I kid you not when I say there will be baseball in Michigan today!

Of course, the preceding 10 games I had been scheduled for from March 19th to today have all been snowed out. For the second-consecutive March, winter's icy grip has grabbed our collegiate programs and throttled the season to a sudden halt. This is the latest start to any season I've been blessed to work since 2000.

Today's game was to be played in Olivet, Michigan between the Comets of Olivet College and Tri-State University. Then old man winter dumped four inches of snow on us Thursday night. Friday I got an e-mail notification through the Arbiter that this MIAA doubleheader would go down to Angola, Indiana. Friday night those plans were halted -- Tri-State is unplayable, too.

Back to Olivet we go for a 2 p.m. first pitch, which ought to be about 40 degrees but dry. Perfect!

This is what college baseball entails in the Great Lakes for any hopeful players, coaches and officials. My first Division-I game was a 33-degree snowflaker at Eastern Michigan University about seven years ago that was so miserable, I stopped trying to write the changes on the lineup card because I didn't have any feeling in my hands. I've heard more than my share of players and parents at the prep level tell me that they should be going to this college or this program, that their coach isn't promoting them enough, so on and so forth.

You have to be a pretty good ballplayer in high school to be able to play Division III baseball. In Division II, each team has four or five kids that would be on a Division-I roster if there had been a spot for them. It's was already that competitive when the NCAA mandated baseball scholarships be equalized, meaning coaches can't pare up their scholarships differently to each, individual player. If a coach signs you, he's got to be certain you're the real deal.