Wednesday, February 4, 2009

It's The Pit

A look out the window from TigerBlog HQ shows a quick reminder that it snowed yesterday. This was the big, thick snow, the kind that gathers on branches and weighs the trees down. When the sun came out this morning, the result was a reminder that nature has its very heavy moments.

Unless you're a baseball or softball coach. In that case, all you have is a frozen field covered with about 3-4 inches of snow. In any event, it's unlikely that either Clarke Field (home of Princeton baseball) or 1895 Field (home of Princeton softball) is going to provide much of a practice facility for either team prior to Feb. 27, when the baseball team opens at UNC Greensboro and the softball team opens at Chattanooga.

So where do you go? How about four floors below the main court at Jadwin Gym?

Down on E level sits "The Pit," which is beyond the indoor tennis courts. The Pit offers the baseball and softball teams batting cages, pitchers' mounds and most importantly a full-sized infield. It's not quite like being outside, but it does offer the opportunity for indoor intra-squad games and for pitchers and hitters to get in the preseason work they need.

Still, this figures to be another year when the first time the teams are on a real field will be warmups before the first game.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"It's the Pit" certainly beats "Stranded in Chattanooga- Day 5". In The Pit, we always know the temperature, and our practices are never rained out. But, softball is meant to be played outside, so we made a valiant effort to begin our season this past weekend, and we made the trip to Chattanooga hoping for 5 games. We got 2 games in on Friday which resulted in a win and a loss, and where we saw a lot of promising things. Then, on Saturday, we woke up to pouring rain and the cancellation of the tournament. With no where to practice, and no place to go, we've been entertaining ourselves by wandering around the "city" of Chattanooga, which takes all of about 5 minutes, going to the movies, working on theses and problem sets, and watching more Bravo television than should be legally allowed. Stir crazy, we were ready to get back home and back to work. But, the weather had other plans for us, as our first flight was cancelled Sunday night, and our second flight was cancelled Monday morning. We rebounded from the initial disappointment of our prolonged stay in the South, and were excited to get on the 4pm flight to Charlotte, and then on to Philadelphia. That was a pipe dream though, because apparently our luggage weighed down the mini plane, and we were forced off to "lighten the load" and allow the Charlotte passengers to get to their final destination. We were sent to the Hampton Inn to sleep off our frustration, and are now hoping to get on the 4pm tomorrow. A few minor setbacks at the start of the season, but we are more determined than ever to A- get back to Princeton, and B- play ball.