HICKS: No 2012 baseball champ in York County

Maybe I don't understand how this thing works.

I thought I did. I think I do. But I might be wrong.

Follow me on this:

When I sit down to watch the Super Bowl, I know it's a one-and-done deal. The team that wins the game is the champion. The team that loses is the top-ranked also-ran.

When I sit down to watch the World Series, I know it's a seven-game series. The first team to record four wins is the champion. The other team isn't.

The criteria for winning is perfectly clear. To me, at least.

And the same goes for the York County Baseball Championship Series between the champions of the Susquehanna and Central leagues.

It's a best-of-3 series. It's always been a best-of-3 series. One game on Saturday, one game on Sunday and a third game, if necessary, later on Sunday. Three games, if needed, on one weekend.

That's by necessity because the York County Championship is squeezed in between the playoff championships in both leagues and the Colonial York Baseball Tournament over the Labor Day weekend.

By design, it's not just a one-game deal. It's a best-of-3 series, which means one of the two teams has to win two games. That's not win one game and be ahead in another before the game is called because of rain. It's two games won, period.

So I guess I'm a little bit confused about what happened last weekend between the Susquehanna League representative -- Conrads -- and the Central League representative -- Stoverstown.

Now, I have nothing for or against either team. Or either league, for that matter, though it's appropriate that I reveal my long-time participation in the Central League for those readers who didn't already know that.

But I could care less who played in the championship series or who won. For all I care the game could have been played between Pleasureville and Felton or any other two matchups you could name. It just doesn't matter to me.

What does matter is that Conrads won the first game in the championship series last Saturday by a 5-1 score. Then on Sunday, it held a one-run lead over Stoverstown, 6-5, in the middle of the fifth inning when a torrential downpour rolled in. The game was called.

And when the two teams couldn't make the time to play on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or any night this week -- allegedly because they had a couple college players who wouldn't be available -- the tournament ended. So much for 25-man rosters, I guess.

Anyway, Conrads won one game and came within three outs of winning a second. Close, but no cigar.

That certainly does not make Conrads the county baseball champion.

That's the way the rules of baseball work. The game does not become official unless and until the home team is ahead after the visiting team bats in the fifth inning, or the home team bats in the bottom of the fifth inning and the visiting team is ahead.

Neither happened in this game. For all intents and purposes the game was never played.

I wish there had been a successful conclusion to this best-of-3 series, but there wasn't. And not for the first time, either. In the 39-year history of the county championship series, it wasn't played in 1979, 1990, 2000 and 2011.

I wish the two teams had replayed the second game of the series on Monday night, but they didn't.

And I wish the two teams had played a third game on Tuesday night, if necessary, but that didn't happen, either.

Or they could come back and play the second and "if" game the weekend following the Colonial Tournament.

You know there was a time in York County baseball circles -- yes, going back 50 or 60 years -- when amateur men's baseball was actually played until the end of October because the weather remained reasonably accommodating until then.

You can bet the York College baseball team will be playing well into October in its fall program. Same goes for various American Legion programs and traveling teams from all over York County. They continue to play baseball until it's too cold to play.

But these days, in the two men's leagues, if it doesn't happen before the Labor Day weekend, it doesn't happen at all. Too bad.

I'd rather see the championship played than not played.

When one team wins two games, I'm ready to hear a champion proclaimed.

That hasn't happened yet.

So add 2012 to the list of years the series wasn't played to conclusion.

But don't crown a champion.

As it stands, there isn't one.

Sports columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Thurs days. E-mail: lhick s@yorkdispatch.com.

Source: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/editorials/ci_21429848/hicks-york-county-doesnt-have-baseball-champ?source=rss

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