Clemson head coach Erik Bakich is hard at work doing whatever he can to bring a more consistently intense and entertaining environment to Doug Kingsmore Stadium this Spring.
Bakich has worked “outside the box” all offseason, leading to an exhibition game with the Banana Ball All-Stars, a partnership with Absolutely Ridiculous, and multiple stadium renovations.
The Clemson Baseball program could work to shake up the traditional baseball experience for the fans this season, as shortstop Andrew Ciufo mentioned a unique possibility.
“There is a lot of downtime in baseball. One of his (Bakich) visions that I find pretty cool is implementing some part of a Banana Ball style into our conference games, our real games. That could be something as simple as the guys who aren’t playing at that time running up into the stadium and interacting with fans.”
Andrew Ciufo – Thursday’s media availability.
In terms of physical renovations, Clemson will be relocating the visitor’s bullpen onto the playing surface. It will be placed in foul territory, directly in front of where it was previously located. This is part of a movement to make Doug Kingsmore Stadium a more difficult place to play for opposing teams.
“So forever and ever it seems like opposing teams might have had massage tables over there … It was the most comfortable, gigantic bullpen,” said Bakich on Thursday. “The easiest place to go be an opposing pitcher. And now we went one-eighty from that and hopefully make it one of the toughest places to be an opposing pitcher.”
Erik Bakich
The old bullpen area will be turned into a “Beer Garden” space for fans and will be sold as standing room only tickets.
Yes, you heard that right. Bakich revealed on Thursday that Doug Kingsmore Stadium will be selling beer inside the stadium for the first time in program history. This would be the first on-campus athletic venue approved to sell alcohol to fans, with the exception of Littlejohn Coliseum and Death Valley luxury suites.
“We want the rowdy crowd, we want the beer-drinking crowd, we want people to come out here and have a blast. The opposing pitchers are going to have to get warm right in front of that section, so I’m excited to see how that looks.”
Erik Bakich
The program has also removed all of the natural grass in foul territory and replaced it with synthetic turf. This removal included the concrete wings which would branch off from home plate towards both dugouts.
They have also replaced the wording behind home plate, switching the block lettered “Clemson” into the script font that is only used by the baseball and softball programs.
The synthetic turf will grant Bakich and his team more space for training and other outdoor off-field activities.
“So not only does the turf look better and stay maintained, but we can now use this as a development area. We can take ground balls, we can do speed and agility, we can do whatever. So there’s a functionality from a more training rep standpoint” said Bakich of the new synthetic turf.
The Clemson Tigers will be playing 7 inning scrimmages this weekend on Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday at noon, and Sunday at 2 p.m. This will give fans an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Tigers in action before the season officially begins.
Bakich and his squad will begin the regular season on February 14th at noon, when they take on No. 17 Oklahoma State in the first day of the Shriners Children College Showdown.
