Randy Smith
Rainy, bad weather and baseball have been mortal enemies for years and years. Baseball is one of a few sports that can't be played when the weather gets bad, especially when lightning becomes a factor. When there is lightning in the area of a baseball or softball game, play is to be suspended for a minimum of thirty minutes from the last time a bolt of lightning was witnessed. This can be very frustrating because if you get to twenty-five minutes and another streak of lightning comes through, then the waiting period returns to thirty minutes.
If there is rain but no lightning, play can continue until the field becomes too saturated and muddy to play on. Then....the umpires use their judgement to call a game or suspend play.
Being around the game of baseball for more than sixty-five years I have seen many ways to fight against rain. I've seen several men get together and rake sand over wet spots until it's no longer dangerous to play on. I've seen people use a product called quik-dry to absorb as much moisture as possible. I've seen helicopters brought in to dry the fields like a hair dryer and I've even seen people burn fields with gasoline just to be able to get a ball game in. ( That method is very seldom used and is likely too dangerous.)
There are now several fields in our area with artificial turf and that's the best way to avoid rain outs. For instance, I've seen heavy rains fall in a short period of time and if the game is being played on a grass field, you can forget about playing again until at least the next day. On fields with an artificial surface, when the rain stops, you can usually play again within thirty- minutes or so....especially if there is a good drainage system in place underneath the ground.
In Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the Ripken Baseball Experience, there has never been a game rained out. They've only been delayed. That's because every single field on the premises is artificial surface. When the rain ends, you play ball. There is no waiting until the next day to find out if you can play ball again. You play when the rain stops.
Chattanooga has a few fields with artificial playing surfaces. Boyd-Buchanan and McCallie have artificial turf and the fields at Warner Park are at least partly turf but to my knowledge there are no other fields with an artificial surface to play on. I've stated for years Chattanooga needs more fields with turf on them rather than grass. We have so many baseball and softball tournaments here almost every weekend and coupled with those tournaments is a lot of rainy weather....which leads to several cancellations. When you bring in as much money as Chattanooga does on weekend sports tournaments, you need more good fields or complexes to play on. That's a fact!
* * *
Randy Smith can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com.