[media-credit id=41 align=”alignnone” width=”400″][/media-credit]San Jose City College’s baseball program has been suspended since June.

The loss of the program occurred in large part because the baseball team does not have its own field nor the funds to rent other facilities, said Head Coach, Doug Robb. That left the program, its head coach and players in a state of limbo.

Of 19 returning players, most have already left for other schools where they’ll have a chance to play this season. During the 16 year tenure of Robb, under his guidance the Jags baseball teams have averaged 24 wins a season having a statistical best in 2009 when they won 37 games overall and made its first super regional championship game appearance making school history.

Prior to the program’s suspension, the players maintained the highest GPA and transfer rates among all male sports on campus.

The problems confronting the baseball program didn’t occur overnight, the root cause of the problem goes back 10 years, around the time the program still had a field, that was eventually tore down to make room for the parking complex. Since that day the problems have slowly been festering like an open sore, not entirely harmless, but at first not exactly life threatening either.

Over the past couple of years the programs had to contend with multiple issues, most of which can be traced back to the decision to tear down the old field. The largest issue confronting the program is the lack of facilities where the team can play and practice. Because it doesn’t have a field of its own, the team’s been forced to rent the facilities at nearby schools, and for the past 2 years, they’ve done exactly that, at great expense. At Wilcox High School, however, this solution was only a temporary one seeing as how Wilcoxs’ baseball team needed the same field for its use.

Despite these setbacks there was still hope for the program. The program was scheduled to get a new field which was set to be constructed near Leigh Ave. The Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Association cited concerns over how the field would affect the neighborhood, former President Randi Kinman wrote in an e-mail saying that the project didn’t follow proper California Guideline Environmental Act procedure. SONA then brought these concerns to the attention of then President Michael Burke.

Noticing the oversight, the president immediately halted further construction pending a review, Kinman wrote. That review led to the termination of the project because it was proven that the site would never be safe, due to its proximity to residential areas. Overall, the entire process was mishandled and in the end, cost the school tremendous funds for further developments with nothing visible to show for it.

The best option to resurrect the defunct baseball program, would be the passing of Measure G. Measure G is a bond set to be put before the voters on the Nov. 2 ballot for Santa Clara County, affecting only the the Evergreen and SJCC districts, so only local residents can affect its outcome. If the bond were to pass it would greatly enhance the chances of bringing baseball back to our campus. In order to vote, you must be registered to vote in Santa Clara County. Registration can be done online at www.ss.ca.gov, or by mail, forms must be mailed in by the Oct. 18 deadline to the Registrar of Voters PO Box 611300, San Jose, CA 95161.