Weather impacts Legion
Toolbox
By Chuck Clarino Staff Writer - Published: July 6, 2009
It's a lovely Sunday outside, plump white clouds travel along the horizon, the sky is brilliant blue, the sun is high and the humidity has vanished, so why am I inside at my computer instead of being at an American Legion baseball game?
After all, Sunday is a big Legion day with nine-inning single games and seven-inning doubleheaders the usual fare during our fleeting Vermont summer. And after a week when the rain gods ruled and forced postponements of most scheduled games all over southern Vermont, you'd think that they'd be dying to play a game.
But that is not the case.
Rutland Post 31 was scheduled to travel to Brattleboro for a doubleheader with Post 5. But alas, the games were postponed again and it had nothing to do with the weather. Apparently Post 5 couldn't assemble enough players to play a single game, not to even mention the possibility of a doubleheader.
Up jumped the devil as it always seems to during the traditional American Legion season. It never seems to fail that an issue or two crops up to spoil the summer when baseball players are at their peak and when we as fans should be witnessing the best brand of baseball we can hope for after suffering through the cold and wet Vermont spring.
This summer there are several teams operating on a shoestring in terms of number of players listed on their rosters. Brattleboro already postponed one game because of a lack or participants, while other teams in the south have also had to change games because they didn't have the required number of players.
The nonweather related postponements bring to light problems that will impact the quality of team play and ultimately where teams end up as participants in the eight-team, double-elimination state tournament at the end of the month.
The most obvious concern is that the more games get postponed the more they stack up. For example, Rutland coach Kevin Bellomo is looking at a week when his Post 31 team will play seven games spread over six days. That slate includes single games on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a doubleheader – the makeup with Brattleboro – penciled in for Wednesday.
That's a tough row to hoe for any team and it impacts especially on the pitching. How can Post 31 pitching coach Mike Fredette juggle his staff to meet all of those scheduled obligations?
"I don't know," said Fredette with a shrug of his shoulders. "I guess everyone (on the team) is going to have to pitch some."
That presents more than its share of worries.
Rutland hasn't played since last Sunday and had two games rained out during the week. So it will be – weather cooperating – nine days since it last played when it takes to St. Peter's Field Tuesday against Hartford HI Express.
But more rain is in the forecast and that makes things even more of a mess.
There are 18 days left in this truncated AL season until the start of the tournament. Rutland has 14 games scheduled during that time, including 12 league games and two nonleaguers. But in reality there are only 15 days since the last date when teams are allowed to make up games is July 19. Hmmm, 14 games in 16 days – that does not allow for much wiggle room or any rain.
According to Rule 5, paragraph 8 in the Vermont rules and regulations, "All games must be played as scheduled. Postponed games shall be made up within 7 days or the following Monday. All teams must play a FULL schedule of league games to qualify for postseason play. If a game is postponed because a team cannot field nine players, the team that cannot field nine players shall forfeit the game …"
Given the weather pattern alone, that is going to be tough to do.
Now Rutland is one of the stronger teams and it has a full roster of 18 players. But what about teams like Hartford, Brattleboro and Bennington that do not have full rosters; how can they play their best ball down the stretch in hopes of making the tournament? Only four of the 10 southern teams will qualify for the statewide tournament and win-loss records will not only decide which teams go, but where they are seeded.
You have to wonder about pitching, and not just having enough pitchers to get by but the possibility of heaping too many innings on young and developing arms. During the high school season, there are strict guidelines as to the amount of innings a pitcher can pitch during a specific time frame. But in Legion, there are no such guidelines until a team reaches a state, district or national tournament.
The fact that the season was shortened by more than a week could compound the problem. But for whatever reason, there seems to be this rush, not just in American Legion baseball leagues but in most summer baseball leagues, to get the season over with.
Again, you have to wonder about the quality of play and what will be the consequences if teams don't complete their FULL schedules by tournament time. And as the tournament approaches, we all wait to see what will happen when the inevitable other shoe drops.
Chuck.clarino@rutlandherald.com
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