For the third time this season Mother Nature washed out another game at Dickey-Stephens that was to have been played Sunday night against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
This is where the scoreboard stood when play was stopped at 6:00 p.m. You think it may be hard on the players, especially the pitchers, wondering when to warm up again after a delay and how much? That's nothing. It's these guys who have the nightmare to deal with.
After a day of soaking rain there was a little window of let-up prior to game-time, and the grounds crew and interns had to scurry around and somehow get the field ready in time for play.
The first step is to take all the tarps off that have been covering the infield and start painting lines and cursing.
And just observing what was going on you could almost imagine the conversations that might have been occurring between the boss and the slaves.
"But wait, isn't that another huge, big black cloud rolling in?" To which the reply probably was, "Shut up and keep working. Who asked you? Laven's got hot dogs to sell."
An by golly they got it done and the Travelers' starter and #2 Angels' prospect, Jordan Walden actually got five batters out in order. And then.....
Remember that really big, black cloud? Well it had its way, and umbrellas went up, and the players scattered to the dugouts.
And....and guess who has to do this all over again?
More cursing.
When it rains and blows sideways and you don't think it's going to quit, it's time to vamoose to the club house and maybe hold a session of "Kangaroo Court" or update Facebook, which are all good possibilities as to what the players may have had on their minds as they trudged off the quagmire of a playing surface. Let's just hope they didn't Twitter.
And what do the fans do during an almost two hour rain-delay? Well, a lot just move back to drier seats and you know.....watch it rain.
Some stand in the concourse and contemplate buying a funnel cake.
Or watch these guys again cavort in the outfield while being shown on the big screen as the video director has an animated character dance along with them.
Anything to beat the boredom of this.
But alas all hopes for a Sunday night ball game leading-in to watching a huge fireworks display from Riverfest while in your comfortable seat at Dickey-Stephens was halted when the game was called.
By the way, they almost did start the game again at one point, and guess what came off, and then had to be put back when it was an official rain out?
Right. (Lots more cursing.)
-- Lonesome Traveler
Kudos to Bourjos - 18 safe hit games in a row.
OK to see a win, but waiting through 8 drops.... guess we're a "second half" team.
Posted by: Shovel | May 25, 2009 at 07:07 PM
Finally a win.
Posted by: Stephen Colboar | May 25, 2009 at 07:18 PM
I'm getting tired of Dan Brown by now. I don't know why some autorhs hit it so big and others don't, there are many better books than the Davinci Code out there that aren't nearly as popular IMO
Posted by: Siripong | December 25, 2012 at 10:24 PM