We’ve moved!

That’s right. The Rainout Blog has moved to a new location. (Where were you when we were lifting the fridge and the sofa?) You can find the blog at Rainoutblog.wordpress.com. Or, you can just stay here and read sports weather posts from the past nine years. Make yourself comfortable… but we’ve turned off the electric and the water.  

Slippery when wet

What’s it like to try to pitch effectively in a pouring rain? To throw strikes with a wet ball? To not let the ball slip out of your hand and bean the batter? To not go down in a mud slide from the mound?

Ask Brett Anderson.

The Dodgers’ lefty had the unenviable task of trying to sit down Colorado Rockies’ hitters Friday night while also attempting to ignore pesky, steady rain drops. And yeah, he also had to maintain his footing and not slide of the slippery mound.

"You can't really think about that, or you'll be hesitant and you could hurt yourself worse," Anderson said. "But it was weird circumstances."

In this video (for some reason the video is not embedding on the blog), you can see Anderson struggle through the rain as he faced the Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon. Anderson got off to a good start against Blackmon, tallying a no balls and two strikes count, but then threw four straight balls to walk the Rockies’s outfielder. Anderson, as you will see, slipped and almost fell as he threw ball four.

Give Blackmon credit; he also had to focus through the rain drops on some 91-mph heat from Anderson to draw the walk. And you know he had to be thinking about the possibility of a wet ball zipping toward his skull after slipping from Anderson’s hand.

Lousy weather conditions persisted and umpires called the game after five innings, shortly after Blackmon’s at-bat, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 win over the Rockies at Coors Field.

"It was difficult. Pretty poor conditions," Anderson said. "I can't believe we played through five innings of that. It's probably the hardest rain I've played through on the field.”

Rain postponed the following night’s action, and then… then came the snow, which covered Coors Field Saturday, prompting Anderson to tweet:

On second thought, that rain I pitched in wasn't so bad. pic.twitter.com/Rt89Y24Zqu

— Brett Anderson (@BrettAnderson35) May 10, 2015

Heavens can't wait!

Associated Press

Have you ever had one of those moments – pre-DVR, of course – where you had to run off from to the television during a baseball game to… um, take care of important business? You wanted to get through one more batter – your team is playing a rival in an important series – but you just couldn’t wait.

That’s relatable, I think, to the happenings in Detroit Sunday night. In a 1-1 tie, Miguel Cabrera came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with his Tigers in 1-1 tie with the Royals.

That’s when it happened. The skies couldn’t hold it any longer.

Rain delayed the game for an hour and 43 minutes, pushing the contest well past midnight and making me even more sleep deprived. When the game resumed, the homestanding Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth, but failed to produce a run. The Royals grabbed a run in the top of the 10^th and hung on for a 2-1 series-clinching win over its American League Central rivals.

Video

Foggy day at Turf Moor

Burnley and West Brom played to a 2-2 draw last weekend in a bit of fog at Turf Moor Stadium, as you can see in the photo, but that’s nothing compared to the Boxing Day 1992 match between West Brom and Chester. 

The first half was barely visible from the stands. Here’s the highlight reel.

White, then yellow, then white again

As I was scouring through wire photos today, I noticed this gem, which is perfect material for The Rainout Blog. 

The cutline accompanying this Associated Press photo reads:

“Augsburg's Raul Bobadilla from Argentina saves a ball during heavy snow fall during the German first division Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the SGL Arena in Augsburg, Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015.”

 I have to confess, I know nothing about Bundesliga soccer. I’m more of a Premier League kind of guy. However, after conducting a littler research – because that’s what all good sports/weather bloggers do – I found that Augsburg won 3-1.

As you can see in the photo, a yellow ball was in play, but that wasn’t the case at the beginning of the match. At the 30th minute, when the snow became heavier, referees swapped the white ball for the yellow for better visibility. However, the white ball made a return once the snow stopped and melted from the pitch.

I'm curious. On a snowy night in Germany, I wonder how much air pressure those soccer balls lost because of the cold temperatures. I'm not sure, but I know who would: Bill Belichick the Science Guy, that's who.

-- snow --