the two semis scheduled for today 9/28 have been canceled. makeups will be determined as soon as possible.
the New Scotland field is under the more than capable hands of Darrell Duncan the town's highway and parks head. Many times this season he and his crew have worked to get games in under some tough condtions. he knows the field well having worked it for many years. His decsions are his field conditon knowledge with a little bit of forecasting. years of experience tells him how to come up with a decsion. the amount of rain already down, the saturation of the sod and dirt, the forecast , which includes sunshine, wind and humidity till game time all factor in. Even with this knowledge he is sometimes wrong. I am sure appreciates were keeping track.
And we are not to pitch in and help with field prep. this goes in almost every park we play on. early efforts had mixed results. some games got played as a result . but often poor technque assocaited with a "get the mud off" mentality actually played havoc on future playing conditions . mud left to dry on the side , wallowed out areas, rutted and clumped baselines, etc. I still recall the effort a few years back when two teams decided their game was so important that they used some 40 bags of speedy dry ( $500) and left the field rutted and unplayable after it dried. UA remembers too.
And we do have alternatives fields still in play though the numbers of them shrink in the fall due to fall ball and other youth sports. you'll likely see a night games this week to get us back on track at a lighted field if its avaialble.
We all want to play. and i understand the frustartion of not knowing whats going on. Especailly when earlier in the year games were canceled when field condtions improved dramatically after an early detemination. sometimes we get it wrong. I do want to tell you guys that we are very lucky to have New Scotland and the Sattelite field for the 46 divsion. We have the aformentioned Darrell Duncan pretty much helping us claim these for our games. Most would agree the condtions are some of the best we could play on. I can tell you that the price is below average. some town's qualify use from outside organizations. Bethlehem, Colonie, and Albany come to mind. New Scotland has graciously opened up its fields to our league and gone many times beyond what other fields would have done to accomadate our needs.
Rain sucks, it is the one issue that snags us year after year. I used to toil in the mud, carry buckets of water off the field, tote the speedy dry , rake and shovel. Then in my older baseball life I realized that if you wait a little the sun will return and the games can be played. and the best you can do in these situations might be to just let everyone know as soon as possible that things are canceled.
I have to also mention how great it has been this year to play at NS thanks to Darrell and his guys. Our 37 team had many games this year scheduled on Saturday mornings (which I hope will continue next year) and there were several times when I arrived at the field expecting a cancellation and instead found a field in outstanding shape, lined and ready for use. Thanks to Darrell and his team arriving at the field at 6:00/7:00 AM we were able to play. As John said, Darrell knows this field and if there was any way to get these games in this weekend he would have made it happen.
The bright side is that we will be able to play baseball in October which is very sweet. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can enjoy a weekend game or two under crisp autumn conditions, brilliant sunshine and blue skies. The guys I really feel bad for are on the teams whose season ended on August 9th.
BTW...one of you 2007 Fall Classic guys left your black folding chair at the field on the third base side after game one of the semis....I have it and will bring it the next time we play.
That is very well said !!!! Getting the mud off so that you can get your games in does a lot of damage to the fields. The New Scotland field should be protected from this type of abuse. That SUNY-Albany debacle almost cost us the use of that field forever. Just be patient. Kevin will find us a nice night or two this week on a well-lit field to get our semi-final games in. It will be better than muck-raking and playing these important games on less than peak condition fields. We still have 3 or 4 more weekends of fine weather to finish up.
If anyone needs something else to do because the games got cancelled, let me know. I am trying to move this weekend, and the extra hands would be welcome. John, Please just give us as much heads up as you can once the make-ups are determined.
Although I rarely see eye to eye with John Reel, on this subject I agree wholeheartedly. Since we have been using New Scotland field over the years Darrell and his staff have done an outstanding job in trying to make their fields playable. In most cases they have worked hard to do the impossible. If they feel the field is unworkable then you can be assured they know what their doing.
I would like to believe that alternative fields have been examined by those in charge. At least that would be the rational move.
id like to call a mulligan concerning my comments about the fields being played on this past weekend. i thought we took care of the fields and the decision to play was also made by us. i was not aware that daryll made the call. my apologies.
