Baseball loses 14-5 to NC A&T

[GreatDanes06]

Gave up 7 runs in the 1st. Not a good day.

[Oldtimer]

Baseball loses 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth. Tough loss.

[GreatDanes06]

this seems to be the early weekness with these first 3 games. They cant close the door.

[mainejeff]

Keep the faith. The Southern teams always have an advantage by doing the "little things" right during the first 5-10 games that Northern teams play. This is why I'm hoping that the baseball season gets pushed to a universal start date of March 1st FOR EVERYONE.

[DaneFan2k3]

This is why I'm hoping that the baseball season gets pushed to a universal start date of March 1st FOR EVERYONE.

 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Terrible. Baseball already stretches into June. These kids are in college. Every team (not just the good ones) would be playing into June this way. This would cause headaches for all the schools, who would have to house a full team for a month after school lets out (some schools do it for weeks as it is). Now you (and the Big 12) want to lop off a full month from the schedule and stick it on the back end?

 

Weather is still terrible in March in the Northeast. It's not going to make a big enough difference to cut off the February practice times. Meanwhile, Southern and Western players will be denied the chance to practice with their teammates for two entire months at the beginning of the second semester. That not only hurts their teams, but also the future of the players themselves (many of whom have pro aspirations).

 

The Northeast just needs to realize there are going to be some innate advantages in a sport like baseball. That's why there are no Spring Training sites in the Northeast. The Yanks go South. Such is life.

[UAalum72]

That's crap. Baseball is a spring sport, not for the middle of winter. The college regular season starts before MLB spring training does.

 

Southern teams already also have practice in the fall. In fact, the Albany varsity used to play in the fall. There's no reason you can't have a split season, play 30 games in six weeks in Sept. and October, then play March 15 - May 15 and start the World Series. You could even have an end-of-fall NIT when interest is at its peak during the MLB playoffs. Or let each conference pick its own season as long as the total number of games is the same.

[DaneFan2k3]

It's a college sport. Play more doubleheaders. Don't extend the season into June and July, when college has been out for one or two months.

 

Playing a fall season would detract from football, which they won't let happen.

 

Extending the season by pushing back a mandatory start date is a terrible idea.

 

(Just as bad as lowering the number of scholarships so that the schools who don't want to make a financial investment can compete.)

[mainejeff]

Hate to break the news to you, but the season already extends to the end of June. This new start date would only ensure that ALL schools start playing on the same date. They do it in all other sports........

[DaneFan2k3]

Hate to break the news to you, but the season already extends to the end of June.

 

For the schools who make it to the Dance.

 

Most conference tournaments are during the last week in May. Regionals are the start of June, so you're talking 64 of 300+ schools playing at that point, and then half going home before mid-June. So instead of 64 schools housing players for one-two weeks after school is out, we should have all 300 do it. I mean, all 300 schools have enough money and make money on baseball, right???

 

If you pushed the season back to a March 1 start date, one of three things (or all of the below) would happen:

 

1.) The season would go to the end of July instead of the end of June

2.) Teams would just play more often, more midweek games, to get the same number of games in, in an attempt to keep the season ending May 31. (Thereby traveling more, missing more class, spending a ton more money, basically becoming professional players).

3.) Teams would be forced to cut their number of competition dates, which hurts the players, fans and schools (the ones who actually make money off of baseball).

 

Again, the teams who would really be disadvantaged would be the big-time baseball schools.

 

Are the America East's of the world really going to make it to Omaha by pushing the start date back to March 1? I can virtually guarantee you this doesn't help one bit. We are at March 8 right now, and what is all over the ground in Albany right now? So what is the difference if they started practice a month ago or a week ago? They're still not getting outside any time soon. Meanwhile, most teams (West, Southwest, Southeast) have played 10-15+ games already, so you're taking away opportunities from them.

 

Jeff, I'm sure you're a big hockey guy. Maybe we should admit TCU, UTEP, or Dallas Baptist to NCAA Hockey then subsidize their ice rink costs since the temperature in Texas keeps the ice wet? I mean, sometimes you just have a natural disadvantage.

 

This new start date would only ensure that ALL schools start playing on the same date. They do it in all other sports........

 

Baseball does have a start date. I believe it's the second week in February for games. It wouldn't ensure anything in the Northeast, because as I've said, you still can't get outside for most of March. February, March, hell let's just make it April to be safe, NCAA Basketball will be over and everyone in the entire country will have a snow-free field. We'll just play the same calendar as MLB.

[mainejeff]

From everything I have read, the LATEST date for the College World Series would be 4th of July weekend, NOT the end of July. Basically, the season would end about 1 week later than it currently does. Sounds like your major beef is with the start date which is currently the end of January/Feb. 1st.

 

My major beef is when any Northern team heads South or West to start their season and plays a team that already has 15-20 games under their belt. Would you like to see a 0-0 Albany hoops team play a 15-0 Syracuse or UConn?

[GreatDanes06]

thats the thing. When i went to go look at ASU, i got to check out the baseball team practice...IN LATER JANUARY-EARLY FEB...OUTSIDE...70 DEGREE WEATHER...ON THE FIELD.

 

UA be lucky to get REAL practice time on the field till April.

 

How is any NE team allowed to compete?

[DaneFan2k3]

Well let's say they would play the College World Series by July 4 then. Right now it's played the 16-27th, in that range. With a season start date of February 1 (or thereabout).

 

So if you're going to back that up to March, many teams get 10-15 games in during that month.

 

Now you're only backing up the CWS by let's say a week. Now three weeks are lost, net.

 

So now you have three less weeks overall to get 10-15 games in. Most schedules are JAMMED right now. So either you cut competition dates overall, or you're going to need to increase the scholarship money or something ... you can't have teams with 10 pitchers, probably 3 of whom are hurt or suck at any given time, playing every day of the week.

 

Not to mention the scheduling of travel, classes, etc.

 

It just doesn't add up to me. Either the CWS has to be later than July 4, or the competition dates get cut. Either way, I think it's a bad plan.

 

Like I said before, sometimes there are just inherent problems with where a school is located. I wouldn't expect any Southern schools to start up hockey programs then complain when the weather made it hard to practice or that they couldn't get NE teams to come down there due to travel costs.

 

Also, logistically, would the start of the SEASON be March 1, or the start of PRACTICE? If it's the start of the season, there is very, very little advantage gained. Now, if you want to start all PRACTICES at March 1, you're DEFINITELY not going to fit the season in, in its current form.

 

My main beef is this: I don't think March 1 works on any level. The problems, to me, outweigh the benefits. If it takes them trying it for a year, or two, to see what it does, fine.

 

But I think it will fail - NE teams will not get outside any sooner, and all they will be doing is jamming up the big-name programs who make money. NE teams will be 0-0 playing 4-0 schools who have been outside practicing for 3 weeks, instead of 10-0 schools who have been outside for 6 weeks. Or something like that. And the NE teams will still have to head south, they're still not going to be able to open against each other, etc.

 

And the problems compound if you make everyone wait til March 1 to start practicing. That would be even worse.

[mainejeff]

Hockey is a completely illogical argument since it is played indoors. Schools decide against playing hockey because their culture/history does not support that sport. Right now Maine (or any other Northern school) steps off the plane around March 1st and has to play Southern teams that have played at least 10-15 games already. Maine plays the maximum amount of games allowed (55ish?) and does it between March 1 and May 15 with no problem (15 games during Spring Break, weekend series and maybe 1 or 2 weekday games each week in April and May) Many doubleheaders are included as well, so I'm not sure why it would be so difficult to play 55 games in about 75 days?

[DaneFan2k3]

So in the future, they step off the plane on March 1 and play against schools that have played 0 games but have been practicing outdoors for X weeks.

 

The advantage is still there. The Northern schools can play before March 1. They can play the same 10-15 games that the Southern schools can.

 

The "official" season started the weekend of the 4-5-6th this year.

 

Let's say the Northern teams can't just get up and play mid-week games that early in the year because of travel. So they're limited to weekend play for a good portion of the early season.

 

Northern teams could have traveled to play February 4-5-6, 11-12-13, 18-19-20, 25-26-27. That is 12 games in the month of February.

 

Even if you went only two days out of each weekend, Saturday-Sunday, you can play doubleheaders on Saturday. So at a bare minimum of one game a day on a weekend you could have played 8 games in February, and a max of 12.

 

They just don't because they can't get outside and practice, and they would prefer to hold off until late February or March for game action.

 

Moving the start date to March 1 doesn't do anything but cause more mid-week games, which equates to more travel time, more lost class time, possibly more injuries (players playing on shorter rest), more teams taking some serious lumps (imagine some teams with 6-7 pitchers playing five times a week??).

 

You have 52 (I think) regular-season games to cram into 76 days. If you play Friday-Saturday-Sunday (as all the "large" leagues do), every single weekend of that 76 days, that would equate to 33 games ending on May 15 (with no rainouts).

 

Now you have 19 more games to fit into the remaining 42 WEEKDAYS. A game every-other day.

 

Basically, teams would have to play Tuesday-Wednesday, Friday-Saturday-Sunday every single week, with no rainouts, for three straight months from March 1 to May 15.

 

They would go to class basically on Mondays, Thursdays, and home Tu-W-F (which would be about 40-50% of the time on those days).

 

Even if every league adopted the Saturday-Sunday DH-single format that the AE uses, it doesn't help - that frees up Fridays, and to play a DH on a Saturday you usually have to travel Friday anyhow.

 

What a mess that would be.

[mainejeff]

How could it be a mess if that is what many Northern teams currently do??? Many schools play 10-15 games during Srping Break......you failed to include that in your schedule. And if you think that playing 10-15 REAL games doesn't give the Southern/Western teams a major advantage than you don't know baseball very well.