AURORA —
If there’s no crying in baseball, maybe there should be for Colorado schoolboys.
Really, their spring season is a crying shame.
Forget about this year’s mistakes in setting the playoff fields. Obviously, the muck from March until May isn’t the answer. No, the greatest game that ever was should be kept great for local high schoolers by boldly going where no other in-state sport has dared.
Baseball should extend its season into summer.
Think of it. A generation that prides itself on technology and tattoos can also tug its jerseys with a clear conscience as well as with legitimate trend-setting. Today’s group can be the first to right a wrong that even “The Avengers” couldn’t right, and that’s to free prep baseball from the chains of a restricted season.
Currently, upper classifications are limited to 19 in-state regular-season games, plus playoffs. The season historically runs from early March (and during the state basketball tournament) until the third week in May (right around prom, testing and graduation).
We’ve all seen the results and heard the excuses for all spring sports. It’s a shove-it-down-our-throats stretch of games, modified by Colorado’s famously fickle weather as well as fear from both local and state officials that they: a) don’t want to work into June and interfere with summer downtime, and b) worry that kids competing when schools are out of succession suddenly will become an embarrassment and lose all sense of discipline.
Here’s a suggestion: Start the change with Denver-area schools and have them begin games in April. Play a 35- to 40-game regular season. Take time off when time off is needed. The better weather toward the end of May and into June (Sundays allowed) can easily allow time for any makeups. Play doubleheaders and night games so first pitches come at, say, 10 a.m., sometime in the afternoon or in the early evening. Hold single-loss tournaments at season’s end that lead to double elimination for a final eight, still the best move local baseball has made in decades.
Schedule most of the games beyond mid-May so the season is backloaded, and consider having championship rounds into the Fourth of July. It’d make summer games worth something.
If it works, perhaps other classes would be willing to join.
So what if the newer season would surpass graduation and the final school day? Ballplayers are ballplayers. They’ll behave if they want to play. Who cares if it would interfere with offseason training for other sports? It’s baseball season and, sadly, there aren’t that many multisporters on the upper levels.
Cutting into time for travel teams would be a darned shame. Parents potentially would be forced to save thousands of dollars and — gasp! — have their sons appear in fewer showcases. Legion, Connie Mack and other groups would be forced to understand and adjust. So would professional and collegiate scouts, who wouldn’t have their filtered pools of talent.
I’m also for exclusive use of wood bats, but, hey, it’s one step at a time.
How many more seasons of iffy weather and inappropriate playoff seeding do we have to endure?
It’s time for Colorado to shake free from antiquated administrators, leave the Dark Ages behind and do right by the kids.
Baseball can lead the way.
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin @denverpost.com or twitter.com/ neildevlin
