"Northern" college baseball

Notice anything unusual about this schedule? Every game is a southern trip.

http://owls.umpi.edu/sports/bsb/2016-17/schedule

Location ...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Presque+Isle,+ME/@45.9945186,-68.4633419,7z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cbcae63521e11db:0x3410cae257641d49?hl=en-US

Lol....fortunately his isn't  quite that bad....though if his home opener gets cancelled due to weather (it has the past 2 years) our season opening stretch of away games will get to 20

That has to be a really hard life for the academic kids who miss so much study and class time on those frequent and long bus rides.  I wonder how many of the players really factor that in when they make a decision of where to play college baseball?  No doubt a trip to Arizona or Florida looks like a lot of fun until you do it too often.

Being from SoCal where the fields are in playing condition year-round, it was amazing to see what some of the baseball fields looked like in Feb/March when my 2017 was exploring some Northern colleges.  We thought we were at the wrong place when we looked at the field the Manhattan Jaspers practice on--it looked worse than some of the youth fields behind the elementary schools in Orange County.  Great school and lots of opportunities in New York City, but a real challenge in recruiting baseball players to play there.  San Diego on the other hand...

Backstop22 posted:

That has to be a really hard life for the academic kids who miss so much study and class time on those frequent and long bus rides.  I wonder how many of the players really factor that in when they make a decision of where to play college baseball?  No doubt a trip to Arizona or Florida looks like a lot of fun until you do it too often.

Being from SoCal where the fields are in playing condition year-round, it was amazing to see what some of the baseball fields looked like in Feb/March when my 2017 was exploring some Northern colleges.  We thought we were at the wrong place when we looked at the field the Manhattan Jaspers practice on--it looked worse than some of the youth fields behind the elementary schools in Orange County.  Great school and lots of opportunities in New York City, but a real challenge in recruiting baseball players to play there.  San Diego on the other hand...

Unfortunately his team still doesn't have turf.  It takes until the first week of April here in Ohio until the outfield grass starts to grow....fortunately the tarp on the IF actually helps that grass get going a little earlier.  His team has 8 home games out of the first 36 (exactly 2 months) of the season

RJM posted:

Notice anything unusual about this schedule? Every game is a southern trip.

http://owls.umpi.edu/sports/bsb/2016-17/schedule

Location ...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Presque+Isle,+ME/@45.9945186,-68.4633419,7z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cbcae63521e11db:0x3410cae257641d49?hl=en-US

U-Maine Farmington has been undefeated at home for like 8 years.  Their home record over that time is 4-0.    (due to the snow and poor weather, they've only had 4 home games in the past 8 years!! give or take)

Per TopCoachPodCast interview: http://topcoachpodcast.com/top...ey-umaine-farmington

Buckeye 2015 posted:

Son got his schedule today for next Spring....we knew most of it, but were waiting on a couple midweek games to finish out the Spring Break Trip.  For those of you who wonder why a lot of kids want to "go South" to play in college....here you go.

20 of the first 21 games on the road, including 9-game Spring Break trip.  

Total of 17 homes games from a 55 game schedule.   They aren't flying anywhere this year....all bus rides

First Home Game is game #17 of the season

Opening weekend:  11 hour bus ride each way

2nd weekend:  9 hours each way

Spring Trip: 37 hours on the bus...not including going from the hotel to the games.

That's 16 games in the first 24 days of the season....and 77 HOURS on a bus!

Good thing is...they should only have about  50 hours on a bus for the remaining 22 away games 

Well, if you look at it another way, it's only a little over 3 days on the bus in that stretch.

RJM posted:

Notice anything unusual about this schedule? Every game is a southern trip.

http://owls.umpi.edu/sports/bsb/2016-17/schedule

Location ...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Presque+Isle,+ME/@45.9945186,-68.4633419,7z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cbcae63521e11db:0x3410cae257641d49?hl=en-US

Been there many, many times.  It's up there and the winters are long.  Outstanding snowmobiling though!

Looks about right Buckeye 2015, and no real surprises there for Northern teams playing their first 15-20 games in warmer climates.    I recall my son's first college games against a team ranked #1 in the polls at the time.   His team took their first outdoor practice prior to the first game....it had been a historically cold winter in the north and his team was not able to get outside.   The outfielders had their work cut out for themselves.  The outcome was memorable for all the wrong reasons. 

My northernmost school to I am regularly assigned is about 10 miles further from the Equator (or closer to the North Pole, if you prefer) than UMPI. When you're on that weird early spring day where it starts off with snow on the ground and the direct sun makes it too hot to wear jackets, it becomes uncomfortable in a hurry.

Backstop22 posted:

That has to be a really hard life for the academic kids who miss so much study and class time on those frequent and long bus rides.  I wonder how many of the players really factor that in when they make a decision of where to play college baseball?  No doubt a trip to Arizona or Florida looks like a lot of fun until you do it too often.

Being from SoCal where the fields are in playing condition year-round, it was amazing to see what some of the baseball fields looked like in Feb/March when my 2017 was exploring some Northern colleges.  We thought we were at the wrong place when we looked at the field the Manhattan Jaspers practice on--it looked worse than some of the youth fields behind the elementary schools in Orange County.  Great school and lots of opportunities in New York City, but a real challenge in recruiting baseball players to play there.  San Diego on the other hand...

Not to mention the costs involved not only for the school but any parents/fans who make the trip.  I remember a few times going up north.  One series out of 4 days there we had 1 playable day (drizzle ).  Trip probably cost me close to $1000 (hotel, rental car, air tickets, meals) just to see 1 game.  Got to spend extended time with son so maybe was worth it?  Can't complain with  SoCal and baseball weather.

fenwaysouth posted:

Looks about right Buckeye 2015, and no real surprises there for Northern teams playing their first 15-20 games in warmer climates.    I recall my son's first college games against a team ranked #1 in the polls at the time.   His team took their first outdoor practice prior to the first game....it had been a historically cold winter in the north and his team was not able to get outside.   The outfielders had their work cut out for themselves.  The outcome was memorable for all the wrong reasons. 

Exact same scenario for son's team last year....opened at an SEC school in front of close to 7000 people after having taken outdoor BP for the first time (no fielding) the day before they headed for TX. 

Some say weather shouldn’t be a factor in a kid’s college baseball decision.

IMHO, it’s just one of many, many factors. And it’s weighting in the overall process varies by kid. 

It was no big deal to my oldest coming out of high school. After a couple years up north, weather became a much bigger factor in the transfer destination.  

We saw him play in Mississippi, Texas, California, Nevada, Virginia...but never on his home field at his original school. Weather wreaked havoc on practice and game schedules. 

Branson Baseball posted:

Some say weather shouldn’t be a factor in a kid’s college baseball decision.

IMHO, it’s just one of many, many factors. And it’s weighting in the overall process varies by kid. 

It was no big deal to my oldest coming out of high school. After a couple years up north, weather became a much bigger factor in the transfer destination.  

We saw him play in Mississippi, Texas, California, Nevada, Virginia...but never on his home field at his original school. Weather wreaked havoc on practice and game schedules. 

Son grew up here in NW Ohio so he was used to cold (sometimes snowy) Spring weather, as HS practice starts here not long after the college spring season gets started.  He actually played HS games here that started about the same time as his current first college home game.  When my son was "targeting" future schools while in HS, I constantly asked him if he wanted to expand his search further south.  He didn't....he went about 3 hours South with his search.... schools as far south as Kentucky...but no further.  As it ended up, he went North....though only about 25 miles 

Two short anecdotes on playing for a northern team:

-The back of my neck was once sunburned during a Saturday double-header.  The game the following day was delayed to allow the snow to melt and the field to dry.

-My first ever college baseball game was the first time I threw outside that spring.

During youth baseball, our moms would run laps around the field to warm up between innings. Son once burned his bottom because the coaches gave the boys hand warmers to keep in their back pockets. His hands were still cold, but his rear was on fire!

You folks are scaring me. 

Plus talked to son yesterday on face time. I was startled that it was already dark.  4:45 pm. 

He likes his winter clothes: thinks they're "swag."  But, he's eager to get back to weather he's used to.

The December 21 sunset time for Boston is 4:15pm. The New England states are considering leaving the Eastern time zone. Geographically (latitude wise) it belongs in the Atlantic time zone. It won’t make it any warmer. But it will be lighter an hour later. It’s depressing to look up at 4pm and it’s almost dark. 

It was really weird the first December 21 I lived in southern CA. It was dark at 5pm and 70 degrees out. It didn’t compute. But I got used to it for twenty years. 

smokeminside posted:

You folks are scaring me. 

Plus talked to son yesterday on face time. I was startled that it was already dark.  4:45 pm. 

He likes his winter clothes: thinks they're "swag."  But, he's eager to get back to weather he's used to.

Does he have Bean boots? They’re the most ugly hip shoes on earth. 

https://www.llbean.com/llb/sho...an-boots-8&csp=f

I grew up in the east so I still have a pair of those, and of course the obligatory docksiders.

Both of my kids flirted with going to school in the east.  The eldest almost went to a school in PA, and when the youngest was talking to schools in states like VT, NY, PA, WA, and NH, he claimed to have no qualms at all about going to school in a cold climate.

Fast forward to the present, and when the eldest came home from SoCal for Thanksgiving, he was wearing shorts, and put on long pants for TDay dinner, and that's it.  Meanwhile the youngest tells me while we're on the way to the airport how he happy he is to be going back to school in SoCal cause he was freezing to death here in his hometown  -- where it snows a quarter inch maybe once every 20 years.

I'm happy that the kid is happy, but the old fart in me says a few years in New England would have helped him toughen up and built some character!