Glitz, Glamour and Grind: How UVA Baseball Puts on Opening Day

While UVA began its 2022 baseball season over the weekend with three games away from Charlottesville, the Cavaliers played at home for the first time Wednesday. Fans of all generations – from Giovanetti to his 87-year-old grandfather, Bill Orr – came back to Disharoon Park to see their beloved Wahoos rout Virginia Military Institute, 14-0, and improve to 4-0 on the young season.

In his 1985 book, “Why Time Begins on Opening Day,” Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell wrote, “The crowd and its team had finally understood that in games, as in many things, the ending, the final score, is only part of what matters. The process, the pleasure, the grain of the game count too.”

How UVA arrives at its own “Opening Day” each year is a months-long process that involves a high level of commitment and coordination. It’s all done to produce smiles and souvenirs.

“I just love being out here,” Cox said.

‘Inch by Inch’

It never gets old for Virginia baseball head coach Brian O’Connor.

The baseball lifer, born in the Nebraska city that’s hosted every College World Series since 1950, still appreciates the tiniest of details that go into preparation for each season.

Like a fresh coat of yellow paint being applied to a foul pole.

“I looked out there the other day,” O’Connor said, pointing to left field at Disharoon Park, “and there’s somebody up there with a brush in his hands. I got fired up!”

O’Connor is into his 19th season in charge of the Cavaliers. He’s taken UVA to his hometown of Omaha for the College World Series five times, leaving with a national championship in 2015. Upholding that standard of excellence is required by all parties associated with the program.

Elliott Biskup was atop a 60-foot lift on that February morning O’Connor stepped out from his field-level office. A member of the maintenance and security department within UVA athletics, Biskup has been overseeing the baseball facility for five years.

Each foul pole took four hours to paint – “Inch by inch,” Biskup said.

Biskup, a Charlottesville-area native, is a lifelong Wahoo fan. He was a ball boy for the baseball team before landing what he now calls his “dream job.”

It’s a role that comes with great responsibility this time of year. Once Christmas vacation ends, Biskup is off like a 100 mph fastball, racing to make the stadium ready for the home opener. There are numerous light bulbs to change in the concourse, pieces of plywood to add to the batter’s eye and gallons and gallons of paint needed for the bleachers, the top of the outfield wall and other areas of the stadium.

Sometimes, work gets contracted out. Other times, it’s Biskup with the brush in his hand.

“There’s a lot that goes into it, but to me, working in a facility and in a department that I grew up watching, it’s just amazing,” he said. “There’s no sitting behind a desk. Every day could be something different. I love it. It’s what I live for.”

The Grind Commences

Wednesday’s game was originally scheduled to take place 24 hours earlier. Rain, though, forced a postponement.

Jesse Pritchard, UVA’s sports turf manager since 2005, can deal with rain. It’s that other four-letter word he despises.

“Snow,” Pritchard said, “the No. 1 rule is to pray for no snow.”

Pritchard could count his blessings Wednesday as the sun shone through a 70-degree afternoon. If only every home opener had this backdrop.

Ask Pritchard to think back on one of the tougher stretches in his career and he’ll bring you to early 2010. After Charlottesville received more than 20 inches of snow in December, the new year gave way to nearly 15 more as the baseball season approached.

Pritchard’s crew joined forces with O’Connor’s team – yes, that meant the Cavalier players – on the field and they shoveled until shades of green fully replaced white.

“We worked tirelessly,” Pritchard said. “It was a total team effort, a Herculean one, and one I don’t think we’ll try to take on again.

“But we got that game in.”

On Feb. 24, 2010, UVA – then ranked No. 1 nationally for the first time in program history – beat George Washington, 5-2, before a crowd of 1,567. Afterward, O’Connor tipped his cap to Pritchard.

“Our grounds crew did an incredible job of getting it ready,” O’Connor said. “It’s amazing that we’re playing baseball here in Charlottesville, and I don’t know if they are anywhere else in the state. It’s a tribute to the job they do every day out on that field.”

This year’s snow had long melted by the time Pritchard was making last-minute season preparations. His big project was overseeing installation of a new turf collar behind the batter’s box, which was completed in time.

Pritchard arrived at work around 7 a.m. Wednesday, beginning a task list that included repairing mounds and home plate, lawn-mowing and watering, dragging the infield and painting baselines. He took a break to watch the 3:07 p.m. first pitch.

He’ll repeat this routine through at least May, continuing with this weekend’s three-game series against Cornell University.

“Opening Day’s great,” he said. “It just means, ‘All right, let’s get ready for the grind of the next 16 weeks.’”