COLUMN: High hopes for upcoming year

From Bob Seddon's "Guest Column," Fall '95 So you want to know what I think about the baseball team's season so far and it's prospects for another Ivy League title? Well, if you really want to know, I think the parking situation down here is awful. Only at the University of Pennsylvania does the game end and the umpire can't find his freakin' car. And he's not the first this has happened to. Last week, those people up there towed seven cars during one of our games. Seven cars! What's going on down here? And the thing is -- those guys up there in the athletic department know we have a problem. Where else can you go trying to enjoy a simple baseball game and your car gets towed? But the problem is bigger than just this. It costs 75 dollars to get your car back, and the athletic department won't pay one damn cent of it. So now the baseball budget has to cover these expenses. That's ridiculous! Three weeks ago, they towed Wags' car. Twelve deserves better than that. He's been here forever, and they're towing his car? To make matters worse, the athletic department won't reimburse him either. For Christ's sake, he was on a fund-raising trip in New York when it got towed. He raised thousands of dollars for the University and they won't pay 75 dollars for him to get his car back? That's crazy! No, really, our pitching staff is incredible. We have so many live arms -- Ed Haughey, Dan Galles, Mike Shannon, Lance Berger, those kids in the bullpen. They'll keep us in every game, it's just a matter of getting some runs. We've got to score some runs. But the real issue is the parking problem. I mean, it kills team morale -- it affects every aspect of the game. When parents come to every game pissed off, their kids can sense the aggravation. It's not fair and it can't stay this way. Now the parents want us to pay for them to park in the lot up by Franklin Field. What, are we supposed to pay five dollars for every one of them each game? That'll cost hundreds of dollars, and the University isn't going to give us any extra money to fix this problem. I remember once last year this damn idiot tried to tow my car. Can you believe that? Someone up there ordered them to tow my car! I'm the coach here. I've been here 25 years and they tried to tow my car! But it's not the guy towing the car's fault. He was as nice as he could be, and he was just following orders. Someone up there has a real problem. We have a problem. The University of Pennsylvania has a big problem. Yeah, I think it will be a disappointment if we don't win the league. We came so close last year in the playoff in Connecticut, and almost everyone is back. What, I think we lost two pitchers. No, just Komsky. But with Martin and A B in the pen, we'll be at least as good as any other team. Columbia has that one kid, Johnson, I think. But that's it. It's the same for Princeton. It's the same for Cornell, but they'll be a little better this year. But we go five or six deep. It's almost not fair. But what's really not fair is this freakin' parking problem. I bust my butt every year and still the University won't give me anything. I've been here 25 years, and does the University care? Not one damn bit! If it wasn't for Mike Shannon's bat, we'd be in a whole heap of trouble. But DeRosa's got to get healthy. Same with Rick Burt -- he's the key to our season. And Allen Fischer has some pop in his bat. Paperboy hit one out the other day -- unbelievable. But until that parking problem is fixed, who knows what will happen? Will we win our home games when our fans are upset about the parking and not really paying attention to the game? It might be too much to ask, but I think anything less than a divisional title would be disappointing. Don't you agree, Wags? Bob Seddon is in his 25th season as the Penn baseball coach. Although the city claims he owes $7,634 in parking fines, he continues to refuse to pay any of it.