Weather

[SE Minnestoa Re]

It is just lovely here in Minnesota today. Even in the southeast portion of the state, which is generally warmer than the rest of Minnesota, six to 15 inches of snow over the weekend. That follows a substantial snow on Easter weekend.

It appears ball will be shut down all week for sure. I have worked twice in April when I normally worked at least 10 times by now.

It is tough for AD's and umpires alike. One conference totally redid its schedule. The new schedule was supposed to kick in this week--that won't be happening.

Worst April in memory.

[jTheUmp]

Hey, at least you got a couple of games in. I haven't had a game yet.

We've got about 15 inches of snow on the ground now, and another 1-3 inches of snow is forecast here tomorrow.

Maybe we'll get on the field in the later half of next week, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I have no idea how much our baseball/softball assigner gets paid, but I'm sure it's not enough for me to ever want that job.

[Rich]

Well, I am the commissioner (I assign umpires, but it's quite a bit more than that) for a conference of 19 baseball schools and 20 softball schools, so let me tell you how it's going here:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh.

Thanks.

Truthfully, there's nothing I can do about this. 8 inches coming tomorrow to pile on top of the 6 already on the ground (and not melting). Warm temps not coming till Friday at the earliest, when the snow will melt and we'll have flooding. I can't imagine many of the fields will be playable for this week or next. Snow cover this week, swampland (from snow melting) next week.

We're likely going to adopt 5-inning DH for both baseball and softball. Our state allows this for softball and has issued a waiver for the NFHS rule that says all baseball DH must be 2 7-inning games.

An AD put forth an idea to rebuild the schedule -- an idea that I had as well. Instead of playing a double round robin, we'd go to a single round robin. No appetite for that yet, although last week a majority wanted to keep playing 14-inning DH.

My guess is that our postseason will not be moved, therefore we'll get in what we can. My priority is to ensure that we're able to crown conference champions with an equitable solution even if it means a reduced schedule.

[CT1]

Have any Northern states considered flip-flopping football & baseball seasons? Think about it.....

[scrounge]

Originally Posted by CT1

Have any Northern states considered flip-flopping football & baseball seasons? Think about it.....

Given that one is the major revenue sport for the school and the other is a cost drain, I doubt that thought will take very long to complete.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by scrounge

Given that one is the major revenue sport for the school and the other is a cost drain, I doubt that thought will take very long to complete.

No sports are major revenue sports for small high schools.

This year is very, very different, for some reason. I hope it's an aberration. But as of right now, we've played 32 baseball/softball games out of 306 scheduled games. And our season ends on May 18.

And we're getting a pile of snow today.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by CT1

Have any Northern states considered flip-flopping football & baseball seasons? Think about it.....

But then the baseball playoffs ae doing the worst (typically) weather.

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

[Rich]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

But then the baseball playoffs ae doing the worst (typically) weather.

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

Our baseball schools here could choose spring or summer baseball. The number of summer programs has plummeted and they are eliminating it next year.

Most people want school sports during the school year. Kids/parents want to have an opportunity to play Legion or through some travel program.

[CT1]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

But then the baseball playoffs ae doing the worst (typically) weather.

You may be right, although I wouldn't think so.

Here, our regular season is about 2 months, with the state playoffs lasting another month. Assuming an early September start, that would put the championship games somewhere around Thanksgiving.

Also, the players would already be in shape for baseball, having played a summer schedule, which would cut down on the need for pre-season practice time.

[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.