The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Baseball makes do indoors
Milan teams practice in MHS gym while waiting for playable fields
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 15, 2007
The spring sports season has officially sprung.
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Monday signaled the official start of practice for Michigan high school spring athletics, with Milan's track, girls' soccer, and baseball and softball kicking off their 2007 seasons.
Milan baseball coach Adam Gilles said it also would help if spring itself would go ahead and spring. Until the team's fields dry out and home plate isn't a mud pit, the team will hold its practices in the Milan High School gymnasium.
"It is frustrating," Gilles said before his initial practice Monday. "There's no bad hops in the gym. There's no wind or sun –– those elements are what makes baseball the game it is. We want to get the kids outside as soon as we can."
Despite the situation, there are several pieces of good news for Gilles and the Big Reds. Most obviously, Milan is hardly alone in this predicament.
"We're not the only team that has to go through this," Gilles said. "We also have good facilities and equipment we can use. A lot of schools don't have a gym our size, and they don't have anywhere to go."
Thanks to some of the equipment Gilles cited, his team can also go through virtually all of the same drills the team would go through on the field.
Batting cages set up in the Milan High School auxiliary gymnasium let the Big Reds work on their hitting. A set of two wood pitching "mounds" (made up of two platforms, one slanted, and joined by a hinge) can be wheeled out and attached to the gym floor with suction cups. The gym also offers enough space for the team to work on their field.
"We can take a full infield, we can pitch, we can hit … technically, there's pretty much nothing we can do outside we can't do inside," Gilles said. "But those wood mounds don't feel the same. Hitting in a cage isn't the same."
For all the issues, there's no question that Gilles and the Big Reds still much prefer practice inside to no practice at all.
"We're excited to be getting started," Gilles said. "We've got a good group of kids coming back, we've got a new assistant in Andy Schwantes, and we're ready to get off to good start."
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