 PO Game 4 Amsterdam vs. Kinheim canceled
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Saturday looked line a fine day to play a game, but in the end, everyone (and there were a lot of spectators in Amsterdam) went home with an unsatisfied feeling.
Game 4 of the best-of-five Play-Off between L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Corendon Kinheim was canceled on Saturday-afternoon, because of field conditions.
The game is re-scheduled for Monday-evening and the series continues on Sunday in Haarlem.
Last weekend, DOOR Neptunus became the first team to clinch a spot in the Holland Series after sweeping Konica Minolta Pioniers in their series.
The heavy rain of the last few days produced a lot of water throughout the country, including of course the field at Sportpark Ookmeer, the home of Amsterdam Pirates.
The field crew worked hard to prepare the field and make it playable and it appeared that it went the right way, as the field started to look better and better.
At 1:45 PM, 15 minutes before the scheduled starting time, the 4-man umpire crew inspected the field and decided to postpone the start.
An hour later, they came back onto the field, but their were still some wet spots in the first base and third base/short stop-areas on the grass-part of the infield.
After looking at the field and the umpires having a brief talk between them, Home Plate Umpire and Crew Chief Jan Maarten Kuipers called Head Coaches Charles Urbanus (Amsterdam) and Eelco Jansen (Kinheim) to him to discuss the situation, resulting in cancelation of the game.
The cancelation led to several discussions, which are going now for years.
As these are the Play-Offs, you might think that there are different circumstances as opposed to the regular season.
Why not wait longer before calling a game?
After the game was canceled today, it remained a clear, dry day.
OK, your webmaster is no groundskeeper, but the field could easily dry up and a starting time could have been set, for example, for 5 PM or even later.
And then the other ongoing discussion about re-scheduling canceled games during Play-Offs and Holland Series.
When a game is canceled, the announced playing schedule remains intact.
So instead of moving a canceled game to the next day at the same location, a scheduled game will be played instead.
Example: when a Thursday-game is canceled, it will be re-scheduled for Monday and the scheduled Saturday- and Sunday-games will be played first.
When a Saturday-game is canceled (like today), the Sunday-game will be played first.
This means that today's Game 4, a home game for Pirates, was re-scheduled for Monday-evening and that the series will continue on Sunday-afternoon with the original Game 5 to be played at Haarlem.
As a result of this, Kinheim will play its third home game in this series, while Amsterdam has played only one.
Throughout the years, this has led to several (sometimes heated) discussions between clubs and federation regarding the home advantage.
Now that the format of the Holland Series for this year finally has been changed from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven (like it is in many other championship series) isn't it time finally for the federation and the clubs to sit around and clear these ongoing discussions of early cancelations and the re-scheduling of games?
When a game will be moved to the next day on the same location (as is the case in several championship series), there will be no discussions about cancelations, as a visiting team will not have the benefit of a home game the next day.
(August 28)
...The discussion after the initial field-inspection by the umpires...
...Left to right: Umpires Roy van de Wateringen and Stenar van Groningen Schinkel,...
...Kinheim's Team Manager Frans Bergman, Umpires Johan Brandsma and...
...Jan Maarten Kuipers, Amsterdam's Head Coach Charles Urbanus, Amsterdam's...
...Team Manager Peter Meijers, Kinheim's Head Coach Eelco Jansen, Amsterdam's...
...Chairman John Witte and groundskeepers Ben and Joeri...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
...Groundskeepers David Meenhorst (left) and Ben Meenhorst...
...work on the field between the two inspections...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
...Umpires Stenar van Groningen Schinkel, Roy van de Wateringen,...
...Johan Brandsma and Jan Maarten Kuipers enter the field for the second inspection...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
...The four umpires discuss the situation...
...Kinheim's Head Coach Eelco Jansen looks on...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
...Crew Chief Jan Maarten Kuipers discusses the situation with...
...Head Coaches Charles Urbanus and Eelco Jansen...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
...Amsterdam's Head Coach Charles Urbanus thanks a visible disappointed...
...David Meenhorst, one of the groudskeepers, for their outstanding work...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
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