By Bruce Karnick

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Yeah, the Twins have been playing at spring training but most of us can’t go watch them. As of Monday, the Raiders have returned to Grossman Field for practice! It is arm care week.

Head Coach Taylor Pagel explains arm care week.

“So, arm care week is straight up; they added it to the front of the season, so that they can condition and throw, pretty much it. So they get an extra week to warm up their arms, because a lot of times, in Minnesota, you only get a couple weeks before you play your first game, and it’s just not healthy on the arm, you know you need a lot more time and a lot of these kids are playing other sports, and didn’t get extra time in somewhere else, throughout the winter to be able to warm their arms up properly and get ready for the season and by adding this week it’s helped us a ton.”

The Raiders only have 18 days from the start of practice to their first game on April 9th against Park of Cottage Grove. 18 days is not a lot of time to get ready for a season, especially to get your arm in playing shape. Throwing mechanics are super important in baseball, one wrong move can actually end a playing career.

Coaches and kids were excited to be back on the field after having last year completely off from official high school baseball.

“You know, you always wish that you could do a lot more but arm care week is there for a reason, and we’re excited to be on the baseball field day one that hasn’t happened in a lot of years, outside, nice weather. Not a lot of wind up here at Grossman, which is not normal, so there’s like all the stars aligned for day one and it’s great. And we’re excited! You know, you can see the excitement of them being out here, being able to throw baseball, run around, chat with each other, hanging out, just being on the baseball fields, I mean, it’s hard to explain who they didn’t get to play last year, you know, you can just see the excitement and them wanting to be here and it showed.”

This year, Coach Pagel decided to have two of their varsity games under the lights at Veteran’s Park in Hastings, May 7th and May 12th, both at 7:00 p.m. Playing at Veteran’s park is a real treat for the teams because most high school fields do not have lights. It is especially nice for parents because most varsity games start at 4:00 while they are working. Add the fact that Veteran’s Park has the concessions stand run by the Hawks, parents can even pick up dinner at the game.

Look for the Raiders full schedule and roster in our spring sports preview coming up in the next few weeks once teams have settled on their varsity roster.