It is the second week of September and we are still enjoying summer weather with temperatures around 25 degrees. Eventhough the All Star Game had to end with a rainout and no winner it looks like the end of the 2016 season is going to be a pretty one.
This is one thing I noticed over the past years. Dutch people are always busy talking and complaining about the Dutch weather. We find it too cold, too humid and especially too rainy. Playing Softball outdoors makes you look different at the weather. Your mind changes nice and warm days into perfect softball days. Sunny is welcome but even better if its cloudy so you can actually see the ball spin at all times. Rain, even just a little bit, is annoying because the grass never gets dry. But then if you need to practice it can be fun for slidings. Conclusion: the weather does influence our game.
As a softball player you start looking at any condition as a softball condition. Even in winter on a sunny day I'll be thinking: 'hmmm, perfect day for some softball outside'. During tournaments especially I'm watching the weather and hope for no rain or other delays. Schedules are set up tight and the fields don't get better by playing on them while wet.. But then in the end, we all play under the same conditions so complaining does not really help.
Last year at the European Cup we arrived in 30 degrees sweaty weather but then ended up with 3 days of rainouts, cold and muddy fields and with a changed schedule with 5 inning games. At the European Championships we played the semi-final in short sleeves at night and then the backdoor final with a stormy wind, longsleeves and a major rain delay. Oh and then of course the World Championships in Haarlem 2014, a really nice summer with one week of rain.. You really need to be ready for anything when packing for tournaments!
Back to the nice September weather and tournaments: The European Championships Baseball have just started in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. The Dutch roster looks very good so defenitely worth a visit somewhere this week if you have a night off! The tournament is held from September 9-18 and will also be live on the play-by-play via www.ekhonkbal2016.nl
Then an update on the Golden League. Tomorrow we will face DSS, Terrasvogels will face Tex Town Tigers which leaves Twins to play Sparks. On Sunday Terrasvogels will play Talent Team Holland with after that only one game left to play in the Golden League regular season. After this weekend we will know what the play-off schedule will look like so I'll tell you all about the teams and happenings in my next blog.
Eva