Is Philly a baseball town?

There certainly is quite a lot of baseball in and around the Philadelphia area.  The Phillies are one of the best teams in the Major Leagues, the suburban public high schools have dominated the state tournament for the past three or four years, and the private schools in the area have done extremely well in their state tournaments as well.  The colleges in and around Philly … not so much.

Below are the current records (as of 4-28-2012) for all the colleges that are in the city of Philadelphia or located in the immediate suburbs.  They are listed in alphabetical order with their division level (I, II, or III) in parentheses.  

• Arcadia (III) 15-19
• Chestnut Hill  (III) 19-21
• Del Val (III)  15-19
• Eastern (III)  8-10
• Gwynedd Mercy  (III) 22-15
• Haverford  (III)  19-17
• Immaculata  (III) 9-9
• LaSalle  (I)   17-24
• Neuman  (III) 24-11
• Penn State – Abington  (III)  23-18
• Phila. Univ. of the Sciences  (III) 12-19
• Philadelphia University  (II) 10-30
• Rutgers-Camden  (III)  14-23
• St. Joe’s  (I)  18-23
• Swarthmore  (III)  21-14
• Temple  (I)   14-26
• Univ. of Pennsylvania  (I)  16-22
• Ursinus  (III)  17-18
• Villanova  (I)  24-19
• West Chester   (II)  31-8
• Widener  (III)  20-16

I know a lot of the coaches of these programs and they are all great guys with a lot of baseball experience and knowledge.  So what’s with all the mediocre records?

• Is it a lack of baseball support from the universities or colleges?
• Are the practice/playing facilities subpar?
• Are there enough scholarships offered compared to their out-of-Philly competition?
• Are quality prep players leaving town to play college ball?
• Is it the (normally) brutal spring weather?
• Is the talent just spread out too much?

I don’t know what the answer is but I wish the quality of Philadelphia baseball would show more at our college levels.