Dear dimwit on the phone

North Dakota pulls off spring high school baseball, both big town (Class A) and small-town (Class B). It's getting pretty popular here.

 

We have American Legion, but it's basically one team for the entire coverage area, and the combination of travel ball and sport specialization is killing even that in the U.P.

HS baseball in the U.P. didn't exist basically until about 10-15 years ago. I think Escanaba started it (and has had some success, reaching a state title game) and now a variety of districts of all sizes are picking it up to the point that there are about a dozen now. Softball's up around 20 now, I think. Takes less effort to have a field and, for that matter, dry it. Title IX is a little extra motivation, though Michigan has a remarkably dumb (IMHO) rule that stipulates you must have both baseball and softball to be able to host a postseason tournament in either.

Of course, all of these programs are "self-funded," which I think is a giant scam. For those that aren't familiar with the trend, the school says, yeah, you can have a team, but you have to pay for everything: travel, coach, etc. One district even charges the parents for the AD's time in scheduling games. Frankly, I'm surprised someone hasn't tried to litigate it yet.

A summer tournament is something I dropped in a column as a bit of a pipe dream. As much as anything, I figure the MHSAA appreciates a three-month stretch for the taking of vacations and long-term projects as much as we do.

 

When does the season start and finish?

 

I'm not sure if that question was about me or North Dakota, but in Michigan the season basically starts when the snow melts and officially ended last weekend.

 

The season starts first week of April here and is done the first weekend in June, the same timeline for high school girls fastpitch as well.

Obviously, there are great variations from that plan. Usually, we have very little snow when the first baseball games are played in April, but you have to put up with 50 degree weather, sometimes a little colder. It warms from there.

Last year, they had outdoor track meets the third week of march, so everything was on time and the weather was pretty amazing.

This year, the snow didn't melt until the last weekend in April, so baseball and softball's seasons were just over a month long.

The average year is somewhere between those two.

 

We fought that in golf. The big schools played in the fall and started mid-August in order to get in six weeks before a state tournament in early October, because no one dared schedule it later than that. The small schools played spring, putting up with a couple of postponements and starting usually early to mid April with a Memorial Day finish. Either way you slice it, it makes for a pretty short season.

One good part was that no spring sports started until after spring break (mid to late March), so there was no overlap with basketball or hockey playoffs and we'd get a week or so to come up for air until spring sports started.

 

Yeah our last basketball tournament of the winter season is usually the third weekend in March, so that has to finish before spring can start. Last year, it finished on Saturday, and there was an outdoor track meet the following Tuesday.

We have big school girls golf in the fall and big school boys golf and small school golf in the spring. It's weird, but the girls golf coaches voted to change it that way. The boys coaches felt it wasn't necessary. It's very odd.

Montana doesn't have high school baseball, though? Does it have high school softball or hockey? If not, are there any sports that many states don't offer that Montana does? Seems like Montana offers less ...

 

In New York, football season/basketball practice and basketball season/baseball and softball practice overlap a week. Same in Connecticut and Massachusetts, I think.

 

They have high school softball and the larger schools have ice hockey. Baseball is just not practical because of the climate..... you'd have a hard time starting before April 1, so you either have a very short season or play well into June. Truth be told, neither golf nor tennis are practical, but they find a way to play a few matches and have a state tournament.

Remember, the state has a pretty small population base and it's 97 percent white. You have kids make first-team all-state in football and basketball who would never sniff the starting lineup in, say, California or even Washington. Overall, team sports take a back seat to hunting, skiing and damn rodeo.

 

Dear Former Sports Editor in my Inbox,

Yes, I knew about the milestone you e-mailed to me. In fact, it was on our sports blog three weeks ago. It would probably have been in the paper too if another former sports editor, now a PR guy, had nudged me just a little bit.

Are you disappointed because you can't steal our story for your weekly?

PaperDoll :-*

 

Ugh, buddy of mine had a similar problem. He became the sports editor after the former sports editor took a different job at the paper for a better schedule, then constantly emailed about "you should cover this" or "why didn't you cover that?" I told my buddy to not be shy about saying "fuck off, if you wanted to do this you should have stayed put."

 

I got to deal with that as an SE too. The guy who was SE in the 90s had moved to cops & courts and often told me "When I was SE we would cover this and this and this" and I'd have to remind him "when you were SE you had three more reporters working under you than I have"