Over the 15 years at Lutheran High school, we had many games that were cancelled due to rain or cold. As a fact, we had 63 games not played due to bad weather. I always believed that the games cancelled were against schools we would most likely have beaten. Obviously we would have had to have proved that on the diamond, but I went back over the seasons to see who were not able to play.
Here are the seasons and how many games were lost in each:
2005 2 Edinburgh (2)
2006 1 Covenant Christian
2007 3 Hauser (2), Lapel
2008 1 Martinsville
2009 4 Beech Grove, Covenant Christian, Martinsville, South Decatur
2010 3 Edinburgh, Liberty Christian (2)
2011 6 Bethesda Christian (2), Broad Ripple, Liberty Christian, Trinity Lutheran, Washington
2012 5 Bethesda Christian (2), Guerin, Lapel, Waldron
2013 3 Covenant Christian, Edinburgh, Southwestern
2014 4 Covenant Christian, Guerin, Irvington Prep, Morristown
2015 3 Edinburgh, Eminence, Greenwood Christian
2016 9 Anderson Prep (2), Covenant Christian, Indiana Deaf, Perry Meridian (2)
Tindley, Trinity Lutheran (2)
2017 8 Anderson Prep (2), Covenant Christian, Edinburgh, Greenwood Christian,
Indiana Deaf, Trinity Lutheran (2)
2018 5 Anderson Prep, Covenant Christian, Hauser, Lawrence Central, Rockford (IL)
2019 6 Anderson Prep (2), Edinburgh, Eminence, Trinity Lutheran (2)
When reviewing these missed games, I evaluated the chances of Lutheran winning these games. In my conservative opinion, I believe we would have won 46 of these games and lost 17. In several seasons the extra wins would have made for very nice records.
Depending on the years a player was at Lutheran, their experience was significantly impacted by the weather. The players beginning their careers at Lutheran in 2016 essentially missed out on an entire season during their careers, 28 games.
Weather has always been a factor for Indiana high school baseball. In 1973, my senior year at
North Central High School our first 11 games were postponed or cancelled. With so many schools now having turf fields, the number of postponed games will most likely decline.
When I think back, I typically think of Covenant Christian when I think of games we missed because of rain.
I liked their coach very much, Andy Gossel, and certainly we enjoyed playing at their diamond. If you never made it to Covenant Christian, they arguably had the best grass diamond in Central Indiana. Coach Gossel was a former field guy for a minor league team and brought his love and knowledge to his field at Covenant Christian. We would laugh with admiration at the work the Covenant players put in to get the diamond ready for a game and then the post game efforts. Coach Gossel is now the Director of Field Operations for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Their stadium is below:
Another observation is that I loved Saturday doubleheaders. I was not concerned with anything that had to do with school. Our teams could focus for the most part on playing baseball. This idea goes back to when I played at NC. Saturday baseball was just more fun and unburdened than during the week. In most seasons we lost a doubleheader and a chance to win two more games!
There is an rhyme from 1948 that was "Spahn and Sain then pray for rain!" referring to the Boston Braves and pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. The Braves were not too good after these two pitchers. I suppose that there may have been seasons when we could have benefitted from more rain. In 2016 we played only 21 games. Jake Reid and Spencer Owen, seniors, were able to do the bulk of the pitching because of rainouts. Our Spahn and Sain.
Another factor for us was that I would not schedule a game until after Spring Break. Many of the larger schools started their seasons at the end of March with no Spring Break for their players. I detested playing games in very cold weather. I never saw any value in playing when all of the players were freezing. I preferred to wait until after Spring Break for a little warmer weather and hopefully less rain.
also, so many of our players participated in multiple sports. They and their families deserved some time away with Spring Break, me included.
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