Indians make a flaky decision

They must be really ready for spring in Cleveland. Does this look like baseball weather to you?

Friday, April 6 was a very short-sighted day for the Cleveland Indians organization to even think about playing baseball. A late-season snowstorm belted the region, and the Indians and Mariners played four innings in intermittent snow squalls.

Think it's hard to hit a major-league fastball? Try doing it with a bunch of white, fluffy snowflakes in the air. The players had a legitimate beef.

And it came back to bite the Indians in a big way. Catcher Victor Martinez, a star in their batting order, missed a week's worth of games while running out a ground ball. Indians manager Eric Wedge admitted that the cold weather - the high temperature in Cleveland on Friday was 30 degrees - might have played a role. The Indians wised up the next day when the weather didn't improve. They postponed a doubleheader right away, and postponed the next two as well when the lake-effect snow didn't stop.

You can blame the league's schedule-makers for this one, too. Why would the league schedule the Mariners' only trip to Cleveland during the first week of April? That certainly played a role in the Indians' decision-making. Even with a doubleheader scheduled for Sunday, the Mariners now will have to come back for a game at some point in the season.

I've been to several Opening Days in Cleveland over the years. They pull out all the stops to entertain the fans, treating the day as the unofficial beginning of spring.

But when it's obviously not spring-like, they shouldn't force it.