What transpired tonight in Detroit was absurd. With a line
of showers closer to Indiana than Detroit at the 8:00 p.m. ET starting game
time, Major League Baseball inexplicably delayed the start of the fourth game
of the ALCS. Finally, at 9:25, with light rain still 30 minutes away, MLB postponed the game.
This is an outrage on so many levels and rivals the idiocy
of the 2002 all-star game that ended in a tie. Had the rain been minutes away
from Comerica Park – truly close to meteorological inevitability – the delay
would have been a bit more understandable. But it was far enough away that: 1)
a good chunk of the game could have been completed, and 2) the precipitation
could have dried up or circled around Detroit.
Unlike the situation in St. Louis, the precipitation heading
to Detroit was merely steady rain, hardly the stormy weather that produced a
Severe Thunderstorm Watch for the St. Louis area. It’s quite possible the
game’s final innings could have been played before conditions worsened to the
point where a legitimate delay may have been warranted. There was also a remote
possibility that the entire game could have completed before the first drops of
rain came down.
Just as it’s been since Abner Doubleday invented the game,
October baseball is fraught with weather issues. It’s likely to be chilly,
windy and rainy. It happens. And it’s been happening for a hundred years.
To its credit, MLB recently changed the rules regarding rain
delays in the playoffs to ensure that no game would ever end without going its
full length. The fact that this rule exists makes the decision to delay and
then cancel a game nearly two hours before the onset of rain even more
unconscionable.
To be sure, there are two interests that baseball is
protecting. One it will admit and one it won’t. It’s possible, maybe even
likely, that starting pitchers may not have been able to resume the game after
a long delay. (We’ll let the babying of baseball pitchers be another topic for
another day.) But, so what. That’s part of the game. Perhaps a weather-savvy
manager might even be bold enough to hold out a starting pitcher in expectation
of inevitable rain.
The second reason is – this just in – MLB wants to keep New
York on the baseball radar for as long as possible. Had the team’s ace, CC
Sabathia, been forced to come out of the game after a delay, it would have hurt
the Yankees already slim chances of winning the series. The postponement
effectively keeps general interest in the Yankees team for one more day.
P.S. A whopping .04" of rain fell during what would have been the third full hour of the game.
