Friends of UCR Baseball,

I apologize for the lack of communication from the RBA Board to our group. It is entirely my fault. It is my goal to keep you informed about our organization as well as UCR Baseball.

On a very positive note, Andre Granillo, who pitched at UCR from 2019-21 made his Major League debut on June 12th and threw 2 plus innings of shutout baseball for the St Louis Cardinals. Congratulations to Andre on this accomplishment.

On the field, it was a disappointing year regarding wins and losses. The Highlanders were really done in with the injury bug. We are hopeful that everyone comes back healthy and that the incoming recruiting class will be successful. On an important note, all of the seniors graduated. Congratulations to everyone on that accomplishment.

There is some news that may be positive. A new Chancellor is in place. He is Dr S. Jack Hu. His previous two institutions are Michigan and Georgia. I had a chance meeting with him, and he expressed his belief that Athletics has a viable place in a major institution like UCR. He stated that he is too new to campus to properly assess what role that is at UCR. We are hopeful that he will expand the athletic footprint. Our Athletics Director for the previous 5 years has accepted a new position and is no longer on campus. I believe this a positive move for Baseball. He did not appreciate or fund the program as it should have been. The new Chancellor is conducting a National Search for the position.

During the last 5 years, including the upcoming year, we have been successful in raising and giving the baseball program approximately
$300,000 including matching money and yet nothing has changed. I place the blame for this directly on The University administration as well as the Athletic Depart administration. Baseball has become a non-priority in the Athletic Department. It is funded on the lowest basis possible. It is regarded as the same level of priority as Men’s and Women’s Tennis. With no disrespect to those programs, this is a massive mistake. The Big West is a Baseball Conference.

It has been my belief that the money we all give to our program should be used as enhancement funds, not just to pay the bills. The question now is, how do address this? It is my suggestion that to educate the athletic administration of how poorly they fund the program and the importance of the money that we raise, is to pause some RBA’ fundraising efforts for one year. I’m hopeful they will see that they need to step up, not just call on us whenever they need or want something.

With the exception of the Diamond Club which we will continue to campaign annually, I believe we should turn the fundraising efforts back over to the Baseball Program and the Athletic Dept. this includes the Golf Tournament. My goal is not to punish our program but to help the Department understand that they need to “step up”. In meeting with the baseball staff, they are in agreement with this step. They feel that this will allow them to communicate more directly with our alumni. We will still hold our Alumni Golf tournament but under a slightly different format that will be communicated to you soon.

It is our hope that our Athletics Administration will realize what a big role Baseball has played in the growth of UCR Athletics and the campus as a whole. We hope you are all doing well and look forward to seeing you all in the near future.

Doug Smith