Boshamer Stadium plans face-lift after 1,000-plus games

At Boshamer Stadium tonight the North Carolina baseball team will kick off a critical three-game series against Florida State.

And while baseball pollsters will be watching closely to see how the No. 7 Tar Heels handle the fourth-ranked Seminoles, the series carries an added, if not more important, significance.

Tonight's contest will be the 998th game UNC has played at the Bosh, and on Sunday the Tar Heels will take the field for the 1,000th time in stadium history.

What's more, with renovation looming on the horizon for Boshamer, every game played within its confines has taken on an added meaning.

Beginning at the end of the 2007 season Boshamer will undergo its first major renovation since the park's namesake, Cary C. Boshamer, ponied up the funds to start construction in 1970. The Tar Heels played their first game at the park March 21, 1972.

A renovated facility will help the team in its recruiting, make the park more fan-friendly and allow UNC to host NCAA regional tournament games.

"Right now it's very difficult for us to host (a regional) with . only one men's and one women's bathroom," says Russel James of the Rams Club, the fundraising arm of the UNC athletic department.

"We want to bring it up to modern-day amenities but keeping true to some of the traditions it had."

With a revitalized stadium, UNC hopes to build on its already stellar track record at the stadium.

Before the start of the 2006 season, UNC had posted an eye-popping .756 win percentage at the Bosh, going 737-237-3 over 30-plus years. From 1973-83 UNC hosted five ACC Tournaments at Boshamer, winning titles in 1982 and 1983.

And just last season North Carolina notched its best record at the Bosh, winning 32 games at home.

Yet, collegiate teams aren't the only type of competition the Tar Heels have tackled at the stadium.

In 1977, 1979 and 1981 UNC squared off against a star-studded New York Yankees cast led by the likes of Reggie Jackson and Ron Guidry in exhibition games at Boshamer.

During all but one of those years, the daughter of Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner, Jenny, was in school at UNC, giving The Boss and his squad an excuse to stop in Chapel Hill on their way home from spring training in Florida.

Scott Bradley, a two-time All-America catcher and third baseman who played for the Tar Heels from 1979-81, recalled those pairings against the pinstripes as his favorite moments at the park.

"Growing up a New Jersey kid and being able to play against the Yanks was unbelievable," he says. "We had people hanging from the trees around Bosh. . It just was an amazing, amazing atmosphere."

Asked about his favorite moments at Boshamer, UNC coach Mike Fox, who played for the team from 1975-78 and took the helm in 1999, recalled a memory not quite as pleasant as Bradley's.

After walking on the team as a freshman in 1975, Fox was part of the 1978 UNC squad that finished third in the College World Series.

Ironically, though, after UNC's season ended with a 3-2 loss to Duke at Boshamer in a single-elimination ACC Tournament game, Fox and his teammates didn't know if they'd even make it to the collegiate fall classic.

"We lost 'cause we tried to steal home with two outs in the ninth inning and got tagged out," he said. "I remember going in thinking that my career was gonna end like that, and everybody was really upset."

As successful as Fox was on the field for the Tar Heels, he might be even better in the dugout, having guided the team to the NCAA Tournament the past four years - a first in program history.

Heading into tonight's game, his team boasts a 21-5 record and has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the country.

While Fox said the 1,000th game is significant, the most important thing for him is being able to play UNC baseball at Boshamer.

"Whether it's the 1,000th (game) or the 800th, for me, just to be here I'm still living a dream just coaching here," he says. "Every time I walk in here I think, 'Wow. I'm pretty lucky.'"

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.