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Baseball rain delays
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I wrote the following during a high school state baseball semifinal game between the Minico Spartans and the Bishop Kelly Knights, in which the Spartans rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat the Knights 3-2 and advance to the state title game (which they won)…
I finally get to watch a game and it rains. I have been reading and watching and typing in the names from these games for months, but have never found a true visual to explain the numbers and quotes.
The rain washes clean and muddies-up the infield, drenching umbrella-wielding fans with slanted sheets shielded and they still cheer their hometown teams in this non-sanctioned state tourney.
Imagine, America’s past time is not sanctioned by the Idaho High Schools Activities Association, and that the reason is the American government, equality and Title IX.
Each male high school sport must have a corresponding female sport, so baseball gets tossed and wrestling gets in. They are thinking about adding competitive cheerleading and boys and girls lacrosse.
The university is more complex; it goes off numbers of athletes, not numbers of sports. With the vast number of football players on the BSU squad, other male sports get no chance, unless it starts raining cash to create six new female teams.
It is a question of funding. I hear dreams of BSU lacrosse, but know that without the money to take flights to the East Coast to play the class of the grass, there will be no stick and goal at BSU outside of club camaraderie.
But back to baseball, that’s why I’m here. I sit in a rotting pressbox, cuz the new one is filled with radio and big newspaper guys and I’m cool with that, despite the birds nesting in the corner and the rain whipping through the opened front.
This high school stuff is what baseball is. A second baseman hits a double and his team advances. A sophomore pitcher throws 25 innings in four days and loses the third-place game.
Parents and friends cheer with faces painted because they believe in their schools. The players may dream of pro and college grandeur, but right now, it is about a trophy and the championship.
In these trying times of baseball fan confusion, wondering which of our athletic idols are doped-up temporary super humans, these guys and gals at the high school level may be the only trusted athletes left playing.
And even here, the all-stars blow out their arms and test their souls with year-round softball and the pitchers throw 20 innings a day through state, trying to live up to their friends’, parents’, coaches’, teammates’ expectations with aspirations of that championship goal.
When I played prep sports, I saw steroids in the locker room, one guy even took horse steroids, but we weren’t tested then (does that make it all okay?).
Today there is such fear that the games have been damaged, we are left wondering whether the sports we love are still worthy of our admiration. But, we continue to watch and love and cheer like wild men and maniacal women, for despite our worries and questions, that’s what a fanatic does.
Dustin Lapray
Sports Columnist
