I thought that if the Marlins / Hornets split, the A's / Blue Thunder were playing on Monday. I guess things change - that's okay, except for the amount of time we have to wait to finish our series.
I know lighted fields have been hard to come by, but waiting until Thursday to finish the A's / Blue Thunder series defeats the purpose of a "Best 2 out of 3". Both teams get to rest their best pitchers, instead of making the final game the "Let's see what you've got left!" that it should be.
Also, the winner of this series will only have 1 day's rest versus 5 days for the Marlins / Hornets winner going into the finals.
And on the other side, the Marlins will have played 5 games in 3 days - but they had to work the long way to get into the semis, so I guess that would be the case normally.
These are four great teams playing great games - to have it come out like this just takes away from the game-to-game maneuvering that helps make it so exciting.
I sound like I'm whining and I am sorry for that. I'm not even saying that there is a way to fix the problem - John has worked hard with the re-scheduling - just that it leaves a fantastic playoff open to questions.
John - not picking on anyone here - just kind of venting about weather and fields.
I agree with you Ray - With a field that has lights I'm not sure why both games could not be played tonight, or 1 night this week. There was an 8:15 game played at the Commons last week. Is Bob Moore not available either?
I also agree it is a huge disadvantage for the winner of Thursdays game going into Saturday.
At the very least, I think the #1 seed earned the option of what night they wanted to play.
Ok let me explain: Moore not available, the best lights are at the Commons. upon seeing the possible need I asked for two nights at the Commons preferring Tuesday and Wednesday but taking anything. the field is used by Clifton Park youth fall ball programs. my request took some time to run by the various groups. they offered Monday and Thursday , the only open dates that week. We did have a game last Tuesday 9/15 that started at about 8:35 PM after another youth game. we finished after the town park curfew of 10PM and that was noted by the park patrol. I decided to stay away from that maneuver. In effect that risk NOT finishing the game and returning yet another night to do so. as it is, no way we can all get to Clifton Commons during the week for our usual 6PM starts ...and I was correctly advised that starting at 6:30 is dangerous due to sundown in the eyes of the first basemen, games need to start at about 6:50. and in twilight. play one game of 2 hours and its 9 PM, start another 15 minutes later and its 11:15. so no 2 game alternative. so I am stuck with playing these games on Monday and Thursday. If the Goldens play Thursday I can rest my staff and players after playing 4 games in the weekend. To avoid that appearance of bias I assigned us Monday if we split and needed another game . Keep in mind I did not even get the field slots till Sunday when the A's and Thunder were playing. I am aware of the predicament of playing on Thursday and then again in the finals on Saturday. I chose to play our team out in the worst circumstance for us...I was recyling pitchers on one day rest and every player would have chosen Thursday to recoup. I also have worked diligently to re-schedule these games so the number one seed could commence their playoff as close to the original Saturday 9/19 schedule as possible and the finalist could all then play this out on time. I was acutely aware the Thunder had not played since August 23rd. nearly a month ago. Aflaw inthis foramt we all wanted despite it being pointed out when choosing to start after Labor Day instead of before. weighnig my deicsions is my first hand experience of the havoc of moving the playoffs out and later till personal schedules are dicatated by one game. and the game is dictated by personal schedules. It would have been easy to bump the playoffs out another week and not have the games compressed like last week. I chose to honor the original schedule as much as possible and put the teams playing games #9,#10 and #11 at the peril my team ultimately experienced. I put revsions out there ASAP so guys could plan. Even with these revisions I added only three new days to the format. In the end I'll take the heat of having the Thunder and A's play on Thursday over the criticism of playing my team Thursday. either way I'd get criticism. I think it was the right thing to do for the postion I was in. jreel comm. 45 div.
