. None was more joyful than amazing Marshall head baseball mentor Jack Cook, 92, who won a bigger number of recreations with the Thundering Herd than any mentor in any game in school history. Cook trained Marshall baseball from 1967 through 1989.

"I told my players I enlisted each year since I was procured that one year from now we'll be getting another field," Cook said Friday amid a gathering of the 1973 Herd baseball group. "That is the thing that I was told. It never occurred."

Marshall presently plays non-gathering home amusements at George T. Smailes Field at the YMCA Kennedy Center. Gathering USA home amusements have been played at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston and Linda K. Epling Stadium in Beckley.

"Going ahead, I trust this will help [current MU coach] Jeff Waggoner having a field on grounds so they don't need to transport to Charleston or Beckley," Cook said. "He remains throughout the night there when they play an arrangement. It resembles an excursion."

Hamrick said he has examined the new ballpark with Cook for as far back as couple of weeks.

"I gave Coach Cook a refresh and he instructed me to hustle it up in light of the fact that at 92 he was adjusting third and heading home," Hamrick stated, drawing chuckling. "We called all the baseball players in for homecoming to declare this to them."

Larry Verbage, a Herd baseball chief in the mid 1970s, said he was excited with the development toward another stadium.

"Now is the ideal time," Verbage said. "We've heard it for quite a long time. Now is the ideal time. Mentor Cook was guaranteed it and guaranteed it, and now it's prepared to occur."

Tim Murphy, another Herd player from the 1973 group, said he is diminished to hear news that a stadium shows up going to end up a reality.

"It's required," Murphy said. "It's long past due. It's humiliating to be in an association, for example, Conference USA and need to go elsewhere to play home recreations. To contend at that level, Marshall needs another ballpark. It would pull in understudies and increment excitement for the program. Financially it would draw in new organizations around it. I trust they take care of business."

Darren Woody, softball mentor at Huntington High School and a previous Herd baseball player, said he was thrilled at Hamrick's declaration.

"It's been bound to happen," Woody said. "I feel so useful for Coach Cook. The college needs and merits another office, and it will be awesome. I can hardly wait to go ahead to the field out of the blue. It needs to make selecting somewhat less demanding."

The recreation center not exclusively would be home to Marshall baseball, yet additionally could house a small time group. Huntington hasn't handled a partnered small time group since the newbie class Huntington Cubs left after the 1994 season.