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

Rain on A-Rod's parade?

So today is the day we find out – I hope – MLB’s decision on the Alex Rodriguez suspension. 

It’s an odd circumstance in play: We’re hearing now that the decision for a long suspension will be announced around 3 p.m. Eastern today. Meanwhile, all indicators suggest A-Rod will appeal the suspension, thus allowing him to rejoin the Yankees in Chicago for tonight’s game with the White Sox.

We’ve waited so long to see how this finally plays out. We know there will be a suspension, most likely through the 2014 season, but will Rodriguez indeed be allowed back on the field tonight after surgery in February and a long rehab stint?

We’ll find out tonight, right? I mean, what could possibly hold up that decision now?

Oh, yeah: Rain!

Ok, probably not but there is a 40 percent chance of rain and there have been media reports of drizzle at the ballpark in Chicago today.

But if rain does postpone the game, what will the Yankees do? Will they take this opportunity to 

develop another excuse to keep Rodriguez off the club? Perhaps invent a new nagging injury?

Editor’s note: After reading the above post, you said to yourself, “wow, that was a half-arsed attempt at a blog post,” you’d be right. I’ve been writing The Rainout Blog on-again, off-again (mostly off-again) for the past seven or eight years. (Has it been that long?) When I started, I had real passion for what I still think is a unique –that’s my way of saying “uninteresting to most other people” – sports blog. Occasionally, I’ll say, “hey, I really should write more on The Rainout Blog.” And then I’ll open the blog and think “Ugh, I really don’t want to get into this again.” So, what am I saying here? Nothing really, other than I’d really like to get back to writing this blog, but I’m not promising anything… other than it probably won’t happen.

Baseball is about to drop

Stop me if you've read this before: When I began writing this blog about seven years ago – has it been that long? – I intended it to be about baseball only. If you think the current format of me writing about sports and weather is dull and boring, a blog about baseball rainouts would have been a snooze, bro.

What would I have done in the baseball offseason? Oh, I guess the same thing I do now: let the blog sit for months at a time without an update.

Anyway, had I stuck with the baseball-only format, today would have been – actually, it still is – a perfect day to simply say, "Hey, spring training is here and baseball and its inevitable rainouts are right around the hot corner.

So today, with my first blog update in more than a month, I give you this cool Associated Press photo from St. Louis Cardinals spring training in Jupiter, Fla.

What's this photo have to do with weather, you ask. Check out the glove on the fence. Tiny rain spots. Duh!  

According to the photo caption, rain fell at Cardinals camp… team goes into the clubhouse… rain stops, team goes outside to stretch… rain picks up again… blah, blah, blah.

Thunderstorms Forecasted for NLCS

It looks likely no fall shadows or sun monsters will be plaguing the participants in this afternoon's National League Championship Series Game 3 in St. Louis. First pitch between the San Francisco Giants and home-standing St. Louis Cardinals is scheduled for 3:07 Central time in Busch Stadium, where the National Weather Service is calling for a chance of strong storms to hit St. Louis around 3 p.m. local time. That includes an 80 to 90 percent chance of rain and possibly lightning.

I was griping earlier today that, because of this work thing I have going on and my long commute, I'm going to miss most of the game. However, if the umpires can take one for Team Rainout Blog and delay the game for a couple of hours, I would be forever grateful. Spending Wednesday night switching the TV between the NLCS and ALCS would be right in my wheelhouse of laziness.

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. 

Out From The Rain

The Rainout Blog sure picked a heck of a time to go on hiatus. It was about three-and-a-half weeks ago when I made my last post, and during that time frame there were numerous sporting events affected by weather, particularly rain. The most prominent was the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500. Some great images came from the event, but perhaps the best was those pictures of, not the winner, but of the winner’s wife. Wow, Ashley Judd and a rain-soaked sundress go very well together. There were a couple of NASCAR events affected by the wet stuff in the last 30 days, and most recently, so was qualifying for the Champ Car's Grand Prix of Portland. We also had some baseball games, both in the Majors and in the NCAA super regionals, showered upon. Plus, there was rain at the French Open. Oh, and you would never fogive me if I forgot to mention the Macedonia soccer championship. Also while we were gone, The NFL Network, or “The 212” as we DirecTV subscribers have dubbed it, ran a pretty cool hour-long show featuring the Top 10 Weather Games. I only saw portions of the show, but what I saw was great.

So, where has the Rainout Blog producer-guy been? I’ve been around, here and there – mostly there. There have been many rumors that I can neither confirm nor deny. However, I can confirm there is no truth to the rumor that I took Rhianna up on an invitation to stand under her umbrella – ella, ella, ay, ay ay… (Sorry. That’s just dumb!)

Rain Grounds Redbirds

The National Anthem had been sung and pitchers had begun warming up Friday night when the rains hit Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The steady downpour and cold temperatures eventually led to the postponement of the Cardinals series opener with the Milwaukee Brewers. And because rain was expected to last throughout the night, Saturday’s game was pushed back six hours to 7:10 p.m. to allow the field to dry. A make-up date for Friday’s game will be announced at a later date.

The Associated Press photo above shows the Cardinals grounds crew pulling the tarp over the Busch Stadium field as the begins to fall.

A story on the Cardinals’ Web site gives us a quote from Redbirds manager Tony LaRussa and a little weather information for the St. Louis area for Saturday.

"We were watching on the computer, and they had nailed it almost to the minute," manager Tony La Russa said. "And once it got going, it's going 'til the early morning hours. And then that's why we moved the game back [Saturday]. There's a chance it will be around a good part of tomorrow. We should be able to play by tomorrow night. It will be a little uncomfortable."

The current forecast, according to Weather.com, calls for a first-pitch temperature of 42 degrees and a 30 percent chance of rain, with winds of about 15 mph.