The College Baseball Foundation on Thursday announced that the College Baseball HOF will be named after President George H.W. Bush and that construction of the museum will begin by the end of '14, according to George Watson of the LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL. HOF Exec Dir Mike Gustafson said, "We know there have been some detractors or doubters, not that the project wasn’t a good project but that ... it’s a far-reaching goal. But in the end, we’re close." Gustafson said that a ceremonial groundbreaking "will be held sometime around" the Foundation’s annual Night of Champions event, scheduled for June 28, and that actual construction "should be underway by this time next season." He said that the group currently has about $7.5M "in hand for construction costs and needs to reach" $9M to "begin construction, which he expects to raise in the very near future." He added that in addition, roughly $5M "in the form of an endowment will be raised to operate the facility." Bush played baseball at Yale from '47-48 and "led the Bulldogs to the first two College World Series tournaments" (LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 11/15). The HOF was "founded as a non-profit organization" in '04, and it "heralded its first class of inductees" in '06 (MLB.com, 11/14).
