Fay, Fay Go Away!
We had a record registration for our fall season last Saturday and were very excited about Tuesday and Thursday’s registrations. Unfortunately, Fay decided she didn’t want us to complete the registrations on those days! That means we have only Saturday again and tons of players to register, it will be a very busy day.
Fay dumped about 30 inches of rain on Melbourne, and at least 15″ on us here. The roads in our neighborhood have cracked and the sand washed out from under them. They are reduced to rubble. The houses behind us have water half way up their driveways and the retention ponds are over their lips.
Personally, we have leaking around the exterior of our house and our bonus room is leaking into one of the bedrooms. It is raining so hard and horizontal that rain is leaking through the soffits. We are lucky, anyone who has seen the pictures of Merritt Island, Melbourne, and Sanford knows we are lucky.
We drove around the neighborhood and the new water drainage systems they installed after the hurricanes seem to have worked. At least we do not have many houses under water as we did before.
Fay came, and she won’t leave! Everyone who lives in Florida has a guest like that, now we all do! So Fay GO AWAY!
Who thinks Fay is going to go into the Gulf and return?
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Congratulations Michael Phelps!
As a former Washingtonian I am proud to say that I knew of this phenom early in his career. Local sports analysts like George Michael featured him and he was a local star long before the world heard of him four years ago. Now, he is a phenomenon. Absolutely amazing.
Rain, Rain go away! Games in the Little League World Series getting rained out. Pool games are good, but the elimination rounds are nail biting!
First fall registration tomorrow! Time to start all over again! I can’t wait!
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Dig a Hole and Pump the Water
I have been readying fields now for almost 20 years. In that time I have seen my share of rainstorms. Nothing is worse than working a field to perfection and then having rain destroy all your sweat equity! Then you rush around reprepping and it never looks or plays as good as it did before.
In all my years though, I had never seen this trick! I am amazed that I never did, but now I know. Some of you will probably laugh at me because you already know this, but I bet a lot more of you were unaware of it as was I. The city parks and rec guy used this trick to get rid of a monster puddle in about 5 minutes. I stood there in awe and now know a great solution to a puddle!
Apparently they use this trick on golf courses as well, but either way, I am about to share with you puddle magic!
Here is how it works.
1. Go to the center of the puddle and dig a hole about a foot deep and about a 6" wide.
2. Allow all the water from the puddle to run into the hole and fill it up.
3. Take a hand pump that you can get from anywhere, and pump the water out of the hole into a bucket
4. Dump the bucket and repeat until the water is all gone!
It is just that simple. Then you fill the hole back in, throw down some turface drying agent and rake it in. No sweeping mud onto the outfield and angering the county or city and within 15 minutes the surface is ready to play. Truly an amazing technique.
What are some tricks you use to ready a field?
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Still Playing. Or Trying To.
Image by on2wheelz via Flickr
Guest Post for The Little League Coach
by Little League Mom (AKA E. Peevie)
I know a lot of you little league parents out there have finished up your seasons and have already headed into playoffs. You’re beginning to see the light at the end of the batting tunnel, and it’s not because you just got beaned. You no longer have bleach on your Costco list. You’ve promised your non-little-league children that you’ll be spending some quality time with them soon.
Not us. Here in Chicago we had a late start. We were still shoveling snow into late April , for crying out loud. It must make you wonder why this part of the continent is even inhabited, instead of remaining an icy scientific outpost. I often wonder the same thing.
But here we are, almost into July, with two more weeks of regular season baseball, followed by another two weeks of playoffs. After that, we could be lucky enough to have another two weeks of All-Stars—so I could be bulk-buying bleach and Gatorade ® for another six weeks. Oh, yippy.
Seriously, though, I’m thrilled that C. Peevie is finally playing on a winning team, and that they have a good chance of doing well in the playoffs. I’m happy that he gets to play different positions, and that he experiences small successes every game. In all but one of his previous seasons of Little League ball-playing, he’s had way more opportunities to learn how to be a good sport when losing than how to be a gracious winner.
Yesterday’s game had three separate rain-outs. Each time players, coaches, and fans ran for the mini-vans to wait out the powerful storm bursts, which acted like weather temper tantrums. The first time, Mr. Peevie actually brought C. Peevie home, thinking the game had been called—but the coach begged to differ: “Hey! Where’s C. Peevie? We’re headed back onto the field.”
The ump called a rain-out during the third storm, two innings shy of a complete game. (I’m happy to report that C. Peevie still had plenty of game time to get his uniform dirty, kneeling in the dust behind home plate . I really need to teach that boy how to do laundry.) So we’ll be squeezing in one more partial game before play-offs.
Last week C. Peevie asked Mr. Peevie and I if we’d let him try out for Traveling All-Stars. This would mean an entirely new level of commitment, which would feel more like a hostage situation than a family-friendly past-time. We said no. I love Little League as much as the next Little League Mom, but you know what they say: too much of a good thing is not a good thing.
Meanwhile, if you need me, I’ll be in the bleachers. Or home, getting dirt stains out of white baseball pants. Still.
Rainy Season
Image via Wikipedia
Tis the time of tournaments and rain! This is inevitable this time of year so it is important to know basic field maintenance skills. Drying a field should take about an hour or so and is a relatively easy task if you know what you are doing. If you don’t, you can ruin a field for life.
First, what NOT to do:
1. Don’t sweep the mud off the field. This only creates a hole that the water will sit in next time worse.
2. Don’t remove mud from the field.
3. Don’t put sand on top.
Do:
1. Cut tiny channels that funnel puddles into the outfield or off the field altogether.
2. Take a shovel and poke slits in the puddles in the outfield so water will seep down.
3. Take a shovel and turn the clay in the infield over bringing dry clay to the top to mix w/ the mud
4. Liberally apply turface and rake in w/ turned dirt and mud. Use the turface that is powdery, not the kitty litter type.
5. Move around the field raking and applying turface to allowing the turface to absorb the liquid from the mud.
6. Rerake and reline
7. Play ball!
It really is that simple. There is no need to damage the fields, allow the turface to work and make sure to rake it in with the dirt.
Do you have any tricks you use to dry the fields when it rains ?
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