BISCUITS BAKING: Torrid temperatures create tough conditions for final week of first half
Blake Hunt scores during the Biscuits’ win on Friday. Temperatures ranged from 98-102 degrees during the week. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
These Biscuits are baking!
As temperatures cracked the century mark last week, the Montgomery Biscuits continued to play an outdoor sport in an uncomfortable setting, practicing in the stifling heat of the afternoon, then taking the field against the Mississippi Braves in the evening.
“We try to be as professional as we can about it, but we definitely feel it,” said infielder Austin Shenton, a native of Spokane, Wash., who came to Montgomery last year in a trade with the Mariners. “Working out for two hours pre-game, we definitely feel the effects of it. Being out in this heat, doing physical exertion for five hours a day is really not easy on the body. I know I’m definitely feeling it.”
The temperatures are always high in central Alabama during June, but jumped above 100 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday.
And while the temperatures hovered near record highs this week, the regimen of Tampa Bay’s Double A franchise always calls for frequent pauses in the afternoon practice workouts and hydration breaks, so the higher temperatures don’t raise any additional concern.
“They’ve all played in the summer,” Biscuits manager Morgan Ensberg said of his players. “These are elite athletes. We drink a lot of water. We’re very smart with how we work. We work intensely for short periods of time, we give them breaks in between and we rest them. I’m a firm believer in working them. They have to acquire the skills necessary to make it to the big leagues and the only way to do that is through work. We get weather reports every day from Tampa and we schedule our work around that.”
But Ensberg isn’t oblivious to the obvious concerns as the heat and humidity continue to make for unpleasant afternoons and evenings.
“This is another reason I wear (long) pants out here because it gives me a better understanding of how they feel,” he said as the players went through a practice session on Thursday afternoon. “They’re in shorts, but since I’m in pants, if I’m hot it gives me a better understanding of what they’re going through.”
The temperature reached 100 degrees on Wednesday, although it had “cooled off” to 98 degrees by game time. Still, the temperature registered 119 degrees on the field during the game as the humidity was at 67 percent.
By Thursday, the temperature climbed to 102 degrees but the humidity had dropped to 41 percent, making the high temperatures a little more tolerable.
“The thing is, we’re going out there in this weather and so is the other team,” Biscuits shortstop Tyler Frank said. “Whatever we’re doing, they’re doing to, so it’s an equal playing field. It’s just something you have to deal with.”