The 1983 Yellow Jackets Work Out in Ursprung Gymnasium

Check out this photo set of the 1983 baseball team practicing in Ursprung Gymnasium to see what our indoor workouts were like before the Rec Center was built in 1986.

In addition to cramming our fielding drills onto a single basketball court, we had to lower our only batting cage and raise all of the basketball hoops with an industrial drill before every practice. There wasn’t an indoor track, so we ran laps through the gym’s open doors, down the lobby hallway and back through the gym. We finished our conditioning by sprinting up and down the steep bleacher steps.

Today’s players get to take fungoes on a field house floor that’s the size of three basketball courts. They can hit year-round in one of the Rec Center’s two batting cages, and they can run actual laps on the Harrison Dillard indoor track. They still have to hit those bleacher steps after practice, though!

You’ll find photos of hall of famers Tom Bilski and Jim Stefanik in this set, but I can’t figure out who this player in the batting cage is. If you can identify him, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail message.