Playing through the rain: a guide to British Baseball
Unfortunately, unlike in the USA where climates are more favourable in the summer, or teams are able to play indoors, when the rain comes in Britain, it tends to wipe out an entire day.
More importantly, it tends to severely disrupt our season.
Although the rulings on playing through rain depend on the umpire and the team captains, who at this stage of the season are critically aware of the context of the fixture or the league standings, most clubs power through knowing there’s only one way to get value for money from their baseball antics.
Last weekend the Essex Arrows and Croydon Pirates had to shift ponds, not puddles, from the bases at Townmead in order to complete their fixture, while other less hardy sports would have called the match off a week in advance.
Take cricket. If there’s a bit of damp on the ground, to improve grip the groundsman will produce some sawdust which in theory should absorb excess moisture. In all my years playing cricket, I’ve never seen the benefit other than to cover some rudimentary health and safety rules of ‘well, we at least tried to dry the bowlers’-run ups so if he turns his ankle we’re not responsible’.
Bowls doesn’t take place if it’s not been bone dry for at least four days beforehand, even with drainage ditches around the edge of the greens, while golf is halted immediately at the off chance that there may be a strike of lightning.
Baseball has to become more creative. In the past I’ve been part of teams that have ended up at builders’ merchants on Sunday, an hour before first pitch is scheduled, picking up cement powder and sand in a desperate attempt to harden the sloppy mound and create a batters’ box that doesn’t resemble the Somme.
The rake, usually required to shift red grass or gravel around the diamond, has been wielded like a pick axe to drain the outfield, with no other suitable tools available to hand. No worms, as far as I know, have been harmed in the playing of baseball in the rain.
With rain comes damp spirits, especially from the beloveds who warm the benches of their respective partners. And keeping them sweet is often an undertaking in itself. The only answer I’ve found to this, especially if they’re not die-hard like yourself, is to buy them expensive things or promise them the world. Going 3-4 with a double doesn’t cut it, even if it was against the wind.
But like so many sports, baseball is subject to weather conditions, and no one really likes playing in the wind or the rain. If it doesn’t ruin your enthusiasm, it could destroy the stats your season is putting up. But until we find £50m for two baseball-specific domes to be built, one just outside London and one north of Birmingham, there’ll be no way around the weather for British baseball.
This weekend, potentially the eighth day following the rain of St Swithin’s, sees first vs second in only one division (AAA South: Essex Redbacks @ Bristol Badgers), but offers up some interesting matches nonetheless.
With the NBL playoff places determined by team record rather than the place they finish in the Pool, all the clubs could realistically make the National Baseball Championships with so many games still to play.
The Bolton Robots of Doom and Guildford Mavericks could all but secure their places in the final stages with wins over the Humber Pilots and Poole Piranhas respectively in AA North and AA South. And in single-A, the Southampton Mustangs II, London Marauders and Cambridge Royals will almost definitely book post-season spots with wins, with just one berth left to play for.
Back north, weather-permitting, the Liverpool Trojans will be expected to sweep the Menwith Hill Patriots (unbeaten and winless respectively) and make it known that they’re going to the NBCs.
