Editor’s note: This is an opinion column.
By Bobby Mathews, Sports Editor
It’s always a struggle in the early part of the Spring, when the weather is volatile and games played outside are either shuffled, postponed or outright canceled due to rain, lightning or even high winds.
A couple of weekends ago at the St. Clair County softball tournament, it was colder than a mother-in-law’s kiss, with a wind that seemed to cut right through the bone. I watched from various freezing vantage points as the Moody softball team played their guts out to come from behind to beat a tough and probably technically better team in Springville.
Fly balls were difficult for both teams to judge, snatching pop-ups that should have been outs and pulling them foul. Defensively, it was difficult to judge any fly ball because of the conditions, and it was equally challenging for baserunners. Hard to know when or whether to tag up when you can’t get a read on where the ball’s going.
Rain caused a bunch of games to either be canceled or postponed last week, including a promising matchup between Hewitt-Trussville baseball and Wetumpka. A meeting of two top-10 teams (Wetumpka is ranked in the top 10 in 6A) would have been something to write about. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t seem to be much of a baseball fan that day.
She’s not much of a fan today, either. As I write this, it’s thundering and lightning, and I can look out my home office window to see rain sweeping in from the west. Rough weather may affect the tournament in Gulf Shores where the Huskies’ softball team is playing. The Hewitt-Trussville girls have gone 4-0 in pool play, whipping Smiths Station, Beulah, Scotts Hill (TN) and Elmore County, and are supposed to start bracket play on Wednesday, March 23. However, games could be postponed depending on what this weather system does.
No one likes losing those games to weather delays. Players don’t get playing time, and coaches don’t get to see their team respond in real game situations. But weather delays, postponements and cancellations are just a part of the game in the early Spring.
This isn’t the major leagues. Locally, coaches and players are also the grounds crew for their fields, managing the tarp — deciding whether to tarp the infield or leave it uncovered is a key decision at this point in the season — and everyone is working hard to make sure the games happen.
When they don’t, it’s frustrating for everyone.
But just like always, we hope for sunnier skies tomorrow, so that the players can take the field, the fans can fill the stands, and everyone can do what they love to do: play ball.
Bobby Mathews is the sports editor at The Tribune. Reach him at bobby.mathews@trussvilletribune.com or on Twitter: @bobbymathews.