Fun With Rain Delays

If you sat down to watch St. Louis Cardinals baseball on Saturday, you were treated to a delightful 49-minute rain delay. In the ninth inning. I guess the rain just couldn't wait another seven minutes for the game to be over. Then the Cardinals lost, which was infuriating, but that's not really the issue here.

The fact is I was more discouraged by having to endure yet another rain delay, the most recent in an inordinately large string of rain delays this season. Curious, I checked around on the internet for the exact number of rain delays the Cardinals have experienced this year. I couldn't find a stat, but sometimes it feels like there have been more rain delays than actual games played. The Cardinals were even rain-delayed in a game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, which probably hasn't had more than four or five rain delays in the last 10 years. Oh, and that rain delay was in the ninth inning, too! Come on. Lacking the stamina to watch any more (the game was on the west coast, after all), I dejectedly went to bed without the outcome of the game in hand, which can be a maddening predicament for me.

While rain delays are always aggravating, they at least give me opportunity to be productive. I could sit there and watch Fox Sports Midwest play the Albert Pujols episode of In My Own Words for the thousandth time, or I could run that whole vacuuming/dishwashing/dusting/bathroom-cleaning gauntlet I've been putting off for the last several months. Look, my bachelor pad ain't the Ritz, but the least I could do is make the place livable. The only problem is I have to fight a giant spider to get to the vacuum cleaner, and I figure that a bedroom without sock fuzz all over the floor isn't worth taking a trip to the emergency room to re-attach my severed right hand and treat poisoning after a fight with the spider. So instead I just sit there and complain to anyone within earshot that the Cardinals are done because Todd Wellemeyer won't be able to continue pitching once the game resumes.

Now, the real challenge with rain delays is what to do with yourself if you're actually at the game when a torrential downpour halts gameplay. I'm reminded of a couple of personal experiences involving such a situation.

My parents and brother and I were at a game in 1999 or 2000 against the Marlins, and the game was tied and in extra innings when a big thunderstorm busted down the doors and drove the players off the field. We came prepared with ponchos, so we put them on and just sat in our seats for the longest time, watching other fans running and screaming for cover. Well, the rain never stopped, there wasn't much else to do at the stadium that late in the game, and it looked for sure as if it would be called, so we packed up our stuff and headed south. Two hours later, we got home and turned the radio in the living room on just in time to hear the Cardinals win the game. I didn't feel too bad about not sitting through the entire rain delay since the food stands were all closed and there wasn't much else with which to occupy ourselves, but it still felt like being punched in the gut to know we could have seen the Cardinals win the game. It's kind of a tough spot if the rain is erratic and there's no way of knowing when the game might resume.

However, my favorite rain delay story of all time occurred on one memorable Saturday afternoon in October of 2001. My brother and I went to the flea market at Pevely, at which I was accosted by an old man selling video games. The gentleman accused me of being an agent of Osama Bin Laden because I was wearing my watch on my right hand. (I actually just do it because I'm left-handed.) We cleared my name, bought some Sega Genesis games from the guy, and headed to Busch for Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The only problem was it was raining hard, and it had been all day, and it was unclear as to whether or not the rain would stop, and more importantly, whether or not the game would be played. Speculation ran rampant through the concourse that the game would be delayed until Sunday, while others vehemently argued that the playoff implications involved would force them to hold out as long as possible to get the game in that afternoon.

My brother and I picked out a spot against the railing on one of the stadium ramps and made camp. We ate, debated whether or not the game would be played, debated whether or not to go find something else to do in St. Louis until the game started, talked about everything else on our minds, and listened to old archived Jack Buck and Mike Shannon interviews on KMOX, including one interview with Cassius Clay. The highlight of the wait, however, was when we were looking over the ramp railing and saw somebody below us drop a basket of onion rings. The rings shot across the concrete concourse floor in all directions. We saw all of this happen and decided we should watch and keep track of how long it would take for every single scattered onion ring to get stepped on. I don't remember how long it actually took, but I'm pretty sure that kept us occupied for a good twenty minutes or so.

In all, the delay lasted three and a half hours before the Cardinals and Bud Smith finally took the field and went on to defeat the Diamondbacks and set up pivotal Game 5 (which the Cardinals lost, but I have noted in the blog before that Game 5 was one of the best baseball games I've ever seen). It was definitely worth it to stick it out that time. Come on—we'd be fools to miss a playoff game!

That and we got free rally towels to dry off our seats. You can't pass up something like that.