It is time for a change of seasons, sporting seasons that is. Despite the fact that last week the county experienced the lowest temperature of the winter, the sound of basketballs echoing in a gym are fading and the staccato pop-pop-pop of baseballs being caught as teams warm up can be faintly heard. 

Those sounds are just a few of the powerful characteristics of each of the games. Characteristic sounds which are associated with basketball include the squeak of sneakers as players cut and brake, the rare ‘boing’ of a basketball which clangs off the rim at just the odd angle and the coaching foot-stomp which is used to communicate urgency in a coach’s message. 

Baseball sounds are just as singular, although the open-air environment may require tuning of the ear to fully appreciate them. 

Nothing, nothing can compare to the sound of a baseball being caught in the pocket of a leather mitt. The pop is unmistakable. Often it is preceded by the slightest rushing sound. I combination of a ‘ziiiip’ and a ‘sheeee.’

There are other sounds which accompany the national pastime. The sound of a fungo bat is among them, as is the call to ‘cut’ a throw coming in from the outfield. The harsh umpire call ‘strike’ and the dismissive call of ‘ball’ are constants of the game. 

While each umpire voices his own signature calls for balls and strikes, it is the tone and intensity used which actually signifies the call. Umpires could replace the words ball and strike with practically any words, and still call the game effectively.

Sounds fill a gymnasium and turn a baseball park from a ghost town to a busy intersection of competition. Sports venues, the stages on which the games are played, are special places. 

Unfortunately, as older facilities are replaced, the new construction playing venues are looking more and more like the same box of cereal. It is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that it is correct.

Quitman has a bond issue in discussion, part of which is to build a new baseball field. If it comes to pass, a beautiful new baseball field will undoubtably be constructed. What will be lost will be that large expanse of playable area behind home plate at the present field. 

It can be imagined that somewhere there is a grandfather who must take extra time in telling a baseball story to his grandson, “You see, at the old Bulldog Park there was a long distance between home plate and the screen. It always made taking an additional base on a passed ball a real possibility. That day, the ball skirted past the catcher, and I took off for second base, glanced back and thought I might make third…”   

It certainly would add to the story. 

The risk associated with building a stock prototype sporting venue is one of replication. If whatever venue is used as the blueprint has a flaw, the new facility will be flawed as well.

The gymnasium at Pittsburg High School is a good example of this. The gym is a beautiful facility and is often used to host playoff games. It is open, with arena seating on three sides. It is also impossible to see the out-of-bounds line on the same side of the court on which one is seated.  It also features a railing between the spectators and the court. A railing – my heart breaks.

Old or new, gymnasiums and baseball parks are often at opposite ends of the sporting venue spectrums. Logically, gymnasiums protect the game from the elements and given how the game of basketball developed, is full of right angles. 

A gym is designed to give predictable results when a basketball is bounced off the floor or put up off the backboard. Any aberration (like the dead spot in the old Boston Garden floor) is ruthlessly eradicated and the normative standard restored.  

Baseball is a different animal. Although the game is continually under threat by those who seek to scratch Mother Nature off the roster and play baseball inside a closet, the game of baseball was always meant to be played outdoors. 

Basketball is shielded from Mother Nature; baseball is played in Mother Nature’s backyard.

I have never heard it said that Mother Nature made it easier to win a baseball game. The conditions, whatever they are (hot, cold, windy, raining, long grass, short grass, swarming cicadas, honeybees, midges and gnats) are always portrayed as something else to overcome. 

There is an alternative view, however. What if Mother Nature was simply the great leveling of the playing field – ensuring that in our drive to make everything a perfect surface we must admit that we cannot.  Perhaps she wants simply a nod of recognition that she plays baseball too, just not in the same way.

The way forward? Embrace it: forget symmetry in the outfield, leave that rise in right field in the surface, play the game in light rain, forgo the artificial turf. Retain the game. Make Mother Nature smile.

Play ball!