No Better Way Than 4-Hour Cubs Rain Delay?

August 20, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Midweek musings: Some of you might have gone to sleep when the San Francisco Giants-Chicago Cubs game Tuesday at Wrigley Field was in a rain delay. Well, you didn’t miss much. Assuming you even were up when the game went into a delay. It might have looked like something out of a comedy sketch, but it was merely the grounds crew attempting to cover the field.

* But seriously (or as seriously as a Cubs game can be taken), the hometown heroes prevailed 2-0 when the game was called at 1:16 a.m. Central time after 4 1/2 innings. And a delay of 4 hours and 34 minutes. Meaning the delay was about three times longer than the actual game (1:35). The least the Cubs could have done was provide coupons to the fans exiting the ballpark for a free breakfast or something.

Video below of Rosette Mogomotsi. In case you’re interested (even if you’re not).

* There is no reason for a rain delay to last that long. Had the game resumed (at the time it was called), the contest likely would not have ended before 3 a.m. Who in his right mind stays up that late (I do, but I also might not be in my right mind)?

* If Tuesday’s rain-delayed Cubs victory vs. the Giants drops the Cubs in Major League Baseball’s 2015 player draft order, members of the Wrigley Field grounds crew will have to start looking for new employment.

* The Cubs runs came on a Javier Baez walk in the first inning, followed by Anthony Rizzo’s 29th home run. Baez struck out in his other at-bat. Meaning he has 25 in 61 at-bats (also meaning he is striking out 41 percent of his at-bats. The Cubs could have used Baez swinging and missing to dry off the field. No? Maybe not.

* The reason for the Cubs game to be called was the field was unplayable. Even after the grounds crew used bags of drying compound to try to make it playable. The unofficial count for the number of bags used was about the same as the number of years the team has not won a World Series (1908 for those who might have forgotten). A little foresight and better preparation, and the Cubs could have numbered the first 100 bags in their centennial season at Wrigley and auctioned off the bags as collector’s items. Tsk, tsk.

* Meanwhile on the south side of Chicago, all it rained was Baltimore Orioles runs in a 5-1 victory vs. the White Sox. Sox rookie Jose Abreu did hit his 32nd homer to tie for the big-league lead. Adam Dunn did strike out three times in four at-bats to give him 124 for the season (three behind Tyler Flowers for the team lead).

* Best of luck to WLS-TV sportscaster Rafer Weigel, who is departing Chicago for KTVI in St. Louis, where he will be a news anchor. If nothing else, he is going to a town with a better baseball team and less traffic.

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