Baseball practice on ice

Actual Maryland practice a few years ago ...

I’m guessing the outfielders’ job was to track the ball to know where it disappeared into the snow.

Another view of the Maryland team.  I am pretty sure the catcher is my former neighbor.

keewart posted:

Another view of the Maryland team.  I am pretty sure the catcher is my former neighbor.

That must have been fun for the catcher. Trying to pick up a white baseball with an all white background 

Thanks Kee. That was the pic I was looking for.

That's a great photo, especially for those of us living in the great white north.

That amount of snow on the ground is unusual for Maryland. It typically isn’t that bad even in Pennsylvania. But for northern New England it’s a day at the field. I played college summer ball with guys from Maine (Orono, north of Bangor). They said the bulllen sat in cars. There were snow banks around the field. Now the bullpen and dugouts have heating. I think there are heating pipes under the field. 

Remember this article?

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/0...aseball/01maine.html

These pictures are amazing.  As a Southern Californian, I tend to forget what baseball teams in other parts of the country go through to prepare for the season.  My 2017 has played year-round baseball since he was four.  I don't think his glove would work in the snow!

To provide some contrast, here it what it looked like yesterday in San Diego in the double-header between Concordia (OR) and the UC-San Diego Tritons.  I will begrudgingly admit that by the end of the second game, it was down to 48 degrees and my wife and I were wrapped in blankets!

Team don’t actually practice in snowbanks. Maryland probably went in the field house after a few pictures. The new coach (at the time, since left for Michigan) was trying to draw attention to the program. 

My kids played in some cold high school games in the Mid Atlantic area. But they never played in snow. One year tryouts were in the parking lot after a late snow March 1st. Other years it barely snowed. One year it was at least sixty every game in March. 

I took my daughter to unofficial visits at Harvard and BC. It was February. The wind was blowing across the parking lot. She turned to me and said, “Does this look like UCSB? What were you thinking when you moved us from Southern California?” She went to school and played in Florida.

BC doesn’t schedule home games until late March. It’s usually still cold. 

With the season starting Friday, this will make 3 out of 4 years that my son's team hasn't been on the field outside before their first game.  Last year pitchers got a little time on the mound and the team took a round of BP...that's it.  The first two and again this year, nada.  They did get outside on the football field a couple days so at least they've taken some ground balls.  My son said the biggest issue is picking up the ball outdoors as compared to the indoor lighting all winter.  I guess we'll find out Friday how that works out.  56 degrees in Nashville is going to feel like the middle of July compared to what we've had here in Ohio the past month of so. 

Funny. I just saw the skate video. That’s one of the schools recruiting my kids before he decided not to play in college 

joes87 posted:

Funny. I just saw the skate video. That’s one of the schools recruiting my kids before he decided not to play in college 

Odd... can't imagine a little recruiting promo like this couldn't woo him back into the fold 

It's currently snowing and we expect about a foot tonight.  There are 4 more weeks of basketball left...then baseball starts and we get a whopping 6 weeks in before end of the school year means end of season. It's all about the summer travel team season here, but high school ball is still fun for team time with buddies and school spirit and cross town rivalries.

About five years ago it snowed so much in MA the season backed up. Teams had to play five to seven games the last week before the end of season deadline. As one coach put it, “We’ll find out who has pitching.”