James continued on his tour of the Collegiate Baseball Association. Today, he traveled to Manhattan to take a tour of Columbia University and see their game against Rutgers. James met up with his old friend and President of Columbia University, Jamie Hebebrand.
Jamie told James that his team had only had two home games, as the schedule had them playing on the road early on. There were 600 people at the home opener, but only 424 for the second game. Like James, Jamie was surprised at how a city of 1.4 million people couldn't fill his stadium, so he was certain they just had to get the word out and then the crowds would come. Jamie took James for a tour of Lions Ballpark, which at 1700, had the largest capacity he had seen on his tour. The field short down the lines, but deep in center, measuring 323 feet down the left side and 325 on the right. The alleys came in at 395 in left and 400 in right, with center field at 431 feet.
James was introduced to Columbia's Athletic Director, John Brown. Brown was a bit disappointed with his teams performance so far, going 3-4, but with the majority of the early games played on the road, he felt the players would turn things around. Manager Kevin Travis agreed. Travis said his team started out by losing two on the road at Rutgers, then won two of three at Cornell. Earlier this week, the team split a two game set with Lehigh at home. Travis was a bit nervous about the upcoming three game series at home against Rutgers. "They're a good team and they've gotten off to a fine start." James inquired as to who the best player on the team had been thus far this season. "I'd have to say my center fielder, Ed Droster. He's my lead off man and a fine hitter at that."
The game against Rutgers was another cold one, with the temperature just above freezing, but a stiff wind coming in from center field. There were 453 people at the game, which seemed to please Jamie. "That's a few more than the last game. I figure, with the weekend coming up, those numbers will go up the next couple of games, as well."
Columbia's manager, Kevin Travis, was right. Rutgers seemed to have a fine team. They scored two runs in the first two innings to take a 4-0 lead. James was thrilled with something that happened in the first inning which hadn't happened in any game he had attended. Rutger's right fielder, Jake Bowsher, hit the ball over the fence in left center field for a home run. Thrilling!! James had never seen power like that before in a ball game. Inside the park home runs, sure, he'd seen that, but over the fence?? Amazing!! The ball must have gone ten feet past the wall, which measured 395 feet away!
Columbia clawed their way back into the game, scoring two runs in the 3rd and one in the 6th inning to make the score 4-3. But Rutgers hit the ball well in the 8th inning and scored four more runs on their way to winning 8-3.
After the game, James returned home to spend what time he could with his family. He was headed to his office on Monday to go through the end of month reports he had asked all of the university presidents to send him regarding their team's performance thus far. It was going to be a busy week and James would need to get everything compiled before he traveled again at the end of the week.