Sadly, Classic keeps getting held back by typical weather
If anyone deserves a break from Mother Nature it's John Sarna.
Sarna is in charge of the eighth annual Schaumburg Flyers High School Baseball Classic. The three-day tournament starts Thursday at Alexian Field and showcases some of the top teams in the Chicago area and state in a beautiful minor-league facility.
It's a wonderful idea, except …
It's in Chicago. In early April.
Neither of those aspects is going to change. So all Sarna and the participants can do is hope and pray the fickle early spring weather cooperates to a certain degree.
Unlike last year. Sure, the three days of the tourney had brilliant sunshine.
Unfortunately, the sunshine masked temperatures around 30 degrees. So the whole tourney was basically scrapped, with the participants fitting in a game later in the season at Alexian.
The Flyers Classic setup was similar to the state tournament -- before class expansion -- with semifinals and the championship on Saturday.
So the only time to hold the tourney so the best pitchers face the best teams is now. Once teams get into their conference schedules that's when their aces will pitch.
Hopefully, the weather will cooperate so defending AA champion Neuqua Valley and ace Ian Krol, the top-rated junior prospect in the state by Prep Baseball Report, can take on one of the state's hardest-hitting lineups from Schaumburg at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Alexian.
That's followed by Class 4A title contenders St. Charles North and Lyons Township at 7 p.m.
On Thursday, Jacobs and Wheaton Warrenville South play at 4:30 p.m. at Alexian.
And at 7 p.m., a Prairie Ridge team with a slew of Division I signees with former Fremd and Palatine assistant Dave Haskins in his first year in charge takes on perennial power Joliet Catholic.
The championship is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Alexian. Is a dry evening with temperatures in the mid-40s too much to ask?
A different road: Pitching makes baseball's IHSA championship unique to any other sport.
A team could have the second coming of Nolan Ryan, but it still needed a few other solid arms to win the 3 games in two days for a title.
That will be the biggest change with the move to four classes this year. Now teams with only two quality pitchers can win a championship.
Will it make for higher-quality title games with two No. 2s facing off? Just another of the questions that go along with class expansion.
One thing that hasn't changed -- even with only one game Saturday -- is the limit for innings pitched in one day at nine. There is no innings limit for the weekend.
Another 'class-ic' question: Will the expansion to four classes make it easier to accomplish what's only been done once in IHSA baseball history?
Fifty years ago, Maine Township won the first of its consecutive titles under Al Carstens.
No one did it before. No one has done it since.
The odds of it happening figure to be better with fewer wins needed for a championship and more titles available.
Four teams have won titles and finished second the next year -- Lewistown (A in 1993-94), Edwardsville (AA 1990-91), Barrington (AA 1986, second in 1987 and '88) and Aurora Central Catholic (A 1983-84).
A hoops return question: Class 4A boys basketball runnerup Zion-Benton will be one of next year's title favorites with a strong returning cast which includes sophomore standout Lenzelle Smith and junior semifinal hero Ronald Steward.
But how long had it been for a team to go from second one year to champions the next before North Lawndale won this year's 2A crown after taking second in Class A?
Despite losing the future college and NBA standout Cazzie Russell from its 1962 runner-up, Carver came back the next year to tip Centralia on the memorable steal and shot from the corner in the final seconds by reserve Anthony Smedley.
The others to go from second to first are Champaign (1945-46), Paris (1942-43), Freeport (1914-15) and Galesburg (1912-13).