| OCR Text |
Show Viewpoint... Jr. Prom and ballgames don't mix By JACK HILL Never schedule an athletic contest con-test on the day of Junior Prom. After the first three years of coaching in the spring, I made that an unbreakable rule. Being stupid (I'm a school teacher) but not entirely dumb, fighting "Prom" was a battle that the coach loses more often than he wins. PCs baseball team re-discovered the downside of fighting "Prom fever" Friday in a 5-2 loss to visiting Carbon. With a mother coming to the dugout during the game to tell her son, "They sent white pants with your tuxedo, but we went back and got black. ..that's what you wanted, isn't it?", it's not hard to see why some of the player's minds were not focused on the game. Dates and girl friends who had spent a bundle on dresses and hairdo's paced the fence behind home plate complaining, "When is this going to be over? Our dinner reservation is in 45 minutes." Unbelievable as it may sound to a real athlete, Coach Bahr actually had players come to him during the game and say, "We've got to go, or we'll be late to the Prom." Obviously, these distractions did nothing to improve "on the field performances" of the league leading and previously unbeaten Vikings. "Prom fever" was compounded by the fact that the umpires assigned by the Utah High School Activities association, failed to show up. The 4 p.m. starting time turned into a 5:07 p.m. first pitch start after substitute umpires were called and hastilycame from Orem and Spanish Fork to fill in for the Salt Lake City umpires that didn't show up. Dee Burton, the person responsible respon-sible for assigning umpires, said in a phone conversation Monday morning, "The umpires just fouled up." Burton added, "The umpire responsible has already been in this morning and paid the $25 fine for missing an assignment." This fine is little consolation to the players, coaches and fans who sat for more than one hour waiting for the game to start. "Playing on Prom day is out of my hands," said Coach Alan Bahr. "The games are scheduled by the region." Bahr later said, The late start due to the umpire situation only made things worse. Our kids started to think more about the Prom than about playing the game." Actually the Vikes took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Cody Bell drew a walk and Jeff Harris doubled to put runners on second and third. A wild pitch brought Bell home. In the second and fourth innings, PG loaded the bases but suddenly the bats that had been coming through with the big hits all season fell silent and by game's end, the Vikes had stranded nine baserun-ners. baserun-ners. Neither team scored until the top of the fifth when a walk and error, two hits and a three-run home run produced five runs for Carbon. In the bottom of the seventh, pinch hitter, Shane Duvall, reached first to start a mild rally that produced one run. When the final out was recorded at 7:12 p.m., the old truism, "Never play an athletic contest on prom day" had added another documented chapter to prove its v isdom. |
