AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn baseball coach Butch Thompson worked through the contacts on his phone, gratefully reaching out to the people whose names are on a plaque on the outside wall of Auburn baseball's new Player Development Center.
"It's special," he said. "I love looking at that plaque."
Thompson and Jon Wilson from Tigers Unlimited arranged a virtual tour of the facility, a way to say thank you to the 64 individuals and families whose generosity made it possible.
"You're talking about families in this community, people who have played here," said Thompson, in his sixth season. "A lot of people who love Auburn baseball put all their chips on the table for this development center.
"For us to really get this thing moving, it took people who were willing to invest on the front end. This development center will always be one of the most special things that happens in my tenure because these were people who not only said, 'We need to do this, we need to do that,' these are people who stepped up to the plate and put a ball in play, and it's really neat for our players."Player Development Center: Auburn baseball's 7,100-square-foot indoor facility opened in January 2021Located beyond Plainsman Park's right field wall facing Donahue Drive, the 7,100-square-foot facility opened in January when student-athletes returned from the holidays to begin preparing for the 2021 season, doubling the capacity available to Auburn's hitters.
"You go from two to four batting cages. You go to technology like we've never seen before," Thompson said of the Josh Donaldson Hitting Lab. "Now we can tell you how hard the ball comes off the bat, and we can estimate how far the ball traveled. The technology is incredible."
Pitchers benefit as well. On a cold February day, pitching coach Tim Hudson oversaw indoor bullpen sessions.High tech: Auburn baseball uses technology, video and data to enhance and measure developmentWith the swipe of a card, student-athletes can access the facility, a game-changing opportunity for their development.
"It's not just that you doubled the bandwidth of guys being able to get in the facility," Thompson said. "It's so inviting for them to come, in practice, out of practice, on their own. The real breakthroughs, the real discoveries, the real movements happen on your own. It's not always just in that team practice setting."
The previous location of Auburn's batting cages, behind the first base dugout, now houses the baseball program's weight room.
"It was tight for cages, and it's a pretty large space for a baseball-only weight room, so we get the benefit of that as well," Thompson said. "You can go right from the development center and get to the weight room, or vice versa. It just becomes more efficient."New weight room: Auburn baseball's former batting cages location has been transformed The cutting edge technology that allows pitching machines to duplicate the spin rate of upcoming pitchers to mimic the ball flight Auburn's hitters will face. The old-school equation that two plus two equals four, doubling the number of potential practice swings.
To sum it up, Thompson offers what he calls a "Yogi-ism": "I think we'll hit more because we hit more."
As impressive as the new facility is, the potential exists for a second phase that would only enhance it. The structural steel system provides capacity for future rooftop premium seating and connectivity to the main concourse. For now, the priority is the 2021 season that opens Friday at 4 p.m. CT vs. Presbyterian.
When Thompson leads the Tigers back to Omaha, gratitude will compel him to pause at that plaque on the brick wall to again thank the 64 Auburn baseball supporters who helped make it happen.
"We deemed this as being the most important thing we needed to do first in our program," Thompson said. "It's going to be invaluable for us moving forward."'I love looking at that plaque': 64 Auburn baseball supporters contributed to the Player Development Center
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
