A couple of extra ideas about Saturday's Cubs/Reds rain delay – Bleed Cubbie Blue

Filed below:
The sport shouldn’t have been performed. And there’s extra data than I knew on Saturday.
Let me stipulate one factor proper off the highest of this text, in order that there’s no mistake. The three-hour, 20-minute rain delay earlier than Saturday’s Cubs/Reds recreation started was completely not the Cubs’ fault. That is all on Main League Baseball and Fox-TV, and that’s largely as a result of the pursuits of the paying buyer, gameday employees and gamers aren’t being thought of. In any respect.
Now let’s have a look at the info. It rained in Chicago from about 10 a.m. Saturday till nicely after 10 p.m. — in actual fact, it rained throughout many of the first 5 innings of the sport, reasonably at occasions. This forecast was well-known at the very least two days forward of time. There was no “window” to play a baseball recreation throughout this 12-hour span. The longest it stopped raining at any time throughout that interval was perhaps an hour. That’s it. That’s about when the grounds crew at Wrigley Area started preparations for the sport — and by the point that hour “window” closed, it was raining once more.
This recreation ought to have been postponed at midday Saturday, or even perhaps earlier. Then no followers would have needed to come to the ballpark, no gameday employees would have needed to arrive and be paid (employees will get paid a minimal of 5 hours even when the sport is rained out), gamers might have stayed at residence or within the case of the Reds, at their lodge. Reds gamers might have had a pleasant dinner as an alternative of taking part in till after midnight. Each groups’ gamers doubtless bought to mattress after 2 a.m., then needed to be able to play a day recreation solely hours later. Within the case of gameday employees, a lot of them journey lengthy distances by automotive to Wrigley Area (or use public transit, which regularly runs on a lowered schedule late at evening) — after which needed to be again early Sunday morning.
Listed below are a few issues I discovered on Sunday that I didn’t know when Saturday’s recreation was delayed, then began on the ridiculous hour of 9:35 p.m. CT.
First, MLB did contemplate suspending the sport — however provided that there could possibly be a cut up doubleheader performed Sunday to make it up. That’s apparently as a result of there’s a mindset within the MLB places of work that “if a recreation is postponed it MUST be made up on the subsequent potential alternative.” That is simply ignorant considering. Initially, that might have pressured the Cubs to scramble to seek out gameday employees to work on a Sunday evening (since that might have been the make-up recreation), in addition to get league permission to televise the sport towards ESPN’s Sunday Evening Baseball broadcast, which is meant to be an unique.
Second, there exists — nonetheless does — a wonderfully good off day for each groups, Thursday, September 26, the day earlier than the following go to by the Reds to Wrigley Area. In my opinion, it’s excellent — simply flip a three-game collection right into a four-game collection. (Possibly the Cubs will even have an honest bullpen by then.) I miss out on why today is so sacred and holy that the league refuses to think about the apparent alternative of pushing the sport again three-plus months. The logic eludes me. Would this be inconvenient for some ticket holders and the groups? Sure, it will. To which I reply, “Suck it up and do it.”
One other factor I discovered Sunday was that the rationale the sport started at 9:35 as an alternative of 9:05 is that the Chicago Fox-TV affiliate insisted on broadcasting their native information.
To which I say, “Oh, come on.” I labored in TV for 30 years. I can’t inform you what number of occasions I labored at ABC-7 till previous midnight, ready for Monday Evening Soccer to finish so native information might air. How many individuals are watching WFLD-TV’s native information on a Saturday evening anyway? That… that ought to simply NOT have been a consideration. In any respect.
I obtained this textual content Sunday morning from a good friend who works for a minor league workforce, responding to what I wrote in the game recap:
Enjoying that recreation final evening was an actual ‘f*** you’ to the entire entities talked about in your article, plus the stadium staff and seasonal employees. The blatant disregard for gamers, followers and staff is gorgeous to me. If somebody can sue Madonna for late concert starts, somebody goes to sue a MLB workforce for the way they deal with rain delays. And perhaps they need to to get their consideration.
My good friend is 100% right. “Blatant disregard” doesn’t even start to explain the angle of Rob Manfred’s MLB to the events talked about, gamers, followers and staff. “Contempt” could be higher, when you’ve given them your cash. There’s no monetary loss to Fox right here — they broadcast the Cardinals/Phillies recreation in the region where the Cubs game was supposed to air, so that they bought their advert time aired. Granted that the advert charges for such a recreation could be decrease in Chicago than for a Cubs recreation, however Chicago isn’t the one market the place this recreation was purported to air. Any distinction doesn’t get refunded, the stations simply give out what are referred to as “make items,” just a few free adverts to make up the distinction. After which the Cubs/Reds recreation aired within the Chicago and Cincinnati metro areas solely, so these stations bought to air the adverts twice!
Credit score to the Cubs is due right here; they did their greatest in a really tough scenario dictated to them by MLB and Fox. The grounds crew did a wonderful job getting the sector in playable situation, as greatest they may. Gameday employees deserved “fight” pay for standing out within the rain for eight-plus hours.
Lastly, just a few folks talked about to me that they thought Saturday’s Christopher Morel bobblehead giveaway was one of many causes for taking part in the sport. To which I reply: “Nope.” The Cubs have loads of room of their workplace constructing adjoining to Wrigley Area the place they may retailer these for a make-up date in September. Inconvenient? Yeah, a bit of. Once more: Suck it up and do it, as they did just a few years in the past with related promos when a recreation towards the Brewers was postponed.
Main League Baseball wouldn’t exist with out its followers, who pay for tickets, concessions, souvenirs, and cable and streaming packages that assist cowl participant salaries and all the pieces else MLB wants. I don’t assume it’s an excessive amount of to ask for the game to have a bit of consideration for these followers when the climate is as unhealthy because it was on Saturday.
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