Like Old Times

The great joy of going to Florida, besides the weather, was playing all these different schools, like SUNY Plattsburgh, which is part of the New York state university system.  Plattsburgh is located on the shores of Lake Champlain about 40 miles from the Canadian border.  Florida in mid to late March was the first chance the Cardinals at being outdoors, one of the players told me.

And then there was Bowdoin College in Maine, founded in 1794, and home, naturally, to the Polar Bears.  The first time we played Bowdoin I was all excited because one of their alumni, Joshua Chamberlain, won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg.  I kind of wanted Chamberlain to be in the Bowdoin dugout that morning.

I’m thinking of these snowbirds playing softball because it snowed over twelve inches last night at Valparaiso (we got a dusting), and the Crusaders are supposed to make a six-hour bus trip to play in Bowling Green, Kentucky, this weekend.  You just have to love how snow is a part of spring sports in the Midwest.  Just don’t ask my daughter about it.  With the university shut down, she’s trying to get the bus to come for the team earlier, only the driver is having problems getting out of his driveway.  Ah, Indiana, where they trust the sun more than plows and salt to clear the snow.