There are plenty of levels of adult slow-pitch softball, from national tournament teams to local recreational leagues.
But every caliber of player had to endure a long, cold February that kept them indoors and possibly delayed the start of softball preparations. Local trainers and players alike said that shouldn't be an excuse for a lack of preparation, as this week's warm spell melted the snow cover and brought the season even closer.
"I don't think there's any question that after a longer offseason, if you will, and a shorter preseason, you're more susceptible to injury," said Tim Bishop, a former strength and conditioning coach for the Orioles and a trainer at PerformFit Sports Experience in Cockeysville. "I don't think there's any doubt about that.
"Especially if you're not building arm strength and doing speed work, that's explosive stuff that's hard to mimic at a health club or working out. Now you've got to throw a ball at max velocity, you've got to swing a bat at max velocity, you've got to get a jump in the outfield. That's where you do see the injury."
Bishop said that before training for even the least strenuous of recreational sports, participants should have their annual physical and establish a baseline of physical fitness before going into sport-specific training.
Aside from having a good fitness baseline, Bishop advises an active, dynamic warmup that can prevent the leg muscle pulls and sore arms that typically crop up in adult softball. The circumstances of a given game can make that difficult, he said, but limbering up pregame should be a priority.
"If a game is starting at 6 o'clock and you're working on the other side of the Beltway and you're working until 4:30 or 5 p.m. and you're racing to get over there, that's an issue," he said. "They're racing from work and they go right into playing. I would probably guess the most common injuries are hamstring strains and quad strains and calf strains, sore shoulders and arms and so forth."
Andrew Sacks, director of baseball and softball training at Next Level Sports Performance in Nottingham, said a few weeks of running and playing catch before going full speed in a game could build the shoulder and leg muscles and prevent early-season injuries.
"Usually, what you'll see is, guys will either get hurt at the very beginning of the season or at the very end," Sacks said. "Then, as the season progresses, guys will start to break down."
Sacks trains out of a space at Extra Innings Baltimore, where he works with players of all levels as the season ramps up. Despite the necessary focus on physical fitness, it's hard to replicate in-game action without a few trips to the batting cage.
Darrion Siler, director of baseball and softball operations at Extra Innings, said there's "usually a correlation" between how seriously a player takes softball and how early they start to train and hit.
Siler said between a quarter and one-third of all tunnel rentals at the facility are for slow-pitch softball players.
"It's a steady building once we hit mid-February," Siler said.
Albie Cole of Dundalk, who recently returned from a 17-year hiatus from the sport and plays in the Baltimore Beltway Senior Slow Pitch Softball League, was taking just his second set of swings of the year Tuesday.
At 62, Cole said the rules of his league — with pinch runners at home plate, plus restrictive bats and balls — make up for the natural athletic decline that comes with age, but fitness is still important, too.
For those playing on the competitive circuit, the offseason is shorter, and summers are more grueling than those for a typical rec-leagu player.
Tournament players such as Mike Dill, Dave Lohr, and Chris Issenock, who were taking hacks Tuesday morning, start preparing for the spring around January.
Lohr, a city fireman from Lauraville, said his team competes in 20 tournaments from March to October.
But even at their high level, preparation is as necessary as it is for the casual player.
"You can tell the teams that are just stepping out there for the first time of the year versus the guys who are putting in time in the cages," Lohr said. "But once the season starts, it's too late to get in shape and get ready again because it's every weekend."
They might start earlier, but knocking the cobwebs off their games still feels as it would for a novice.
"It's just like anything else," Issenock said. "It's ugly. You're sore. This year is the first year I ever actually trained, going to the gym for softball to get in shape."
Their season already has begun, but the turning of the weather usually means plenty of company at the cages for Lohr and the daytime crew.
"Everybody always says, 'We're never going to play before April,' " Lohr said. "Everybody plays before April."