From called-off softball games to a delay in planting flowers, the recent rain has put a damper on the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department.

Since the adult softball league started last month, 220 games have been canceled because of weather, adult sports supervisor Bob Stanclift said.

Nine days of outdoor activities – including youth softball and baseball – have been canceled so far. That is four more than what was called off for the entire seven-month spring, summer and fall seasons last year, Stanclift said.

“We’ll hang in there and hope at some point in time Mother Nature will change her mind and decide to cooperate,” he said.

It’s not just the parks and recreation department struggling to keep up under the rain.

Weather has forced the Kansas University baseball team to reschedule 14 home games this season. Even an attempt earlier in the season to bring in a helicopter to dry the field didn’t work.

“It makes it more difficult to play because it just seems like everything is out of sync,” said Jim Marchiony, KU associate athletics director.

High schools also are dealing with a backlog of yet-to-be-played games before playoffs start next week. At least 30 Lawrence High School sporting events have been called off, athletic director Ron Commons said.

Some of the games that had been rescheduled were canceled a second time because of the weather, and several won’t be played, he said.

Both Marchiony and Stanclift said the rescheduling woes haven’t been this severe since the flooding in 1993.

Stanclift said teams will make up games on other days of the week that have free field space or after the regular season ends. Typically, the department leaves a two- to three-week buffer between seasons to allow for missed games.

The rains haven’t just caused havoc on the softball fields. Ernie Shaw, the department’s interim director, said workers also have had to postpone planting flowers and mowing the grass.

Boat ramps are likely washed out and the river has overflowed into some of the park space, Shaw said.

“The rain is good, don’t get me wrong. We’ll be looking for it in July and August,” Shaw said. “But enough is enough.”