Wisconsin has a new high school baseball champion. Right? Oak Creek captured the WIAA Summer State Championship in Stevens Point on Thursday. Congratulations to the players and coaches but what does the spring champion Middleton have to say about it?

For all of the glory that goes along with winning a WIAA state championship in any sport, there have always been questions about who is really the best team in the state. For years, state sports were split down the line of private and public. The WIAA finally woke up in 1999 and combined with WISAA to create one division and one champion.

Baseball is the only sport that is still not unified, not in terms of public and private, but by whether they play in the spring or summer. Therefore there are still two champions. Some people that say the more winners the better, but they are the same people that think everyone should have equal playing time and are worried that a little failure will ruin the psyche of fragile young egos.

The question still remains why there are two separate baseball seasons. Both sides have their reasons, but neither side have enough to not be able to compromise on one season for the benefit of the sport.

Milwaukee Marquette, for example, won WISAA baseball championships in 1992, 1993 and 1995. Yet most said they were just private school state championships since they never played the public school teams that won in both the spring and summer.

Winning a state championship is one of the greatest feelings ever. Not having the opportunity to prove yourself and your team isn't. Combining the two seasons would remedy everything. Determining the positives and negatives of each season is a good place to start.

(+) Spring ball better develops players. Practice begins in March, giving coaches over a month to hone the skills of developing players before their first game.

(-) The season has a 20-game maximum and goes by too fast. It is hard to hit and throw in April and sometimes there is not enough time to get caught up.

(-) Weather is a huge problem. We all know what it's like in Wisconsin during the April and May. Many cold games are played during the spring season.

(+) Playing spring ball allows scouts to evaluate a player's senior season and it also allows the player to play a lot more games in front of different groups of people during the summer. Scouts in Milwaukee are scarce and opportunities like playing Legion ball or with an AAU team get eliminated if you are still playing high school baseball in late July.

(-) A team can get by their conference season using only two pitchers. The conference schedule normally is two games per week and a non-conference game on the weekend. In summer ball the pitching staff needs to be at least four deep -- giving pitchers more time to develop. Although it tries to force coaches into developing deep pitching staffs, the WIAA mishandles the playoffs by spreading the games out enough for coaches to get around innings rules to make it through the first couple of rounds with only two guys.

(-) Fundamentals are lost playing summer ball because practice starts just days before games do. Playing almost 30 games in the summer is nice but the lack of instruction time is a huge loss to the kids.

(+) Playing ball in the summer almost guarantees nice weather and avoids the two rainiest months of the season, where games can become rare due to the weather.

(-) It is tough for Wisconsin kids to get noticed by college and major league scouts. Summer ball makes it even more difficult. Not only is the draft before the each player's senior season, recruiting has also long since begun. In order for a player to get noticed it has to be done during his junior season on his high school team.

(-) The summer high school development league was eliminated since a majority of schools moved to the summer season. Playing in that league during the week allowed coaching staffs to coach the players in the spring and summer. The games meant little but getting a leg up on next year's playing time did.

(-) Seniors play for their schools after graduation. Playing games during the school year brews up more excitement and support for the team. It also allows coaches a little more authority by using academics as discipline.

The intangibles have all now been discussed. The spring schools don't want to give up their players' chances at competing in Legion and AAU ball and the summer schools don't want to give up their number of games and better weather.

There are more minuses than plusses in the list above. While it is difficult to convince many different people to compromise, there is a fairly simple solution to this problem that would take advantage of all the plusses: combine the seasons.

If practice opened April 1 and games started on May 1, the lack of practice time could be solved. A schedule through mid-June would allow teams to still play about 30 games. Finishing the playoffs by July 4 could be done if the WIAA does not spread the games out like in the NBA playoffs. There will be more teams, but the number could be cut down by not allowing everyone into the playoffs. It would make the regular season games much more important.

Playing into July will definitely cut into the early part of the legion schedule but the meat of the tournaments and the schedule could still be completed. Being finished by early July also gives the kids at least a month and a half to get a summer job'something many kids need to get through the school year. Speaking of jobs, the timing of the state tournament needs to be reconsidered at well. A Wednesday-Thursday timeframe makes it hard for many parents and regular fans to get up to Stevens Point. They have to work. Larger crowds would be guaranteed on the weekend and generate the excitement the WIAA wants for its players.

It should not be too hard to pull all this off. WIAA administrators should be able to work it out for the benefit of the sport. This compromise would induce more baseball, more important baseball, more baseball development, more discipline, better weather, more excitement and one champion. A July 4 weekend state baseball finals just sounds right.

Do it for the kids.