The wet weather that has been plaguing the entire St. Louis area recently has been playing havoc with many baseball schedules.
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Both the Metro East Bears senior American Legion team and the Alton junior Legion team are among those. Both teams have lost several games this week to the rainstorms that have hit the region. Wet grounds at Gordon Moore Park/Lloyd Hopkins Field this week, in fact, forced both teams to call off their entire schedule for the remainder of the week.
For the Bears, the rainouts affected a home games against Ballwin, Mo., on Monday and Fairview Heights Wednesday and a tournament that was set to begin Thursday in Washington, Mo., while the juniors lost games against Jerseyville Wednesday, Smithton Thursday and a tournament they were slated to host beginning Friday.
“We've lost four games already because of the weather,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “It's tough, no doubt; we're hoping our kids can maintain their edge while they're off, but with the rain, we can't even get out to get some work in.”
While rainouts are always a part of the game, Schaake can't remember ever losing so many games in a row because of weather-related issues. “The finals of the Greenville (Wood Bat Invitational) was rained out as well,” Schaake said. “I can't ever remember losing this many games before.”
If there's any consolation to the rainouts and postponements, other teams are at the same disadvantage as the Bears and Post 126’s juniors. “We’re really no different from anyone else when it comes to losing games from the weather,” Schaake said. “It’ll be hard once we get back to playing for a game or two, but once we get back on the field and get to playing, we’ll be fine. Our timing may be a bit off, but we’re in the same boat as other teams as well.”
Some of the games lost to the weather may be made up in one form or another, depending on how things work out. “We’re trying to get some games in the Washington, Mo., area, even though we know there won’t be a tournament,” Schaake said, also indicating the game lost against Fairview Heights may be played later this week as well should the weather cooperate.
