You know how sometimes things that never crossed your mind before suddenly spring up like a swarm of summer mosquitoes?
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| What would the almighty A-Rod do without his pregame sunflower seeds? (Getty Images) |
We are in the throes of a sunflower seed shortage! Quick, run to your local market AND BUY AS MANY BAGS AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN!
"What?" says Los Angeles Angels equipment manager Ken Higdon. "There's always enough of those."
Correction: There always was enough of those.
This summer, producers are squeezing together all of their resources -- and still plan to ration what they have to make it through the season. There is a chance some players and coaches actually will be forced to play the game this summer with no seeds at all in their mouths.
"It's a possibility," says John Sandbakken, director of international marketing at the National Sunflower Assn. in Bismarck, N.D. "Our farmers didn't have a very good crop last year, and supplies are down."
Saturating rains last spring combined with an unusually wet fall to throw the ol' high, hard one past unsuspecting farmers in important sunflower states North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
The farmers couldn't get to their drenched fields to plant on time last spring, and then they found diseased crops when they harvested in the fall.
The result is that last year's sunflower yield was down by 29 percent, according to Sandbakken.
Which means America's baseball diamonds face a severe seed shortage this summer.
"It's not a situation where we'll be completely out of seeds," Sandbakken says. "But it might be that your favorite brand is out.
"There will be less seeds."
