Couch: The misery of spring sports in a spring we didn't think would arrive

One of the worst feelings in sports is the jarring, stinging vibration as the aluminum bat in your hands connects with a hard-thrown baseball or softball on an unseasonably chilly day.

Or the chafing sensation as your inner thighs rub against the cold, wet material of your pants while on a run in freezing drizzle.

Welcome to spring sports, April 2018 in Michigan. Or just about anywhere in the Midwest. We get it, Mother Nature. It’s your world. Now back off.

Spring, it appears, is finally here. The temperatures over the next week are supposed to be in the mid-50s and 60s. It’ll feel like 80.

In the Lansing area – and many places within several hundred miles of here — we spent nine of this month’s first 17 days in the 30s, only cracking 50 degrees three times in April before Thursday, April 19.

From the preps to the pros and everything in between, it’s been a godforsaken month to be an athlete, coach, athletic director or fan.

Or, if you’re really unlucky, a groundskeeper.

“It’s been the most miserable spring of my career,” said Michigan State softball coach Jacquie Joseph, who’s coached the Spartans for a quarter-century. “We had that flood last year that was an issue but never like these prolonged 20-degree-below-normal days, day in and day out. It’s just brutal.”

“We don’t want to just to get the games in and not have anybody enjoy it at all,” said Grand Ledge High School athletic director Steve Baker, who’s already cancelled or postponed 39 events this spring.

“We haven’t been able to get outside,” Eastern High School athletic director Ramona Mendez said. “It’s hard to get the basic practice structure down when you can’t be on the baseball, softball field or soccer fields.”

There’s nothing to be done other than battle through it where you can and reschedule where you’re able. And remember that you could have it worse.

“We’re filled with a lot of perspective,” Baker said. “Gaylord’s coming down (to play Friday). They haven’t been outside yet for baseball. The first time they’ll see green is the game (at Grand Ledge) on Friday.”

Even if this is partly global climate change at work, it’s still an aberration. I think. There’s no reason to call for long-term scheduling reform or rethinking the calendar.

But that doesn’t mean it’s been fun. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Mother Nature oversleeping her spring alarm has caused daily headaches.

Outdoor athletes have been stuck indoors. Coaches and ADs have become amateur meteorologists, experts in terms like “RealFeel,” an AccuWeather term for what the temperature actually feels like. In Big Ten baseball and softball, for example, the RealFeel temp must be at least 28 degrees for first pitch. High schools don’t play under such regulation. They have to trust their gut on their own misery index.

“The Realfeel is the magic number for us,” Joseph said. “When we designed the policy, we consulted our medical teams about what happens to the body in certain temperatures.”

Even at 28 degrees, spinning a softball — or hitting it or fielding it — isn’t pleasant.

Softball has it even worse than baseball. Women and girls usually have smaller hands, it’s a bigger ball. The fielders are closer to the action and, for pitchers, it requires more spin.

“I think hitting it is worse, but fielding doesn’t feel good, either,” said MSU softball pitcher Kristina Zalewski. “(While pitching) your hand never really gets warm.”

MSU’s softball team gives each senior her own senior day. Zalewski’s has been moved four times.

MSU’s baseball team has lost three games and had to reschedule a bunch of others.

Lansing Community College’s baseball team might lose 10 games from its season.

ALSO AT LSJ.COM:

• Sexton's Ray Wilborn took winding road to turn heads at Ball State
• Grace Lehto is dominating from all sides for Eaton Rapids softball
• Boston Marathon winner from Michigan: 'I thought about dropping out'

The Lansing Lugnuts Class-A baseball team doesn’t have such flexibility, which puts pressure on second-year groundskeeper Zach Severns. The harshest winter Severns had seen, in terms of field conditions, was followed by an April no one imagined.

“(Wednesday) night was the first night all year we didn’t have the tarp on the field,” said Severns, whose last job was in Augusta, Georgia. 

“The biggest challenge has been moisture. You couldn’t let the field get too wet or it would freeze and thaw. You couldn’t let it get too dry or the dirt would start breaking up when you played on it.”

When Severns and his “really good crew” measured the pitching rubber and first base anchor before the season, both had moved a half-inch on their own, thanks to the harsh weather.

Recreational leagues have been impacted, as well. Lansing Packs and Rec will begin its softball leagues a week later than scheduled, so its fields have a chance to be properly prepared.

The one group that’s suffered through without delays might be runners. Run camps, like those organized by Playmakers, training for spring marathons and half-marathons have gone on without interruption.

“Runners are pretty hardy and pretty tough, and you can dress for it,” said Brian Jones, an avid runner, one of the owners of Playmakers and a volunteer assistant coach with Okemos’ high school’s track program. “Probably more than anything is how it affects your attitude. You get frustrated, ’Another bad day, another bad day.’

“The big challenge (with the marathon) in Boston (last week) was hypothermia, literally pulling people out of the race. (One of our guys in his 30s) had a body temperature of 92 degrees at Mile 21. They told him, ‘If you keep going, it’s not going to end well.’”

But it’s supposed to be 56 degrees Friday, 66 by Monday. It looks like we’re clear of whatever that crud was.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.