IN LEHMAN'S TERMS: Bulldog Barking Costs Harvard

The weather will cost Harvard its annual trip to Fenway Park. Not because there is rain predicted for today, when the Crimson was originally scheduled to head downtown and play the Beanpot Tournament consolation game against UMass in the shadow of the Green Monster. The forecast says high 64, partly cloudy.

It’s because our good friends from Yale refused to make up their doubleheader with Harvard—originally slated for April 15 and cancelled due to the deluge—yesterday, pushing that twinbill to today and nixing the squad’s annual Fenway pilgrimage.

The Crimson has to miss out on the big-league environs, because the Bulldogs are babies.

Apparently, the (bogus) excuse the Yale brass is employing is that the immediacy of the Tuesday two-fer would put unhealthy strain on its players, coming right on the heels of a weekend four-game series versus Dartmouth.

It wasn’t too taxing for Penn and Cornell, in similar straits after the aforementioned nor’easter, to play its makeup doubleheader yesterday. Not only that, but the Quakers had to trek up to Ithaca, a good 230 miles away, during the turnaround.

And it wasn’t too stressful for Yale when it endured a replica run of six games in four days, from April 7-10, with Sacred Heart in town for a Tuesday doubleheader in the aftermath of Saturday and Monday double dips with Columbia. In fact, you could argue that arrangement was even more wearying, without Monday to recuperate.

I happen to be a (wildly under-informed) believer that extra work is good for building arm strength, but if Yale skipper John Stuper doesn’t want to run out an 19-year-old starting pitcher on two days’ rest, I’m not going to eat his lunch.

That doesn’t mean you postpone the game, though! Remember when MLB commissioner Bud Selig called off the 2002 All-Star Game after 11 innings because no pitchers were left but the current ones and those hurlers had already logged two innings? Is there anyone breathing who still thinks that was a good idea? If you’re going to be a coward about protecting Vicente Padilla’s arm, okay, but at least let Robin Ventura or Junior Spivey throw an inning. Do anything but call off the game.

A quick scan of the Bulldogs (in light of this mess, maybe Poodles is more apt) roster reveals 15 pitchers. Further study of the team’s statistics page elucidates that 14 different throwers have seen game action for Yale this season and eight of those have started a game. If suddenly you can’t find six kids on your bench worthy of starting an Ivy tilt on the hill, it shouldn’t be up to the Ivy League office to accommodate your short-handed staff (current ERA: 6.99).

Granted, it might be unfair if the Crimson was just cooling its heels this past weekend, but it battled Brown for 32 innings in Providence and was primed and ready to go again yesterday. Both teams are in the same boat and depth is an important facet of the game.

As Harvard head coach Joe Walsh told The Crimson on Sunday, “We’re pretty disappointed with the decision. We feel we’re a deep enough team to handle that situation, but it’s not in our hands.”

Walsh has options today apart from his quartet of weekend starters. Newfound closer Adam Cole was the league’s Rookie of the Year as a starter a year ago, freshman Dan Zailskas already has a quality start on his pitching resume, and senior Jake Bruton and sophomore Hampton Foushee have also both turned in solid outings as starters in the past.

If the Bulldogs, who sit at 6-8 in Ancient Eight play, get swept by Harvard, co-leader of the Ivy League’s Rolfe Division at 9-5, they will be eliminated from title contention. What happened here, if I had to wager, was a desperate Yale team trying to save its season by pleading for an extra day of rest for its starting pitchers. The Ivy office, which couldn’t afford to be seen as uncaring on matters of student-athlete safety, was bullied into complying and mandated the adjournment. Now, Stuper can hand the ball to two of his horses today on the more-palatable three days’ rest and then bring them back on Sunday on three more days of rest.

Unfortunately for them, they’ll be the objects of the Crimson’s no-Fenway frustrations.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.