BALTIMORE — A Baltimore City high school baseball team is asking for the city’s help after the team was forced to cancel most of its games this season due to various issues.
Baltimore City College’s baseball team has played only four games this year with its most recent game canceled because of weather.
“One day was because there were no buses,” said BCC’s coach Mike Miazga. “Other days it’s because there are no fields available. Our field has been mostly unplayable this year. Other days, it’s because of there’s no officials available.
On Thursday, Miazga posted a video on social media of the team using vacuums to clean up the field because the rain made it unplayable.
He also said there were no other fields available across the city to play.
Miazga added these are issues other schools are facing as well.
“Most of the city schools have only played one or two games,” Miazga said. ”This is an issue of inequity for sure. I want more of my black students to be into baseball, excited about baseball, I have a number of them who are , but we have these obstacles we keep running into.”
It’s been frustrating for all the players, especially the seniors.
“It’s sad to say last year, a COVID-19 season, I was glad we had a season, but that season turned out better than what this is turning out to be and it’s sad to say that,” said Jaden Randolph, who is set to play college baseball next year.
Miazga said he understands bus shortages and lack of umpires are statewide problems, but he thinks the city could support BCC more by helping them maintain the field.
“You probably got a half dozen fields that are usable in the city, so we need to double that or triple that,” Miazga said. “And then we would have enough fields to make this work.”
Randolph added, “If we were able to get more support, we can get more umpires, more money and more buses so that we can play these games.”
BCC is also in fear of missing the playoffs because of not playing enough games.
Miazga said the team must play 10 more games to reach 14 to qualify.
He hopes the Maryland High School Sports Association changes the requirement for this year because of the issues the team has faced this season.
