Commentary
Mother Nature, stop the insanity
PATRICK NAGY Sports Reporter
Dear Mother Nature: I don't know what Western New York has done to deserve this horrible spring weather that you have provided, but it has to stop immediately.

Every week it's my job to let the community know how high school sports teams in my coverage area have done, and it's impossible if heavy rainfall, and even snowfall at times, wipes out many scheduled baseball and softball games, tennis matches and even some lacrosse contests.

As an example, last week, heavy rainfall caused high school baseball and softball teams to play one, maybe two out of the four or five scheduled games. You also forced the cancellation of the second portion of the 24th North Tonawanda Varsity Softball Invitational on Saturday and postponed Sunday's championship game of the Robert E. Rich Memorial Baseball Classic at Dunn Tire Park to a later date because Saturday's quarterfinal games were rained out and had to be played on Sunday.

Even if teams attempt to play games, you drench them with water and they are unable to finish. That's what happened to Williamsville North baseball on Monday, April 23. The team was beating Orchard Park, 4-1, through 4.1 innings but because you couldn't wait for them to play at least five innings for the game to count, the Spartans have to reschedule and start it over from the beginning.

And when it's not raining, you turn the temperature cold, which greatly increases an athlete's susceptibility to pulling a muscle or getting sick. Plus parents and high school sports reporters don't like standing in freezing temperatures either.

All of the cancellations you caused have led to a number of problems. Athletics directors have had to reschedule a number of baseball and softball league games and tennis league matches and have forced some, if not all, to play every weekday, and sometimes on Saturday, to make them up.

The rescheduling also results in nonleague games, which are generally used to showcase younger talent on a roster, to be canceled. It also lowers the number of times teams can practice. When baseball and softball teams can practice, it seems most are taking batting practice in the gym or playing catch in the parking lot because their infields resemble small ponds. Tennis players can't even swing a racket on the court when the weather is bad because there's a good chance they'll slip and hurt themselves.

The cancellations are also a pain in the neck for reporters who are trying to assign freelance photographers to shoot games but instead are constantly on the phone with athletics directors trying to figure out if their fields are playable. Last week, I had seven potential photos for freelancers canceled, all because of poor weather.

So I don't care what it takes, but you have to keep the poor weather away from Western New York for the next six weeks so high school teams can finish out their spring seasons without it feeling like a marathon. Student-athletes work hard, and they don't need you screwing everything up with a chance of rain every day. This week's forecast looks promising, with highs in the 60s and plenty of sunshine. Let's hope it stays that way the rest of the spring.

Sincerely, A concerned high school sports reporter P.S. Feel free to also give us a nice summer.