Dear Mother Nature, enough rain already. Please stop. We need some sun.
I guess this is payback after teasing us with a warm December and January. For more than two weeks now, you have brought us rain, sleet, and winter temperatures. It crippled the spring sports season in New York City and has cost this sports reporter and his staff the chance to cover some sensational games, because the fields just can’t get dry and the players may not be able to feel their hands.
What did we all do to deserve this gloomy weather and an uneven start?
One of the few baseball games that was still played — between Xaverian and Monsignor McClancy — went down in 40-degree temperatures that felt like that 30s down by the water in Bay Ridge. Thanks to both of those teams for toughing it out.
I don’t blame teams for postponing games — I wouldn’t want to play in this weather either.
Still, all I’ve wanted to do is cover Fontbonne Hall’s softball games against St. Francis Prep, take in the hot-starting James Madison baseball team facing Telecommunications, or report Grand Street’s battle against Public School Athletic League champion George Washington on Saturday.
The only baseball games I can seem to take in are professional ones. Thankfully, Mother Nature cleared the sky so I could cover the Mets home opener last Friday night at Citi Field. I’m so frustrated with the weather that I traveled to Chicago on Monday in hopes of finally getting to see a game by attending the Cubs’ home opener at Wrigley Field. The forecast here was for rain again.
Still no baseball. Still no softball.
The spring season is high school’s shortest, but this one may be over before it even gets started. A number of Public School Athletic League teams have played just three or four games, and their seasons began nearly three weeks ago. Extra exceptional weather will be needed from here on out to make the games happen and the playoffs start on time.
Let them play. Please.
Lucky for the Courier’s sports staff, our readers, and the teams we cover, the sun is on its way. Thank you Mother Nature. Finally! What took so long?
I enjoy the occasional “rain day” like any school-aged kid likes snow days, but I enjoy my job too much to be away from it so long. Thank god for basketball, which never sleeps in Brooklyn.
The Gotham Hoops Invitational at St. Francis College last Saturday was an excellent event. The Jordan Brand Classic hits Barclays Center on April 15, and the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League hits Brooklyn Cruise Terminal the next afternoon.
Mother Nature can’t stop those, but the joy of spring is covering — or even just attending — a game on the diamond on a crisp, 70-degree afternoon. Is that too much to ask?
