When the term "rain delay" took on a new meaning
Bluffton News editor, Todd Gratz, got his feet wet taking this photo countless baseball seasons ago.
Bluffton College’s baseball diamond, at the time, was located between Musselman Library and Little Riley Creek.
Today, that former baseball field is best known as where teams play Frisbee football.
But, in 1972, it was the college baseball playing field. Following a Riley Creek flooding, the baseball field, covered with water, provided Gratz with the interesting idea to pose this photo.
The following photo identification line was under the photo in the 1972 Bluffton News:
That lonely feeling on the mound that pitchers feel was even more pronounced for Tom Baratko, BC hurler, last week as the water in the Little Riley Creek jumped the banks and covered everything but the pitcher’s rubber on the BC baseball diamond.
Baratko had won his first game of the season the previous day, about an hour before the rains came to start the small flood.
A.C. Burcky, longtime Beaver coach, remembered that once during his own baseball coaching career the water covered the mound and was high as the dugout seats.
This year’s water fell between 6 and 12 inches below that.
Very interesting. Who would have guessed?!