Spring fever has hit the Lansing Lugnuts.
Of course it doesn't help that it's eight days into the season and the team has yet to play a full game.
The squad made it through the first three South Bend batters during its April 3 home opener before driving rain forced fans and players to scurry for cover.
Since then, snow, near-freezing weather and poor field conditions have caused the cancellation of seven games - the Lugnuts' entire home-opening stand.
Lansing travels to South Bend, Ind., today for a 7:30 p.m. matchup, and can only hope for better circumstances.
Right fielder J.J. Johnson said after having nothing to do all week, the team is more than anxious to begin the season.
"Luckily the (NCAA) National Championships were on, so I've been watching basketball all day," Johnson said. "We've played a lot of PlayStation, too. It's really frustrating when you can't play ball."
This season marks Johnson's second with the Lugnuts. Last year, he posted a .240 batting average along with collecting 56 RBI in 112 games and was selected to start on the Midwest League all-star squad.
While Johnson has a whole season of Lansing ball under his belt, newcomers like Andrew Sisco have yet to experience a full game at Oldsmobile Park.
Sisco, a 6-foot-9, 265-pounder from Scottsdale, Ariz., got just a tiny taste of the season April 3 as the Lugnuts starting pitcher. The sizzling southpaw had iced the first two South Bend bats and walked the next when the game was called off.
As on as Sisco was, it seems the fans might have been even more let down. A preseason poll on the Lugnuts' Web site tabbed Sisco as the player crowds were most excited to see perform.
"We'd like to have seven wins right now but I think the bad weather and shared frustration has brought us closer," Sisco said. "It's even worse because we're not really acclimated to the area yet. I haven't done anything this week, except watched a lot of TV."
Similar sentiments were echoed throughout the locker room Thursday, and even in the offices where manager Julio Garcia sat pondering the quirky Michigan weather.
The Texas native said he was most frustrated because he has yet to see his squad perform in anything but practice.
"The team wasn't finalized until two days before we left (Mesa, Ariz.) to come up here, so they didn't get to play together much in spring training," Garcia said.
Today marks the beginning of an eight-day, 10-game road trip. The Lugnuts will not return home until April 19 - just enough time for spring to find Lansing.
"We really wanted to start the season at home so we kind of got the short end of the stick in that respect," Johnson said. "But right now we just want to play somewhere, anywhere. It doesn't matter where we play any more."
