As Missouri State University’s baseball team is coming off its second trip to NCAA Super Regionals in three years, Ozarks Public Television (OPT) will debut a documentary on the history of this storied program.
In recent years, OPT has produced documentaries about MSU’s Women’s basketball team, Tent Theater and the marching band. Producer-Director Steve Wynn notes they wanted to do more with the athletics.
“The baseball one seemed to be a good fit because, it has been really one of the most successful programs in Missouri State’s athletic history. In 54 years they’ve only had nine seasons of under 500 [winning percentage] ball.”
Production on the documentary started eight months ago. Wynn says his first interview was in mid-December and final one about 2 weeks ago. In total, Wynn interviewed 26 former players and coaches for this 58-minute production. There was also a lot of time spend researching the team’s history.
One thing that stood out to Wynn was how close all the coaches, players and former players are to the program.
“I was really surprised how tight knit the program is. They each gave me a list (of former players to contact), and it was pretty much the same list. But in contacting some of the big names, the Ryan Howards, Bill Mueller and Brad Zieglers, they were all like ‘Yea I'll be in it,’ there was no hesitation, and there was no ‘well I don’t know.’”
OPT is currently conducting a fundraiser to support costs for the documentary, found here: Missouri State University Baseball: A Winning Tradition. The fundraiser will conclude on Friday, July 14 at 11:59 p.m.
The production will air on OPT at 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 20 with a rebroadcast at 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 23.
OPT and KSMU are both a service of Ozarks Public Broadcasting.
