With the Season Canceled, UWM’s Baseball Team prepares for 2021

The UWM baseball team’s season was canceled one week before its first opening day at a new stadium, and now the team looks to next season.

Because of the cancelation the NCAA has offered an extra year of eligibility to all athletes who had their seasons cut short because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, some will have their careers cut short as a result even with the extension offer from the NCAA.

“I’ll graduate with my master’s degree in May, and I just thought it didn’t make any sense to go back to school,” said UWM pitcher, Matthew Vanek. “I love the guys and the coaches, but I was ready for my real life to start.”

Vanek is the only senior of the four on UWM’s baseball team to not return to the team because of the pandemic.

“It was about a 50/50 chance [of him coming back], but he has a job offer waiting for him,” said UWM head baseball coach Scott Doffek.

“Yeah it was definitely a tough choice between starting my ‘real life’ and continuing to live out my dream of playing baseball,” said Vanek.

The baseball team was an hour away from leaving for their first in-conference game when the NCAA announced the cancelation of all spring athletic seasons.

“We were finally to a point where we were going to play some home games,” said Doffek. “We were going from not the best facility [at Henry Aaron field], to the best facility.”

The team was also one week from playing their first home game at the one Milkmen Stadium in Franklin, Wisconsin, planned to be their new home stadium for UWM, and shared with the Milwaukee Milkmen of the American Association professional independent league baseball team.

“I was really looking forward to playing in the new stadium,” said Vanek. “We played a little in the fall, but it wouldn’t be anything compared to a real game with fans and the atmosphere. I am very disappointed I didn’t get to be apart of the first team to play at the new stadium.”

Now focus has shifted to preparing for the 2021 season following the abrupt cancelation of the 2020 season.

“It’s tough trying to recruit high school players, since they aren’t playing game either,” said Doffek.

Coaches are still recruiting both junior college transfer athletes as well as high school students. However, high school students are not playing games either coaches are unable to put together adequate scouting reports, or even hold in-person recruitment meetings.

“We’re still actively recruiting,” said Doffek. “Right now all D-1 schools are just trying to fill out rosters.”

Many college baseball players in April are participating in workouts to go pro during the June draft, but Covid-19 has also curtailed that to an extent. Major League Baseball has announced that its offseason plans to cut over 40 minor league baseball teams is on the horizon with the MLB taking over control of the previously independent MiLB.

In addition to cutting many teams, MLB has announced that the upcoming June draft will be cut from 40 rounds of all 30 major league teams picking one player per round down to a maximum of 10 rounds.

As a result many college players who would have considered the draft are returning to college the extra season of eligibility offered by the NCAA.

“This is for sure much bigger than any season,” said Doffek.

There is at the moment no indication if there will be summer games played for UWM or college baseball as a whole, but teams are actively preparing for next spring giving the indication that a summer season is unlikely.

NCAA has made plans to accommodate the pandemic for athletes, and with opportunities to go pro limited many are making plans to return to school for one more year.

UWM will still be calling Milkmen Stadium its home, but no practices will be held there until the fall, and no games until March of 2021.