No rain but no baseball for Bisons
The Bisons have postponed Thursday's game against Rochester due to unplayable conditions in the Coca-Cola Field outfield, mostly in left. It will be made up Aug. 10 with a doubleheader and not Friday night, which will remain a single game as scheduled at 6:05 followed by the BPO concert and fireworks show.
I know it seems like we've been living in Seattle this summer but this one really stinks. It's a partly sunny day downtown. There's been one brief 3-minute shower since noon but left field is just a mess. From the naked eye all the way up in the press box, it looked terrible when I got here at 11 a.m. and I knew there might be a problem. It was more than 90 minutes after the 1:05 start when the decision was announced.
These kind of postponements just can't happen. They give the entire organization a black eye. Now, it's not entirely a bad thing to not have to watch the Bisons play (sorry, couldn't resist). But there were perhaps 2,000 people here and many weren't happy when the announcement was made
The Bisons weren't trying to pull a fast one on anyone by selling a few extra hot dogs. They were doing everything they could to get left field playable but they really need some wind - and some summer sun like we all do -- to get the job done.
But this happened once last year too. A clear day and no game. It just can't happen. Once and for all, the team needs to fix the drainage in the outfield when the season ends so games aren't needlessly lost and fans aren't needlessly inconvenienced.
3:05 UPDATE: OK, so now it's raining pretty hard. That won't help things in the outfield. If they have to pull a Mike Billoni special and get the helicopters in here to dry the outfield for tomorrow night, they better do it.
3:30 UPDATE: They put a square tarp over the offending area in left field. Yes, a tarp. You know how they say you always see something new at the ballpark? Never seen a tarp on the outfield since this place opened 21 years ago.
---Mike Harrington
.400 BA. Possible? So the one guy that could do it, says no. But then, Joe Mauer
shows "America's Got Talent"
(get him on that show!)
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-mauer070109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Posted by: David,Amherst | July 02, 2009 at 03:39 PM