Baseball in the fall
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Andersen said yesterday that it was on the table but then off because they didn't want boys to have to choose one sport over the other..meaning golf or XC.
It makes absolutely zero sense. Really. The lowest risk sport. Fields not being competed for with other sports on campus. They screwed this up. Could certainly give them a chance to get more of a season than 15-18 games (and the 2-3 game max per week is ridiculous). And if it got banged this fall, then you could have moved them to the proposed summer season as stated for a backup.
At least IESA looks to be thinking about possibly reversing their decision to allow jr high baseball and softball after the JB news yesterday.
That is silly. Kids have to choose between football, golf and XC every year in the fall.
Personally I think it may have to do with almost no time for ADs to schedule. Was probably easiest to allow some the fall sports already scheduled to stay, then give ADs more time to reschedule everything later. But certainly not science or data to say they can't move the sports to fall in regards to safety and risk.
I think it’s also a case of fields and how long you run the season. Since it starts getting dark around 5-5:30 by the end of September it limits where you can play games. Unlike football, very few options are available for night HS baseball. Not saying that’s the only reason but it would make it difficult.
That’s a great point. If that were the case, perhaps they can implement no new inning after 1:45 as they do in travel tourneys. I would personally live to see them play in the fall. Our best weather months around these parts are September and the first few weeks of October in my opinion. Lastly, if they played in the fall, college coaches might actually get to see some of these athletes play for their respective high schools instead of in a travel/showcase setting.
Some HS coaches are proposing letting baseball play as much as they can right now, then carry over those records to the spring/summer. At that point play conference only (stay in the 15-18 game limit if that cant be changed) and do a state series. Now that is thinking outside the box and in the best interest of the sport, making up for a lost season. So of course it won't happen. But I like that idea.
I like this idea. You’d have to start the season in early august but if you implemented the 1:45 rule you could easily get 20+ games played.
Sunset in the Chicago area in late September is around 6:45.
With sunset being what you say it is, games would have to start on time (they hardly ever do). Realistically speaking you would start to get in the unplayable area about 6:15-6:30, depending on cloud cover. Remember as an umpire you don't want to start an inning if you don't have time to finish it. If you don't finish the inning it reverts back to the last completed inning. Been in this situation to many times to want to do it again.
Logistically scheduling games this late in the progress would be a nightmare. Both schools would have to get together, even if it is a conference game, which they all would be. Then the games would have to be sent to the assignor. Then the assignor would have to input all the games into his assigning system , then assign the games. And hopefully they get accepted by the umpires in a timely fashion. The if you get lucky and no rain they won't have to be rescheduled
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That's still an hour prior to the time that was originally posted (5-5:30). If we are going to make something happen, we can't continually find reasons that it won't work in every situation.
I understand that, I played baseball, my son plays baseball. My point is you get the games to start on time or adjust the start time. These aren't normal times and some adjustments would need to be made. Furthermore, the topic is moot, it's not going to happen, my only point was the sun doesn't set at 5:15 in late September.
At this point the spring sports need to work on fighting for more of a season. Try to get the start date moved to April. If it conflicts with some sports, so be it. But to cap them at basically 50% of games for a season, only allowing them to play two days a week...playing until end of June...there's way to make this better.
I agree, I see no reason they can't let them start practicing a couple weeks ahead of time. YES, there will be obstacles, do your best to work around those obstacles.
Per Naz baseball coach, Funkhouser of Edwardsville is working with Sam Knox at IHSA to address baseball issues and work on a better adjusted plan that addresses the discrepancy of "summer" IHSA baseball.
Baseball gets the 2 game limit off the table and season moved up. Big wins. Can play as many games as possible. Now need to push hard for a state series.
No travel ball during IHSA season still. Interested to see how it plays out with players and field usage late May and June (as many HS rent out fields to travel orgs).
No travel ball during IHSA season still. Interested to see how it plays out with players and field usage late May and June (as many HS rent out fields to travel orgs).
It's tough. I mean, it's never been allowed before. But this year I really thought there might be an exception. If HS age travel goes ahead with scheduling things during the season, you're going to put a lot of kids and families (and coaches) in tough spots. And if there isn't a state series to play for, it's tougher for kids even then to maybe go with HS a lot.
If I thought for one second that the travel organizations wouldn't tell kids to skip High School all together or games/tourneys that come in conflict with HS games, I wouldn't have a problem with letting them play both.
FWIW, the travel organization my son plays for indicated weeks ago that if IHSA allowed kids to play both, they would defer to the high school team's schedule. I am aware that would not be the case everywhere, but it was refreshing to hear this from the organization. Even with the delayed high school season, we should still be able to get 7 travel tourney's in.
They were certainly able to do it this summer with a delayed start. Was on a recruiting visit this past weekend. The athlete we were paired with also played baseball. They were at the visit in between games at Grand Park. Then he says how he has football workouts, HS baseball workouts and fall baseball all going on right now. There is more baseball being played now than ever.
