Time to expand prep baseball

J's World, by Jeremiah Bartz

With the blink of an eye, the prep baseball season is gone.

It seems like just yesterday the Colony, Palmer, Houston and Wasilla baseball squads were taking the field for the first time. Now their season is done.

Prep baseball has the same problems that high school track, soccer and softball teams face. The big problem is time. The lack of time is due to Alaska's less than ideal spring weather for the spring sports.

Teams have just over a month to play games. From late April until late May the squads try to cram in enough games to make a season worth while.

Teams can not start earlier because normailly their is a sheet of snow and ice over most baseball fields in the area in April. Normally teams have to grab the snow shovel to plow the infield before taking the field in late April. This year Mother Nature was kind to the local baseball players. Conditions were great for baseball even in late April.

Teams cannot normally schedule games later than the end of May because school is out and many of their players graduate.

So if you cannot expand the season, I say that the Alaska School Activities Association should expand the state tournament.

Surprisingly the tournament is only four years old. Colony has hosted the last three state tourneys at Hermon Brothers Field, and this year the tournament is held June 5-6 in Fairbanks.

Right now only four teams qualify for the tourney, the champion of each of the regions.

I believe that the tourney should have a minimum of eight teams.

With over 20 varsity teams in the state, their should be ample talent to put together a competitive eight-team bracket in the state tournament.

It would not only give teams and players more opportunity to play, but it would also provide incentive.

With only four berths now, a team can be out of playoff contention by the second week of May.

This may be away to keep more athletes on the dimond and increase the support for the game in the state of Alaska.