Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg08
hmm...so high school ball is in the summer huh? they don't have legion baseball then huh? they're contemplating moving the high school season into later spring...which ultimately would impact the american legion season.
how do the coaches/kids like playing in the summer? are there lots of conflicts with families taking vacations? are there more tournaments?
I realize that as umps, we don't really need to care about some of that...but I'm just curious
|
I think umps generally like summer ball, but I do also care as a parent; I have a son who is a senior this year and have two older boys who both played varsity ball as well. I just got back into umpiring this year and work in a few games around my kids schedule. American Legion ball is non existent in Iowa as far as I know. Right across the river from me in Illinois, they are finishing up their high school season right now and those kids will then go on and play Legion ball. There has been a lot of discussion about how this puts Iowa kids at a bit of a disadvantage concerning college recruiting. They primarily have to rely on their junior year performance, or pay to go to showcase events.
As I said, I think umpires like it and many of them around here work Illinois games in the spring and Iowa games in the summer. All of our games here are doubleheaders, so that can be a negative sometimes in July heat, but it beats 30 degrees and snow flurries in my opinion. I would just like to see them start a few weeks earlier, maybe the first week of May. It does impact vacations because our state tournament generally runs into the first few days of August.