![\"Baseball](\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/fenway-covered-in-snow-21215.jpg\")
<\/a>Baseball fields aren’t supposed to be covered in snow. Photo via twitter<\/p><\/div>\n
So far, 2015 has been one massive cold spell for much of the nation.\u00a0 Boston got 7 feet of snow.\u00a0 Places deep into the south felt freezing temperatures.\u00a0 DC just experienced its second coldest February<\/a> since 1950, with an average temperature for the month below freezing.<\/p>\n And the College Baseball season kicked off in the middle of all this!\u00a0\u00a0 Division 1 college baseball programs kicked off the 2\/13\/15 weekend with many cold-weather teams traveling and many traditionally warmer-weather schools being forced to move home dates to warmer locations.\u00a0 For example, UVA had to move a bunch of lucrative home dates to South Carolina and played one game on a HS field in Charleston.\u00a0 The #1 team in the country (Vanderbilt) had to move a home series to Florida.\u00a0 UNC had to move a marquee early-season match up against fellow top-10 team UCLA all the way to Orlando.<\/p>\n Long time collegiate baseball coach (currently at West Virginia) Randy Mazey<\/strong> has been pushing a recommendation<\/a> to radically alter the college baseball schedule for years and has latched onto this year’s uncommonly cold winter to spread the word and gain support.\u00a0 The Washington Post picked up his story<\/a> in mid-February and he’s made some appearances on baseball-themed broadcasts to spread the word, and details on the email that Mazey has been sending to fellow college coaches is on d1baseball.com’s site<\/a>.\u00a0 I listened to a long-form interview with Mazey on d1baseball.com’s podcast (hosted by d1baseball authors Kendall Rodgers<\/strong> and Aaron Fitt<\/strong>) and gleaned the following details:<\/p>\n Mazey’s proposal goes like this<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n Arguments for this proposal<\/span><\/strong>:<\/p>\n Arguments against this proposal<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n What do I think College Baseball should do<\/strong><\/span>?<\/p>\n Well, if you couldn’t tell from reading my point-by-point argument against logic, I think this is a dumb proposal that would be done in the best interests of a small population (the coaches and players of northern baseball schools) at the expense of many others (coaches and players from all other schools, pro teams, summer league teams).\u00a0 I think the baseball coaches behind this need to admit to themselves that baseball is inherently a warm weather sport and thus warm weather schools are going to have advantages.\u00a0 Prior to Oregon State winning the CWS a few years back, a “cold weather” state hadn’t won the CWS since Ohio State in the mid 60s<\/a> (and Oregon is “barely” a cold-weather state for this discussion; Corvallis averages just 3.1″ of snow a year .. about as much on average<\/a> as Atlanta, Georgia). Consider the reverse: are cold-weather sports being forced to change their schedules to accommodate warm-weather schools who want to participate?\u00a0 I don’t think so; and that is why you don’t have (say) ice hockey programs at schools in Texas and Arizona clamoring for changes to the NCAA hockey tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, there a couple of things that Mazey is right about.\u00a0 Why are colleges playing baseball in mid February?\u00a0 Why do colleges play fifty six (!) games a season?\u00a0 The logical thing to consider is to force back the start of the season a month, and lower the playing burden.\u00a0 Or, if you wanted to keep 56-game schedules, then play some mid-week series during spring break and in May once semesters are over.\u00a0 Or just accept the fact that some colleges can play in February and others cannot; same thing happens with high schools all over the country.<\/p>\n\n
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