Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while trying to figure out why the winter coat has yet to go into storage:

**I'm having trouble understanding the premise for conducting the MIAA baseball tournament two different ways depending upon school enrollment.

Right now, the Division 1 tournament requires nine-inning games, while the games at the Division 2 and 3 levels are just seven innings in length. Anyone have any legitimate reasons why this should be the case?

Some individuals have tried to tell me that the baseball is naturally better at the Division 1 level. I find that hard to accept in the wake of two outstanding Division 2 games during Foxboro's just-concluded tournament run, taut pitchers' duels against Dighton-Rehoboth and Plymouth North.

If it's a means to showcase the game at D1 for the scouts or college recruiters, then they're missing the boat if they aren't giving equal consideration to the many outstanding players who compete for the smaller schools. And if it's because some individuals believe there's greater depth on the rosters at the D1 level, someone please tell me where all that depth was on the pitching staffs at BC High and Mansfield, where the two teams labored deep into the night for 3 hours and 25 minutes in their sectional semifinal last week to put 24 runs on the board against young men with tired arms. There has to be some consistency and common sense applied there, and once again, it appears the MIAA is lacking in both.

It's my understanding that the leagues have the final say in the length of the games played in the regular season. Some leagues whose membership is exclusively in Division 1 play nine-inning games, and may be more prepared for the longer games once the tournament begins. Others with membership distributed through the divisions, such as the Hockomock, play seven-inning games - and when the D1 members advance to the playoffs, a long run could wreak havoc with a pitching staff.

Years ago, the Hockomock used to split the season; seven innings before the halfway point, nine innings after it. That would be a good idea except for the fact that it would unfairly tax the pitching staffs of the lower-division schools by the time they reached the postseason.

What's needed is consistency. If you want to have a nine-inning tournament format, then mandate that everyone plays nine-inning games for at least half the season, and then play nine-inning tourney games in all three divisions. But it makes more sense, both physically and aesthetically, for younger athletes to be playing a consistent seven-inning format.

The MIAA doesn't make Division 1 basketball teams play 20-minute halves and the rest 8-minute quarters when the hoop tournament rolls around. In football, the MIAA actually shortens the championship games for all participants instead of lengthening them. Where is the wisdom in the way baseball is conducted?

**It was raining around noontime Tuesday when the Patriots were going through the motions of their last OTA practice on the practice fields closest to the Dana-Farber Field House, while on an adjacent field, the members of the New England Revolution were wrapping up their daily practice. As soon as the Revs were off their field, however, guess what happened?

The sprinklers came on. Full force, too. It's raining out, and they're still watering the practice field!

Granted, I don't know the source of the water, or how the timers are set, and I really don't care. It just puzzles me when I see something like that, whether on Kraftville's football fields or in an industrial park in the area, why someone can't just hit an "off" switch and preserve a few drops of water for a drier day ...

**Stepping into Terry Francona's cleats for a few minutes, when John Smoltz is ready to join the Red Sox rotation, who would be my first choice to remove from it? Right now, Diasuke Matsuzaka ...

**Can't wait for those late Friday road trips to Martha's Vineyard for the Bishop Feehan Shamrocks' basketball teams, which begin next year when the Vineyarders become members of the Eastern Athletic Conference ... **My legendary patience was stretched this past week by all of the folks who complained on our Web site about the elimination of the King Philip softball team from the MIAA Division 1-South playoffs in the quarterfinal round, claiming that the girls weren't "tournament ready" because of the allegedly weak Hockomock League. Aside from the fact that many of the comments lacked a proper perspective about what high school sports are all about, unless my memory is faulty, the Warriors debuted in this year's tournament with a perfect-game victory over Walpole thrown by pitcher Maggie Quealy.

If that's not "tournament ready," then my 30-plus years of covering the MIAA tournaments have been for naught ...

**The media at Gillette Stadium today will be on the Vince Wilfork Watch, waiting to see if the disgruntled nose tackle puts aside his contract issues to participate in the Patriots' mandatory, full-squad minicamp. Got to admit, it will be pretty hard to miss the big fella if he's there ...

**Shameless self-promotion: The Blog Show is back, and the latest episode takes a look at the Foxboro High baseball team's Division 2-South title game against Plymouth North. Go to the blog address below, click on "videos" and then "Blog Show 11" ...

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.