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JOE KNOWS: Changes needed to PSAL baseball quarterfinal format

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See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.

By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

This season made it evident that the Public School Athletic League needs to make changes to where it plays its quarterfinal baseball playoff games.

The league has traditionally held the games at neutral sites and did again this year, which is fine in theory. The problem has been securing quality fields, holding someone accountable for maintaining them, and even having the entrance to the field opened for teams in a timely manor.

Half of the Grand Street roster and coaching staff was left locked out of John Adams until a school official came with the keys. Telecommunications suffered a similar fate at Grand Street. Scheduling the games the Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday also did not help.

The dirt at Grand Street, Lafayette and John Adams all needed work upon the teams’ arrival. The James Monroe staff raked at John Adams and Eagles coach Mike Turo said they needed to take six inches off the mound in order to make it the correct height for pitchers to throw from. Even with all of the work they did, home plate was still raised on a hill of dirt.

The Telecommunications coaches tried to do the same at Grand Street — after having to cut the lock off the Wolves’ tool shed in order to do so. Even after 45 minutes of raking and watering the hardened dirt, the field was still deemed “unsafe” by league officials after Cardozo coach Ron Gorecki was unrelenting in his complaints of the playing surface.

Something needs to change next season to avoid running into issues like this again. The simple answer is allowing the higher seeds to play at their home fields. All of this would go away and it makes securing the best seed possibly even more meaningful for teams.

If the league is determined to keep the games at neutral sites, then it might be time to update the list of fields they allow the coaches to choose from. Lafayette, Grand Street and Franklin K. Lane were all used the past two years as well.

Also make the host school responsible for making sure the field is playable and open for the teams, even if it means paying the school’s coach to oversee it.

The players and coaches deserve better than what they got this year. Making the quarterfinals should be something special, not something marred by poor playing conditions with team’s seasons and players’ careers on the line.

Reach reporter Joseph Staszewski at jstaszewski@cnglocal.com. Follow him on twitter @cng_staszewski.

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