Pointless "rainouts"!!!

[NLC_LF]

I play in D2 for Nick’s Lawncare and we have been postponed 8 times this year so far. Sad thing is it’s only rained 3 of the 8 times on the day of our game. The other 5 days, the weather was fine; it had rained the day before but apparently all the fields could not be finished on time. This is absolutely RIDICULOUS. We pay a lot of money to play in this league and to only have ONE person take care of all the fields is ludicrous. There should be at minimum 2 guys doing these fields. Yesterday Tuesday 6/12 – we had a 7:15 game at BN1, it was beautiful all day…there was a sprinkle of rain for 5 minutes but nothing that would cancel a game….not in Meriden though. I mean when it rains on the day you are supposed to have a game, than fine I understand the game gets rained out, it’s only common sense. But to have 5 postponements due to no rain at all and I don’t want to hear it rained the day before, let’s do a little work for once and either replace the person that is not doing the job or if he is get the guy some help!!! Does anyone else feel this way about these postponements??

[spoondawg]

There are entirely too many rainouts, that could be avoided simply by doing a little work on the fields in the morning so the sun can dry them out.:(

[skifreek]

i was thinking the same thing. its totally unnecessary for a game to be cancelled the next day. i know for 3 of our rainouts, there was one little puddle that had to be taken care of, yet whomever is in 'charge' of the fields, decided to stay home and not put in 10 minutes of work.

its kind of sad, but what else do you expect from the town of meriden?? over spending and under budget.

[tjohnl]

interesting that the first person asked to get the grounds crew[s] some help - anyone out there willing to spend an hour or so to get the job done and pick up the slack?
i don't play softball (so don't start), but when my son was in little league [in meriden] i was always out there helping the grounds crew get the fields ready for games.
its what you do, when you want the job done

[NLC_LF]

interesting that the first person asked to get the grounds crew[s] some help - anyone out there willing to spend an hour or so to get the job done and pick up the slack?
i don't play softball (so don't start), but when my son was in little league [in meriden] i was always out there helping the grounds crew get the fields ready for games.
its what you do, when you want the job done

Anyone helping you or me out with our jobs during the day? Did you happen to help your sons little league on a Wednesday or Thursday night at 5:00 pm after working all day? If you did then congrats to you but for all of the other guys out there that have jobs during the day it really isn't our responsibility to make sure these fields get done. I'd like to explain that one to my boss..."I need to leave early because I have to make sure the fields are ready for my softball game at 6:00." I'm sure a lot of us would hold onto our job for a while if we all did that. This is what our taxes are for, for the Park and Rec, and that's what our team fee's are for in the beginning of the season. So don't go and make a case saying that if we want the job done we have to go out their ourselves and do it.

[SoxFan]

No need for a fight to break out over "helping" Parks and Rec...it is expressly not allowed by the City.

[jfl1282]

hey, not for nothing, but i'm curious what the budget breakdown is for the team fee that is paid in the beginning of the year.. i know about a half almost goes to pay the officials for their work, and electricity for the lights that are left on every night till 10:30-11 even when there's no 8:30 games.. and the rest is between parks and rec for maintainance? and the league committee for planning and the work they do? just curious
as for my team we've had.. at least 7 or 8 postponements and yes i can think of 2 or 3 that could've been played with some work. Seems the city has picked up the slack the second half of the year with the grass being cut and field work, lets hope this keeps up

[mboard]

Team reps get an itemized treasurer's report on monies brought in and on monies spent every year at the MASA team registration night. Information about rule changes, player conduct, reporting procedures, as well as the treasurer's report, and more, are given to every team rep. to share with his/her team.

[tjohnl]

I can't believe the city would not allow someone to push a rake or grab a bag of dirt to help get a field ready.
as far as your boss letting you out early?? i doubt you work up to game time everday, and i really doubt all the other teams do either

[mboard]

A few points on the handling of rainouts in MASA:

1. There is a high level of communication between the City and MASA, with MASA personnel talking to City personnel as early as 6:30a.m. on many days.
2. The City is in complete control of the fields until 3:30p.m. everyday, they make the call as to whether or not a field is playable and convey the information to MASA. After 3:30p.m. there is a dead time, until the game time, whereby MASA umpires have the right to determine if a field is playable or not playable. If it rains, between 3:30 and game time, in most cases, the field(s) will be lost for that particular night.
3. Back in the 70's players were allowed to work on the fields, however, more problems were created than solved. Layers of clay wound up being removed, creating big dips on the field, especially in front of bases. So the City moved to only allowing City personnel to work on the fields. MASA is perfectly willing to budget monies for Turfice or Speedy Dry to give to the City to aid in drying up the fields.
4. The City has more than 1 man working on the fields, but they are definitely short handed with personnel. Softball fields are not the only parks taken care of by the City. They might have more time to work on the fields if they did not have to pick up the trash left by teams after games....ALL types of beverage bottles and wrappers, etc.
5. The actual field "dirt" make up of the fields plays a role in rainouts. Meriden fields contain a heavy clay consistency which makes for a more durable field. However, clay is not as porous as a sand based field, therefore water tends to more easily pool.

Do items concerning rainouts need to be addressed, defenitely yes. However, games being canceled are not because of a lack of effort by the City or MASA. Teams see the front side of the problem, the rainouts. The teams do not see the backside of the problem....the rescheduling nightmare created by rainouts.

[NLC_LF]

I can't believe the city would not allow someone to push a rake or grab a bag of dirt to help get a field ready.
as far as your boss letting you out early?? i doubt you work up to game time everday, and i really doubt all the other teams do either
Who are you to say what time I work till? Yeah I work up until 5 pm everyday and the last thing I want to do is go to a field that should have been done and fix it up for an hour just to play another hour or so of softball only to wake up the next day and go back to work. That's not my job, it's the city's.


4. The City has more than 1 man working on the fields, but they are definitely short handed with personnel. Softball fields are not the only parks taken care of by the City. They might have more time to work on the fields if they did not have to pick up the trash left by teams after games....ALL types of beverage bottles and wrappers, etc.
Well from people that I know, I was told that there was one guy for all of the softball and baseball fields for Meriden and they added on a few extra guys when the fields were not getting done when they should have. Trash is not major problem as to why these fields are not getting done either. People would have a little more respect for the fields if the city put a little more respect into them as well.
You have good reasons and thanks for some of the info but I still feel that on days when the fields should have gotten done and they didn't then you have to place that blame on the worker and the city for not providing the proper work needed. If it's been known that these fields have a clay mixture and will flood easier then why not provide the proper tools and workers to clean them up?