First let me say what I'm about to put is meant with deep respect. You are wrong that teaching and coaching are not the same. They are without a doubt the same and are interchangeable on the field and in the classroom. Look at the stereotypical labels of teacher and coach. A teacher is someone who instructs on how to do something or provide information for later use. A coach is someone who motivates and helps you succeed. Now let's expand - whatever you teach you got a kid in the classroom who has potential to be great but doesn't. Now you've got to motivate this kid to achieve his potential. Each semester / school year there is a state test your kids have to perform well. Here is more motivation as well as game planning on how to get that done. On the baseball field (or anything athletic) you may get a kid who is just raw athleticism but has no clue about baseball skills. Now you have to sit down and develop lessons on how to teach this kid how to pick up the skills for baseball. At the same time you have another 15 or so kids of various levels of skill you have to prepare for as well. If that's not the definition of differentiation instruction I don't know what is? I hope my examples make sense because I truly believe great classroom teachers can be great coaches (once they know the sport) and great coaches can be great teachers in the classroom (once they know the subject). My advice to you is regardless if you play this school year or not it sounds like you are the guy they want to be the head coach when the team is up and running, immerse yourself into anything and everything baseball to learn how to coach it. Find some local colleges and ask if you can watch practices from the stands in order to get ideas on drills and how to run practices. You'll see what kind of pace to have although once you get on the field you can see fast you can go depending on the skill of your guys. Even if you played in high school things have changed since then. Get caught up on the new way of doing things although there's still a lot of things that haven't changed. Also, don't be afraid to have notes out on the field during practice to remind yourself of things. I truly feel that now I could run out onto the field and have practice and it would be fine. But to be the best coach I can be for those guys I have a written practice schedule for all coaches and I have notes all over it reminding myself to get certain things done, look for things or say things. I agree with cabbagedad in that this place is awesome. Use the search feature to find old threads (there actually is a fundraising thread on here somewhere because I started it). Contact guys like cabbagedad, trojanskipper, ironhorse, and the grandmaster of this place Coach May (but there are a bunch of guys I've left off that will help you out - sorry guys).
I still say you need to have that meeting with the principal and AD. I also suggest that you have it ASAP before school starts and get everyone on the same page. What makes my job as an AD tough is when there is a principal who doesn't know sports but wants to make decisions. Maybe this might be the case here in the principal doesn't understand sports but knows he can gain some kudos with the community to start the baseball team because that's what they want. But the AD knows it's not feasible to start one now. Hopefully, the meeting will fix all this. I agree with your AD that it's a nightmare if you schedule a whole season and then can't field a team. You lose a lot of credibility as a school if that happens. Yesterday I had a school call me and back out of a football game for this fall. There's not a snowball's chance in a microwave we will be able to replace that game when we start practice in a week and a half. To say I was mad as h**l would be an understatement. To make matters worse it was a home game so we are losing out on money and we have a two week break in our schedule. So I get where you're AD is coming from in that regard. Money is always tight but to start a new team it would seem like something (at least I think so) the athletic department would pay for. But if you're stuck with the money making I would strongly suggest getting cheap uniforms. Maybe something close to a t-shirt and cheap pants. Reason I say this is because good uniforms can be expensive and it would be a waste of money to buy these uniforms and use them one or two years and then the team folds. Get a couple of years of stability under your belt and then invest in some really good ones. Get with a local sporting goods guy and he can probably hook your guys up with ordering cloth from them online. That's what we do - we have a guy with a sporting goods place and he comes out and shows the guys what they have and different packages. Then the guys can get on their website and order the stuff. You don't have to worry about collecting orders / money / receipts and all that stuff that drives you nuts. Plus, they will typically allow the coaches to get stuff free or give you a kickback on the money and you can use that on coaches stuff.
I think $6K would be kinda easy to raise to be honest. The school I was at in KY did not give me any money for a budget so we had to raise all the money we spent including spring break trips with hotels and meals. You have to get parents involved in order to do that. Starting a baseball only booster club would be a great idea because it's now an organization instead of parents. Now parents will be making it up but they will be working together which SHOULD help keep the ones who want favors. Still have the disclaimer that no matter what they help raise it doesn't guarantee anything. The school I was at in KY had a booster club but they got to the point where they dictated what went on. I made them fold and got rid of them and did the fundraising myself. After about 5 years or so I created a new booster club and it was understood they were raising money for the team and not your kid. It helped that we were successful because winning will cure almost anything.