Base Paths leads off…
Nobody was lining up for their autographs, but Harold Nalls and Ron Smith outshone the likes of visiting Hollywood superstars Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates Thursday, at least to the thinking of fans along Hyde Park Boulevard.
While Hollywood backdropped the Falls, Nalls and Smith held back the waters and allowed the Niagara Power and Olean Oilers to light up Sal Maglie Stadium.
How bad was the weather?
One obsessive fan, inbound from Alden, beheld the deluge as he passed through Amherst, turned around and went home. “I can’t believe they played,” he e-mailed Base Paths.
“It was just a phenomenal job,” said Josh Rebandt, Power manager who’s been with the team for five years. “I’ve never seen the field look better.” None of the game’s four errors could be attributed to the playing surface.
Only one other area game survived, on a partly artificial surface, requiring little more than a mop, compared to the shovels, rakes, chain links and drying agents demanded by the Barber Shop, which holds water like an industrial-strength Depends.
Niagara Falls High Athletic Director Joe Forcucci takes pride in his grounds crew, disciples of the legendary Matt Bernat, also on hand Thursday. Forcucci bristled a couple weeks ago when it appeared some criticism came his men’s way after a clear-skies postponement. “We applied bags and bags of absorbent,” he said, “And it was still soggy,” endangering both players and the field itself.
Only on Webster’s artificial field could the New York Collegiate League play that night. Around here, even soccer games, usually waterproof, couldn’t make the pitch.
Mostly, it was Nalls on hand Thursday night and he doesn’t take a lot of credit, wondering, even, why anybody would want to know his name. But they are a team, Nalls and Smith, and while the Power is boosting a post-season Field of Miracles revival meeting, on Thursday, the gurus of groundskeeping beat the prayers to the punch. And unlike the glitterland elite, they’re still here.
It mattered much because of the monsoon which has beset this and every other northeastern league this semi-summer. On Wednesday, the Power motored to Olean only to retreat when an afternoon gullywasher swamped the Oilers’ creekside field. The weekend series with Wellsville floated away, Power president Cal Kern making the desperation move of checking the last-second availability of an artificial field in Allegany County.
“I can’t ever remember anything like this,” said Rebandt, who coaches on the Florida Gulf Coast. Base Paths can. In 1982, Oregon’s Mt. St. Helen’s volcano blew its top and bits of ash seeded our skies daily. He was pitching in a Saturday-morning league at Buffalo’s Houghton Park and most gamedays could break for nearby Wiechec’s tavern without the inconvenience of ducking a line drive.
Speaking of Wiechec’s, we check the forecast – more rain.
Signal back to Base Paths via pollyndoug@hotmail.com
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