By Allen Hamrick
The Lady Panthers got their game on this past week while setting a fire on the new diamond taking on Calhoun County and Roane County in scrimmages. The girls played very well and look to be in the deep end of the pitcher’s pool. The Lady Panthers hope to get most of the bugs worked out before the first official home game which will be Monday night against Richwood. The season looks like it will get off to a good start from what these ladies displayed on the new plastic and rubberized field.
While the new field is great and all the lines straight, there is something missing in the atmosphere, a kind of lingering loss. To the modern eye, the field is perfect – flat, predictable, and green no matter what the weather is. However, there was something strangely quiet in it. Back in the days of dust and bad hops, a team not only played the other team but the field as well. The excitement of the game hinged not only on bats and gloves but in the players’ ability to overcome the field’s innate ability to muster itself in the game. All the grounders skip across the turf now with a hiss rather than the dust flying from unstable grounders waging war against the infielders.
The grounders are true on the turf, for sure, but lack the soul of dirt and grass. The clouds of dust in a slide have given way to turf burns. The mound used to be a well sculpted hill that gave pitchers that extra edge on power. Where they used to get to kick up the dirt to set their footing, they now only scratch up Goodyear P235 R17s and other sizes called in fill. However, the game will be faster and cleaner on the new field and more than likely with less injuries.
So, let the games begin; but for some there will be a longing for the smell of the field and the dust that once was a part of the game as much as the dugout.
Come out and catch the Lady Panthers as they go head to head with the Lady Lumberjacks. Bring your own dust!
