Weather

[jTheUmp]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

Iowa plays in the summer instead of the spring to help with this problem (although I'm certain it creates some others).

I grew up in Iowa, so I can speak to this a little bit.

Pluses of high school summer baseball:
1) it allows athletes to participate in 4 school sports if they choose, which is a major plus for the smallest schools. At my high school it was: football or cross country, basketball or wrestling, track or golf, and baseball. On the girls side it was volleyball or cross country, basketball, track or golf, and softball. There would be a tiny bit of overlap between seasons, but usually only a week or two unless a particular team made a deep playoff run, which few of the teams at my high school ever managed to accomplish.

2) The weather is a lot better on both the temperature and precipitation fronts. Yeah, we'd get some evening thunderstorms, but in most cases our fields would be good-to-go by the next evening.

3) Longer daylight hours mean you can start a doubleheader at 4 or 5 pm and finish before sundown, even on a field without lights.



Minuses of high school summer baseball:
1) It interferes with summer jobs and family vacations.

2) It's incompatible with travel ball/legion ball. Neither of those were a thing for high school aged kids in Iowa when I was growing up, where in MN it's quite popular.

3) You end up in a situation where a student has already graduated, but is still on the baseball team. This happens with spring baseball too, but only for a couple of weeks rather than for the bulk of the season.

4) You end up with some graduated students deciding not to play baseball in their senior season for any number of reasons. In my case, I knew I was going to be playing football in college, so I skipped my senior baseball season to spend more time running and lifting weights. Of course, I wasn't that good at baseball anyway, so it was a pretty easy decision to make.

[CT1]

Originally Posted by Rich

Nobody wants to play football in the spring.

Nobody wants to play baseball in the fall.

Next.

Why not? If it weren't for "tradition", we in the South would already be doing just that.

Why? Few (if any) heat-related illnesses or deaths for football players. Few (if any) cold-weather related arm injuries for pitchers.

Everybody I talk to around here agrees with me. Unfortunately, they're not in a position to make such a drastic change.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by CT1

Why not? If it weren't for "tradition", we in the South would already be doing just that.

Why? Few (if any) heat-related illnesses or deaths for football players. Few (if any) cold-weather related arm injuries for pitchers.

Everybody I talk to around here agrees with me. Unfortunately, they're not in a position to make such a drastic change.

Tradition means something, obviously.

[thumpferee]

Times are changing! If we fail to change with them, we are destined to repeat the past!

Did I read that in a fortune cookie?

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by thumpferee

Times are changing! If we fail to change with them, we are destined to repeat the past!

Did I read that in a fortune cookie?

If you keep going to Chinese restaurants, you'll read it again.

[LRZ]

"It was so cold...."
"How cold was it?"

I posted elsewhere about a 10 y/o travel game I worked yesterday where one team's F6 started crying because he was so cold and had to be taken out. Then, when that team came to bat, three kids refused to take their turn at the plate and stayed on the bench under a blanket.

[mattmets]

Currently work in Iowa, so if I may chime in...

Originally Posted by jTheUmp

I grew up in Iowa, so I can speak to this a little bit.

Pluses of high school summer baseball:
1) it allows athletes to participate in 4 school sports if they choose, which is a major plus for the smallest schools.

Definitely a plus. Some 1A schools who bring 10-12 kids to a game couldn't during the spring.

2) The weather is a lot better on both the temperature and precipitation fronts. Yeah, we'd get some evening thunderstorms, but in most cases our fields would be good-to-go by the next evening.

It's hot as hell, though, and the humidity doesn't help. I've been fortunate over the last seven years, never had that much rain and almost never two straight days

3) Longer daylight hours mean you can start a doubleheader at 4 or 5 pm and finish before sundown, even on a field without lights.

Almost everything I work starts at 5 or 5:30 PM and we get into the second game with daylight left. We can also play mornings, so umpires can get a lot more games with 10:30 and 5:00 start times.


Minuses of high school summer baseball:
1) It interferes with summer jobs and family vacations.

At least in our association, we have a ton of teachers. If anything else, it helps our numbers compared to basketball season, which often has 4/4:30 starts.

2) It's incompatible with travel ball/legion ball. Neither of those were a thing for high school aged kids in Iowa when I was growing up, where in MN it's quite popular.

Yup.

3) You end up in a situation where a student has already graduated, but is still on the baseball team. This happens with spring baseball too, but only for a couple of weeks rather than for the bulk of the season.

Also yup, but never heard of it being an issue with anything except college orientation.

4) You end up with some graduated students deciding not to play baseball in their senior season for any number of reasons. In my case, I knew I was going to be playing football in college, so I skipped my senior baseball season to spend more time running and lifting weights. Of course, I wasn't that good at baseball anyway, so it was a pretty easy decision to make.

Honestly haven't heard much of this, but I'm sure it happens.

I grew up in Connecticut and played a 20-game season from early April to late May in some rough weather. I'd much rather work the way I do in the summer here, even though it was a culture shock initially.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by Rich

Tradition means something, obviously.

See "Fiddler on the Roof" to see how traditions can meet change (with difficulty but change can triumph).

[jTheUmp]

Finally got a game in last night (on a fully-turf field).

I also learned three things from the visiting HC:
1) apparently if a catcher scoops a 3rd strike cleanly off the ground, it's not a dropped third strike.
2) If the catcher then sails the subsequent throw to first high enough that the first baseman has to jump to get it, if he's standing on the base when he jumps, then catches the ball and lands with his closest foot 18 inches from the base, the batter-runner should be out "because he was on the base when he jumped".
3) If I call an infield fly but he doesn't hear it because of crowd noise (and I don't have a quiet voice), it's somehow my fault if the second baseman accidentally drops the ball and R2 subsequently gets tagged out between 2nd and 3rd.

[SE Minnestoa Re]

Originally Posted by jTheUmp

Finally got a game in last night (on a fully-turf field).

I also learned three things from the visiting HC:
1) apparently if a catcher scoops a 3rd strike cleanly off the ground, it's not a dropped third strike.
2) If the catcher then sails the subsequent throw to first high enough that the first baseman has to jump to get it, if he's standing on the base when he jumps, then catches the ball and lands with his closest foot 18 inches from the base, the batter-runner should be out "because he was on the base when he jumped".
3) If I call an infield fly but he doesn't hear it because of crowd noise (and I don't have a quiet voice), it's somehow my fault if the second baseman accidentally drops the ball and R2 subsequently gets tagged out between 2nd and 3rd.

It's good you learnt something. Coaches can be so helpful.