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

Filed below:
The sport mustn’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 workers and gamers will not be being thought of. In any respect.
Now let’s take a look at the info. It rained in Chicago from about 10 a.m. Saturday till properly after 10 p.m. — in reality, it rained throughout many of the first 5 innings of the sport, reasonably at occasions. This forecast was well-known at the 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 possibly 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 maybe even earlier. Then no followers would have needed to come to the ballpark, no gameday workers would have needed to arrive and be paid (workers will get paid a minimal of 5 hours even when the sport is rained out), gamers may have stayed at dwelling or within the case of the Reds, at their resort. Reds gamers may have had a pleasant dinner as an alternative of enjoying till after midnight. Each groups’ gamers possible received to mattress after 2 a.m., then needed to be able to play a day recreation solely hours later. Within the case of gameday workers, a lot of them journey lengthy distances by automobile to Wrigley Area (or use public transit, which frequently runs on a lowered schedule late at night time) — after which needed to be again early Sunday morning.
Listed here 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 think about 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 workplaces that “if a recreation is postponed it MUST be made up on the subsequent attainable alternative.” That is simply ignorant pondering. To begin with, that may have pressured the Cubs to scramble to search out gameday workers to work on a Sunday night time (since that may have been the make-up recreation), in addition to get league permission to televise the sport in opposition to ESPN’s Sunday Evening Baseball broadcast, which is meant to be an unique.
Second, there exists — nonetheless does — a superbly good off day for each groups, Thursday, September 26, the day earlier than the following go to by the Reds to Wrigley Area. For my part, it’s good — simply flip a three-game sequence right into a four-game sequence. (Possibly the Cubs will even have a good bullpen by then.) I fail to spot why this present day is so sacred and holy that the league refuses to contemplate 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 could. 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 let you know what number of occasions I labored at ABC-7 till previous midnight, ready for Monday Evening Soccer to finish so native information may air. How many individuals are watching WFLD-TV’s native information on a Saturday night time anyway? That… that ought to simply NOT have been a consideration. In any respect.
I acquired this textual content Sunday morning from a pal who works for a minor league staff, responding to what I wrote in the game recap:
Enjoying that recreation final night time was an actual ‘f*** you’ to all the entities talked about in your article, plus the stadium staff and seasonal workers. 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 staff for the way they deal with rain delays. And possibly they need to to get their consideration.
My pal is 100% right. “Blatant disregard” doesn’t even start to explain the perspective of Rob Manfred’s MLB to the events talked about, gamers, followers and staff. “Contempt” may 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, in order that they received 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 imagined to air. Any distinction doesn’t get refunded, the stations simply give out what are known 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 received to air the adverts twice!
Credit score to the Cubs is due right here; they did their greatest in a really troublesome state of affairs dictated to them by MLB and Fox. The grounds crew did a superb job getting the sphere in playable situation, as greatest they may. Gameday workers 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 enjoying 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, slightly. Once more: Suck it up and do it, as they did just a few years in the past with related promos when a recreation in opposition to 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 things else MLB wants. I don’t assume it’s an excessive amount of to ask for the game to have slightly consideration for these followers when the climate is as unhealthy because it was on Saturday.
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