Originally posted by tm3308:
Originally posted by cruhawk:
Originally posted by tm3308:
Originally posted by oonfoofoo:
University of Virginia - July 21 - July 24 - sorry son, can't go, districts and substate
University of Missouri 7/21 ? 7/23 - sorry son can't go districts and substate
Creighton 7-10 sorry son game that day
Kansas State - July 28 - Nope, sorry son state baseball
As for all of this garbage about choosing sports in the spring.... move golf to fall - 99% of those kids don't play football, same for soccer. In other states soccer and golf are both in the spring. Now your down to track and baseball. yup, you will lose a few but that's how it goes.
How in the world can every other state accomplish this but in Iowa....nope. You don't think they had the same concerns in every other state...You might as well concede that baseball in Iowa will go the way of Wyoming and Montana....
Guess what? The association isn't in the business of helping a handful of kids get recruited, nor should it be. It's in the business of giving kids the chance to play as many sports as possible. And playing baseball in the summer accomplishes that much more effectively than packing everything into the school year. Baseball is a summer sport, and why more midwest states don't keep it that way is beyond me. The weather here sucks in February, March and April. It's not at all conducive to playing baseball; and many other states really don't play, either. They have seasons drastically affected by poor field conditions all the time. It's insane that they insist on keeping it in the spring when they rarely have good enough weather to truly support the sport.
Well tm, you're clearly the odd man out here, as every "cold weather" state except Iowa disagrees with you. They must know something you don't.
Weather "sucks" in spring? Sometimes that's true. But usually it's not. At any rate, it hasn't stopped all those midwestern colleges from playing games March-May. To wit: Since returning from their spring trip (starting March 21st), Iowa has played 30 games in the midwest to date. This, during one of the crappiest springs on record. Now there's a lot of difference between college & high school. But if you're using the worn-out weather excuse, you're basically unarmed.
This post was edited on 5/15 12:12 AM by cruhawk
Iowa also just installed a synthetic turf infield this year. But the weather also impacts practices, not just games, and prior to the new turf being installed, they had to use either the Bubble or Kinnick to get practice time if the field wasn't playable (which was pretty frequently last season). Except that both the Bubble and Kinnick weren't designed with baseball in mind, and they weren't always available. Iowa high schools don't have the luxury of having facilities like that, so when the field's no good, most of them end up in a gym, if that. They also are unlikely to have fields that are as well-maintained as a college field, and therefore don't handle poor weather as well.
Whether or not other states do it isn't the point. Nobody has come up with a single benefit to changing the way things are currently done, that has anything to do with what the association's mission is. Maybe Illinois, Missouri, etc. all had their reasons for changing to spring ball. But I would bet it had nothing to do with helping kids get to more summer camps or get recruited. If that's the best argument that proponents for change have, then they've got nothing.