Rain Could Doom Tigers - Yankees Finale

It's rainy at Comerica Park today where the Detroit Tigers are scheduled to host the New York Yankees at 1:05 p.m. A 60 percent chance of rain is forecasted for Detroit today.

I'll be away from The Rainout Blog Headquarters this afternoon, so you may want to follow the Tigers on Facebook and/or Twitter for updates. I'm so lazy.

By the way, the photo with this post is from the Tigers Facebook page. Thanks, guys, for letting my borrow it.

UPDATE: First pitch has been pushed back to 1:35 p.m. because of rain. Do Detroit TV stations show episodes of The Andy Griffith Show during rain delays?

Major Thunderstorms Possible at PGA Championship

The PGA Championship is under way at the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, S.C, and The Weather Channel has a break down of how the weather – lookout for a few downpours, Tiger – could impact the major. Heat is not much of a concern for the tournament, says The Weather Channel, with highs topping out in the upper 80s to low 90s. Here's the complete story from the pros.  

Photo from Getty Images

TRoB on Paper.li

Guess what. The Rainout Blog is now on Paper.li, too… sort of. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'll be able to do with the Paper.li page, but I'll have a go at it and see if it can be a nice addition the TRoB. For the uninitiated, "TRob" is what all the cool kids call The Rainout Blog.

Off Pitch

I'm not sure where this photo is from, but I think it was taken during the July 19 rain storm in New York City. Anyway, it's not sports related, but it's a great photo and very share-worthy. Enjoy!

Rain (Photo) Delay

Hey, remember a few weeks ago when the Yankees bird-slapped the Toronto Blue Jays 6-0 in a rain-shortened game in the Bronx? Well, I'm sure these guys do. That game was July 18, but I just today found this fun Daily News photo when researching another story. As for the game, it was called after a 58-minute rain delay. Wouldn't you just love to hear John and Suzyn fill air time during a near hour rain delay?

Lightning at Pocono Kills One Race Fan

From ESPN.com:

LONG POND, Pa. -- One fan was killed and nine others were injured as a result of lightning strikes following Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

Monroe County Coroner Bob Allen only identified the deceased as a 41-year-old man. Track officials said the fan was pronounced dead on arrival at Pocono Mountain Medical Center in Stroudsburg.

One other fan is in critical condition at Lehigh Hospital in Allentown. The other eight are being treated and evaluated for minor injuries at local hospitals.

Track spokesman Bob Pleban said nine fans, including the fatality, were injured from a strike that occurred in a parking lot behind the main grandstand shortly before 5 p.m. The other came from a strike near Gate 3 between Turns 1 and 2. Read more.

Rains Falls on Pocono

I'm not much of a NASCAR fan, but I am, of course, a fan of weather's interference with sporting events. So, I have to say it's sort of fun sitting on the couch this early afternoon watching rain pour on Pocono Raceway. Oh, and you know what was really fun: watching ESPN reporter Marty Smith standing out in the rain while giving a report. Some of the folks back in the studio asked if Marty really needed to be out in the rain. It does seem a little silly – like when Weather Channel reporters report from the street in hurricane winds – but those reports do give great insight of the conditions outside.


I'd love to sit here all day and provide weather reports from Pocono, but there's grass outside that's not going to cut itself. However, if you want to stay current on the weather conditions, I suggest you follow Brian Neudorff, the "unofficial NASCAR meteorologist" (@NASCAR_WXMAN) on Twitter. Brian, I think, is an actually meteorologist, whereas I… well, I just like rain.

UPDATE: Jet dryers are on the track, and ESPN just announced that driver intros will begin at 2 p.m, followed by more rain at 3 p.m. (I made up that "more rain at 3" part.)

Feeling the Heat at NFL Camps

Every year at this time, we hear stories about how bloody hot it is at NFL training camps. Recently, Weather.com ranked the 10 Worst Weather NFL Training Camps. So, how did Weather.com arrive at their rankings? The author of the story can explain it much better than I. Plus, it's really late here at The Rainout Blog World Headquarters, and I'm a bit lazy tonight.


From Weather.com:

We used five factors to arrive at our ranking for each NFL team. Temperature related elements such as average high temperature (85 degrees being neutral for exercise), average dew point (above 63 degrees as the defining point for it being muggy) and percentage of hours above 85 degrees. The higher the percentage, the longer the duration heat will have a detrimental impact upon a football player’s body. That percentage is even more critical during two-a-days: one practice is in the morning and the other in the heat of the afternoon.

The two cooling factors, no matter the temperature, are cloud cover and wind. As we have all experienced, standing in the shade is much preferred to standing in the sun when it is hot. For cloud cover, we used the percentage of days where skies are overcast. Direct sunlight may add as much as 15 degrees to the heat index.

A moderate breeze has a cooling effect on the body by evaporation of sweat during exercise. We took the mean wind speed and average daily max wind speed together so as to not discriminate against locations where wind speeds pick up in the afternoon due to local topography or coastal breezes.

It's not surprising most of the teams in the ranking are located in the southeastern part of the United States, including the Texans, Titans, Falcons, Panthers and Redskins, who train in Ashburn, Va., where temperatures reached 100 degrees last week on the first day of camp.

You know, training camp heat is tough on the fans too, as you can see in this Washington Post photo gallery of Redskins camp.

I'm sure Redskins players and coaches, but not so much the un-invited fans, are thankful for the team's new practice bubble, which can allow the team to sometimes escape the heat and those pesky, fast-approaching thunderstorms.

In the meantime, Weather.com listed the Texans' camp as the toughest, calling it the NFL's Iron Man Camp. Here are statistics from Weather.com to back up the claim:

July/August average high: 93 degrees / 93.5 degrees

July/August % of hours above 85 degrees: 36% / 36%

July/August average dew point: 74.5 degrees / 74 degrees

July/August % of hours with overcast sky: 5% / 4%

Rolling Through the Rain

So, it got a little rainy today at Miami Dolphins training camp. No big deal for the NFL Films Hard Knocks crew, who kept the cameras rolling. There's nothing weather related, but the Hard Knocks Facebook page has a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos from Dolphins camp. And yes, Lauren Tennehill makes an appearance.  

Not Worth Mentioning, But Here Goes...

I just can't do this. With all the cool photos of rain and, of course, sunshine from the London Olympic Games, I just can't post anything here about a nothing story like the first-place Nationals and Marlins playing a doubleheader today – it begins at 4:05 p.m. at Nationals Park – to make up for a rained out game between the two N.L. East clubs way back on April 22. Can't do it. You readers of The Rainout Blog – both of you – deserve better.

Oh by the way, I just saw the lineup for the first game... no Bryce Harper. Bummer! Perhaps he'll pinch hit at some point. And, I'm sure the rookie will be on the field for the night cap. 

You Pic it

Instead of me posting a ton of rainy photos from the Olympics – I'm kind of getting bored with the process – I'll give you a link to a Yahoo Sports gallery with some really cool shots. I'm not saying I'm done for the day. I'm just done posting pics for the sake up increasing my blogs post numbers. 

Making The Rainout Blog A Brighter Place

I'm always telling you about (what many people perceive to be) the bad, awful, dreadful weather in sports. But, who says we can't enjoy a little sunshine every now and then? Well, it's my blog, and I say we can do whatever we want!

The above Associated Press photo shows German beach volleyball players Sara Goller – no storms brewing in her eyes – preparing to serve during an Olympics round-of-16 match on... ah, who cares what do it was? Now, run along and Google more pics of Sara.

Can't Outrun the Rain

In case you haven't heard, it has been raining like London at the Olympic Games today. This Associated Press photo is of Jamaica's Rosemarie Whyte on Friday, the first day of track and field competition.

Photo of the Day (Ok, sure)

Hmmm. What's the purpose of this post? I guess I could remind you that I occasionally – and by "occasionally," I mean very, very rarely – post only photos (maybe with a line of descriptive text) from rainy, snowy, windy, muddy… whatever, sporting events.

So, I guess you can say that's what I'm doing here, and not simply taking an opportunity to post gratuitous photos of uber cute field hockey girls celebrating in the rain. You believe that, right?

Ok, the photo at left, from Getty Images, shows Caia Van Maa of Netherlands celebrating with teammates after netting her team's third goal of the Olympics contest against Belgium on July 29 in London. So, which team won, you ask. You know, I was too lazy to look up that information. Just enjoy the picture of the pretty girls. 

Your Olympics Forecast

One more thing before I call it a night... or morning. Here, from The Weather Channel, is the five-day forecast for London, the site of many outdoor events in the summer Olympic games.

And if you need to know the Olympic game weather happenings for today and Friday, I've coveniently stolen borrowed the forecast from The Weather Channel and pasted it below.


"By Thursday the UK will be in a slightly fresher flow from the west with quite a deep low pressure center not far from northwest Ireland. Much of the UK will start dry and quite sunny with gentle southwest breezes. Scattered showers will develop over southwest England during the morning and become heavier over south Wales and southwest England by midday.

These showers then slowly move northeast in the afternoon to the English Midlands (e.g. Birmingham) and central Southern England, but many places miss them and escape dry. Any showers over southeast England and the London area will be isolated with typically a 30% risk of an afternoon shower.

Temperatures will reach 68 to 72 degrees over eastern England and 64 to 66 degrees over the west. Moderate south to southwest breezes over southern England with a 15- to 20-knot (17 to 23 mph) southwest wind along the south coast and off Weymouth for the Olympic sailing.

For London, a fine morning and mostly sunny start. Becoming partly cloudy with a 30% chance of a light afternoon rain shower. A fine and sunny evening. Moderate southwest winds.

By Friday, the low pressure center will move across western Ireland, but will only have a limited influence on the weather across the UK. Another mainly dry morning with sunny spells, except for the risk of a few showers near southern and western coasts. Through the day isolated light rain showers will develop, but most places stay dry away from the western UK.

Some more frequent showers are expected across parts of southern Wales and southwest England, while most of the heavy showers will be over Ireland. Gentle southwest breezes, becoming moderate along the south coast. Feeling quite pleasant in the sunshine with afternoon temperatures 68 to 72 degrees across much of England but a couple of degrees colder in the west and across Wales."

*****
By the way, this is the 400th post to The Rainout Blog. That's right. I've been writing this blog off and on -- mostly off -- for just more than six years, and I'm just now hitting 400 posts. It's creeping right along. Good night everybody!

Uncover the Cover-up

Team USA beach volleyball super stars Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor ditched their bikinis (in favor of long sleeve shirts) and look what happens: They lose their first set ever in Olympic competition.

The dynamic American duo had won seven matches in Athens and did the same in Athens and had won two matches already in London before the set loss to Austria. Team USA rebounded to take the match win, of course.

Sure it was late, and sure it was cool, but the only way for Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor to get back to their dominant, never lose a set ways: NBB – Nothing But Bikinis!

No Streaking in the Rain

Justin Verlander failed to pitch past the sixth inning Tuesday for the first time in his past 63 starts.

Why? Blame it on the rain… and perhaps the Red Sox.

The Detroit pitcher had lengthy innings in the first and fourth, tossing 31 and 35 pitches in those frames, respectively.

He gave up four runs in the fourth, and that was all the Red Sox needed to take a rain-shortened 4-1 over the Tigers' ace at Fenway Park.

After the game, Verlander didn't blame precipitation for his woes:

“I was able to keep my hand pretty dry,” he said. “The only area it affects you is when you start throwing a little bit harder. (Your foot) lands in a (new) area. I was slipping a little bit. That’s why the ball was elevated. It became pretty difficult for me to throw a strike.”

By the way, if you want to check out photos of the rainy night's action, the Boston Herald has a neat gallery, mostly of Red Sox players, of course.

Stay Covered and Carry On

I admit, I'm mostly posting this item just to get shirtless Timmy off the top of the blog, but this bit of information could be important to all you Olympics watchers out there.

According to an article in The Telegraph today, forecasters in the UK are predicting "that the weather will remain unsettled for up to 16 days with sunshine and showers dominating the skies."

A forecaster for Vantage Weather Services told The Telegraph "August is looking dreadful. Apart from the odd spike of hot weather, the whole month will be cooler than average with this picture of persistent heavy rain really keeping the theme.”

I can't wait to see how this all plays out. On one had, it would be great for the Olympic athletes, who have been training years for these two weeks, to have perfect weather in which to compete. However, the devil hovering over my left shoulder says "let them test their abilities in nasty, dreadful weather." That same devil keeps asking me for cigarettes. 

This may be my worst blog post ever! But hey, if you want to check out some good writing, check out this column about the Olympics, rain and bikini-clad beach volleyball players.

Carry on!

Yes, I Do Have to Post This

I know I'm super late about posting this, but I can't half-assedly run a blog about sports and rain without mentioning the big news from New York Jets camp Saturday: your boy Tim Tebow running shirtless in the rain. Yeah, I know, the photos and video have been everywhere, even on the back page of one of the New York tabloids, but as I just wrote, I have to at least post a photo to validate the existence of – sure, it's on it's last breath – The Rainout Blog.

So, what did Tebow have to say about his Bo Derek-like (see below) moment? As usual, he went all "ah shucks, I can't believe people pay attention me," on us. Here's what he told reporters:

"It was funny. A few guys gave me a hard time, but honestly I don't think anybody knew until they saw it that night on ESPN. It was funny. More than anything it was probably just Mark (Sanchez) and Greg (McElroy) giving me a hard time and then everybody else catches on after that... My shirt felt like 20 pounds because we had been in the rain and then I was signing autographs for like 20 or 30 minutes. I didn't really think you all would be filming it and taking pictures."

I asked my wife if she had seen the video of Timmy's shirtless rain jog, and she curled up her nose as if I had once again asked her to try eating one of my world famous peanut butter and apple burgers. (Those things are delicious, by the way.) I'm not sure if she's being honest, but she said, "most women don't care about Tim Tebow. It's just all you guys and your man crushes on the guy."

Is she right? Yeah, I don't think so either. Sure, a lot of dudes have fallen for Tebow, but we all know the ladies love this guy, too. Am I wrong? 

Braving the Rain

Before the Braves and Marlins could start the sixth inning last night, rain fell at Turner Field and delayed night's baseball game in Atlanta for an hour and 53 minutes. 

The photo above, on loan to me from the Braves Facebook page, shows Jason Heyward standing on deck as ominous clouds gathered. (Did I really need to write that sentence? You can plainly see what is happening.) 

Anyway, the Braves went on to thump the Miami Marlins 7-1 for their 10th victory in their last 13 games. The Braves hot streak inches them a bit closer – two and half games behind – to the N.L. East-leading Washington Nationals, who somehow was thumped by what's left of the last place Philadelphia Phillies last night.