Blown Away: The Game That Never Was

Farmington @ Galesburg (Softball)
(4/30/10)

With thunderstorms forecast throughout the day, it looked like it would be two straight days without seeing a game. The storms came in faster than expected, and drifted more to the north in the mid-afternoon. Still, another bout of storms looked like they would blow in around 5:00 p.m.

The plans were to watch Farmington softball, state ranked much of the year in Class 2A by the Illinois Coaches Association, play at Galesburg. Shortly after 3:00 p.m. I made a call over to GHS to make sure the game was still on, and it was.

As expected, it was a pretty light crowd on hands at GHS. Around the entire varsity diamond, there were, maybe 30-40 max. in attendance. I staked claim just to the side of home plate, down the third base line. The game was moving quickly, and it was in the bottom of the 2nd inning by the time I found my spot. A fill up at the gas station in Monmouth and a bottle of water slowed me down a bit.

The score was 0-0 and the winds were brutal. Winds were gusting as high as 45 miles/hour, and the winds were blowing in. With that said, the winds were blowing a very dusty field right into my face, and on several occasions I could be seen turning my head, or holding my clipboard up to my face.

After an inning of fighting dirt in my face, I walked over near the Farmington dugout, where my back was to the wind. The view wasn't as good, and I took a little bit of video, which wasn't that great due to the distance.

In the bottom of the 3rd inning, I headed back over to my former spot, and battled the wind again. Took some more video, but there wasn't much action going on. Farmington had two base hits in the top of the 3rd inning, Galesburg walked in the bottom of the frame, and the Farmers walked and reached on an error in the top of the 4th inning. Those were the only base runners in the game.

I chatted with Galesburg Athletic Director Ralph Henning for a few minutes. He was walking all over the grounds taking photos for the athletics website, www.streaks.org. The Streaks soccer team was also in action across the street, playing Jacksonville.

Of course, this game will never count. With Farmington's leadoff hitter up in the top of the 5th inning in a scoreless game, umpires from the JV field yelled out from the outfield fence. The varsity umps went over, and JV fans were heading for the cover. There was a lightning delay in effect, which is automatically a 30-minute wait.

It didn't take me long to ponder my decision. I wasn't going to wait it out, since the skies looked pretty ominous, with a certainty for some rain. After packing everything away, I noticed Farmington heading for the buses, and many people heading for their cars. There was no wait, the game was cancelled.

With two softball games and a soccer game all coming to a halt, it created a logjam for cars to exit. There is only one road that leads into the athletics complex, and it can get tricky with the flow of traffic.

With an early night, I texted my buddy Jimmie Carr, a Galesburg athletics Hall of Famer during his standout basketball days for the Silver Streaks in the late 1950's under legendary head coach John Thiel. I met up with Jimmie, as well as basketball guru, Flash Flanagan, who was passing through town. We met for an hour and talked a lot of basketball. Jimmie told Flash that I was the future Brent Musberger, LOL. Flash made sure to say goodbye to, "Brent Musberger" when he headed for the exits.