Birmingham, Baseball Team Honored in the NM Senate

Yes­ter­day was New Mex­ico Grads and New Par­ents Day at the Round­house. In the Sen­ate, a cer­tifi­cate hon­or­ing the UNM base­ball team and its coach, Ray Birm­ing­ham, was read. The team has achieved many suc­cesses includ­ing con­fer­ence cham­pi­onships and is has been nation­ally ranked over the past five years.

Coach Birm­ing­ham, a native of Hobbs, spoke proudly of the young men on his teams and of the state he rep­re­sents. He said, “New Mex­ico is a big deal to me, it’s where I was born and raised. I’ve coached young men from every com­mu­nity in the state, they won’t let you down.”

He went on to relay a con­ver­sa­tion he had with a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of South­west Air­lines who reported to him that the UNM base­ball team is known across the South­west to be out­stand­ing guys. They carry them­selves very well in air­ports, help­ing the elderly and sin­gle women with kids. Coach Birm­ing­ham con­cluded, “They are stand-up guys. They rep­re­sent New Mex­ico. Ninety per­cent of them are on the honor roll and the other ten per­cent are work­ing on it.”

Karen James, of First Church of Christ Sci­en­tists in Santa Fe gave the open­ing prayer for the Sen­ate. She wit­nessed the “out­stand­ing trib­ute” Birm­ing­ham and the team received.

She wrote, “Those beau­ti­ful young men are set­ting such a good exam­ple of sports­man­ship, ser­vice, schol­ar­ship and character…You are to be thanked for your influ­ence beyond coach­ing a sport to teach­ing about life, to demand­ing excel­lence in all areas of endeavor. Good for you, your stu­dents, UNM, and as was empha­sized yes­ter­day, our whole state.”