HARRISBURG, Pa. — For the past few days, the only rushing around City Island in Harrisburg has been the roaring Susquehanna River after it was fueled by days of rain.
On Thursday, it was the Harrisburg Senators and their staff rushing around City Island to get ready for their home opener on Friday night.
"Unfortunately, having the tarp on the field since Sunday night, it's very hard to get this ready," said head groundskeeper Brandon Forsburg. "We're cramming a lot into a small time frame, especially today with the team workout, which we didn't think was going to happen. We're cramming in a couple of days of work into about a couple of hours."
With the roster release this past Saturday, the team had a long way to go in a short time. Mother nature consistently canceled practices to start the week and that forced the Senators to make a short road trip to get some kind of practice time.
However, the time away did have its positives, for some.
"Well it was a very rigorous spring training for them," recalled Senators manager Delino DeShields. "Some of these guys probably needed a couple of days off, but we adjust at the end of the day. We went over to Spooky Nook and we had a tremendous workout over there.
While FNB Field gets ready to welcome baseball season back to Harrisburg, the players know that weather is a part of the game.
"Playing baseball growing up, you learn how to adjust to things like weather," said Senators outfielder Dylan Crews. "Living in the south my whole life in Florida and going to school in Louisiana, it rains almost every day. It's just something that we have got to get used to and work around it."
It's like Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengle once said, "There are three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose, or it can rain."
The Harrisburg Senators will start the game with a three-game home stand starting on Friday night against the Erie SeaWolves, before hitting the road for a six-game stretch at Altoona.