***Disclaimer: This is a sports column that represents solely the opinion of the writer.***
Spring in the Northeast is not always the nicest weather. It starts the season in mid-march when there is still snow on the ground and the temperature is struggling to get above 50 degrees. This is also the time the spring sports start.
The weather has already had an effect on the teams with some of them having to either move their games to other colleges, lose their home games or even having their games or meets canceled all together.
Between the four sports of softball, outdoor track, lacrosse and baseball there has been six games canceled or postponed. Baseball has had three canceled and one postponed, lacrosse has had one canceled and outdoor track had their first meet of the season canceled because of the weather.
With baseball, the ground can’t be too wet with snow or rain because they will not be able to grip the ball or the bat. Like I mentioned in my earlier column, baseball is being played too early in the year for New York because it does not actually get nice until April or May. These sports start in March which is a time when the weather is still acting like winter.
The baseball team had their games scheduled to take place at home last weekend and they were moved to Wappingers Falls, New York and Amandale-on-Hudson for their matchups against Oswego because of the field conditions.
They also had their most recent game that was scheduled for April 1 canceled against St. Lawrence because of the weather, costing the team another chance to better their record.
The track team was unable to run in their first meet at UAlbany because of the cold and the snow still on the ground that makes running outdoors difficult. It takes away their chances to qualify for ECACs with only four meets left. There second meet of the season, the one this Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Middlebury, was rescheduled from Saturday to Friday because of weather concerns.
Head coach Nick Jones said the weather makes it easier for athletes to get injured because, when they are cold, the athletes have a more difficult time of warming up and keeping warm.
The weather causes teams to have a difficult time of getting their practices in on the actual field. Earlier in the season, the lacrosse team had trouble figuring out their spacing because they were unable to go onto the field.
The weather is a big factor in outdoors sports because it effects how the games are played. The lacrosse team needs to be able to hold the stick and have a feel for where the ball is going. The baseball and softball teams need to be able to get a grip with their cleats on the field, be able to have a feel for the bat to figure out where the bat is going through the zone and the pitcher needs to have a feel for the ball to figure out where the ball is going.
The weather is a hindrance to how these teams perform during their contests. The start of spring is the wrong time to bring sports to the Northeast because teams can’t play to their highest abilities.
Email Nick Topping at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com
