Pray for rain?

San Francisco Examiner

There’s a slight chance rain could be a factor during Game 4 of the World Series Saturday evening in San Francisco.

At the moment, the extended forecast shows a 40 percent chance of precipitation at about the time Ryan Vogelsong fires the first pitch for the Giants. Rain chances increase to 60 percent during the 6 and 7 p.m. hours and dip back to 40 percent around 8 p.m. Temperatures should be in the mid to low 60s.

It’s not likely rain will cause a postponement, but we could see some rain throughout the contest.

However, according to this story, AT&T Park is equipped with a custom-designed SubAir System that, among other cool things, utilizes a vacuum mode that “quickly removes standing water, virtually eliminating the need for extended game delays or cancellations due to field conditions.”

Good to know.

Anyway, Giants ace Madison Bumgarner is scheduled to pitch Game 4 on three-day’s rest. A rainout and postponement of Game 4 to Sunday would give him an extra day. If you’re a Giants fan, do you pray for rain in hopes of a fresher arm for Bumgarner?

-- rain --

In Stitches?

In a quick, first glance at this photo taken during the rain delay of Wednesday night's NLCS Game 4, I thought I was seeing an abstract image of a baseball. Can you see the St. Louis Cardinals' grounds, decked out in red jackets, appear to be forming the stitches of a baseball on the background of the white tarp? You can see that right? Am I just a little baseball nuts right now?

The photo, which you can see a larger version of here, is from Mercurynews.com.

Wild, Rainy (and not so rainy) Night

I hate admit this, but I saw no baseball yesterday. Blame it on the rain. (That's so cheesy. Sorry.)

When I got home from work, the Giants and Cardinals had already slipped into what would become a three-and-a-half-hour rain delay – the delay actually lasted longer than the game.

My wife and I are remodeling our bedroom, and when I finished painting the closet and installing light switch and outlet covers, the rain had stopped and the Cards had grabbed a 2-1 series lead.

In the American League, you all know by now that the Yankees, who are benching everyone these days, and the Tigers were rained out… sort of. Actually, it was the threat of rain that postponed Game 4, and possibly lengthened the hapless, hitless Yankees' season by a day. Today's game, which should have been Game 5, gets started at 4:07 p.m. From what I've heard and read, the ballpark was dry when the game was called at 9:15 p.m. Rain eventually hit the ballpark around 10 p.m., where it rained for about an hour.

Forecasters say that the wet stuff will be long gone from Detroit before today's Yankees-Tigers tilt. The NLCS Game 4 is scheduled for tonight in St. Louis, where it will be, according to forecasters, cloudy and cool with a low around 45 degrees with a chance of a spot shower or sprinkles. That forecast doesn't seem much to worry about, right?

Sprinkles

MLB.com has a story about the Cards-Giants rain delay, complete with Giants skipper Bruce Bochy talking about the delay.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch has some cool pics of a lot of wet fans in Busch Stadium last night… lots of umbrellas, which I love but never use. I love the image showing the weather radar on the ballpark's giant screen.

As a Nationals fan, I'm a bit sick of writing about the Cardinals participation in the playoffs, so let's move on to the Yanks and Tigers…

FanGraphs has a story detailing how Wednesday's postponement in Detroit could play havoc with the Yankees rotation and further damage the team's already dismal chances.

The Tigers have been through this playoff rain delay thing before… last year, and Max Scherzer is cool with it.

Not so cool with the rain out was this fella, who checked out his grandfather from a nursing to take him to Comerica Park for the game.

Not to be outdone by the Post-Dispatch, the Detroit Free Press has photos from the not-so-rainy night accompanying a Mitch Albom column. I love Mitch.

Speaking of sports writers I love, Tim Kirkjian took to Twitter during the delays to discuss his top 10 sitcom characters of all time.

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.

Going to the World Series Tonight? Bring an Umbrella

It was a beautiful night for baseball in San Francisco last night, at least as far as I could observe by sitting on the comfy couch in my man cave.
Tonight’s Game Two of the World Series, however, may be a have a different feel to fans at AT&T Park – a wet feel.

According to the National Weather Service, a weather system will be approaching the ballpark from the north, just about the same time – 4:57 Pacific – Giants’ starter Matt Cain tosses the first pitch.

Chances of rain are at 30 percent – according to Weather.com – at game time, decreasing to about 10 percent as the game progresses. No heavy rain is expected, so the game should be completed tonight. Temperature at first pitch should be around 63 degrees.

Someone please inform Kristen Lee about the impending rain, so she won't think Giants fans are spitting on her. Thank you.

The Rain in Shea...

I have nothing else to do -- actually I have a lot to do, but I'm stalling -- so I'll tell you there's a rain delay in the fifth inning of the Mets-versus-Giants game Shea Stadium. Not many rain delays left at that ol' dump, eh? I shouldn't call it a dump. I've never been there. But those who have, say it's a dump. Anyway, if you're a really bored Mets or Giants fan, you can keep up with the game, once it resumes, on David Lennon's live Newsday.com blog.

By the way, did anyone listen today to Chris Russo on WFAN? I'd liked to know what he had to say about Tim Lincecum getting shelled by Mets batters Tuesday night. I didn't hear Doggie today. I was listening to the Yankees sweep the Rays. Is the SI cover jinx already afecting Lincecum? (That's not a serious question.)

I'm done for now. Have a good night.

Rare Delay in LA

Rain eventually hit Dodger Stadium last night, not long after I made the below post and jumped into bed. The result was a 74-minute rain delay and some maddening pitching decisions. You can read the full report at MLB.com. The quotes of the night came from Dodgers skipper Joe Torre, whose team lost 2-1 to the lowly San Francisco Giants.

"I thought I finished with the rain stuff in New York," said Torre.

And…

"We made a decision to go with 11 pitchers," said Torre, "but a night like tonight will change your minds in a hurry."

Rain Threat Forces Dodgers, Giants Hands

The Giants and Dodgers changed their scheduled pitchers just before Wednesday night's game because of the threat of heavy rain at Dodgers Stadium. I'll let Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News explain:

LOS ANGELES - The Giants scratched Tim Lincecum and started Merkin Valdez in his place because heavy rain was expected to fall at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night.
The Dodgers switched starters first, replacing Chad Billinglsey with reliever Hong-Chih Kuo a half-hour before the first pitch. The Giants followed suit a few minutes later.

Neither club wanted to use a starting pitcher for two or three innings, then force them to sit through what could be a lengthy delay. It was expected that Billingley and Lincecum would pitch at some point during Wednesday's game.

Here's the Los Angeles forecast from NOAA.gov:
Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 11pm, then a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 51. Southwest wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent.

UPDATE: I'm not sure there's anything to this story now. I just caught highlights, and Lincecum is in the game for the Giants.

Good night everybody!

The Science Behind The Splash Hit

The Mets' Carlos Delgado launched a Mike Morris pitch deep to right field Wednesday that quickly found its way over the 24-foot-high right field fence and into the cool waters of McCovey Cove. The Giants radio crew quickly pointed out that the Splash Hit was only the 56th since AA&T Park opened in 2000.

That number was a bit surprising to me and the play-by-play guy – it wasn't John Miller, but the other guy. Of those, 42 have been hit by the home team, and not surprisingly, 34 Splash Hits have come off the bat of Barry Bonds. Still the total of 56 seems a bit low. Before the park opened, there was much hype surrounding the possibility of numerous Splash Hits.

So why are there fewer deposits into McCovey's Cove than we expected? The answer, of course, can be explained by physics and meteorology. Unfortunately, I'm no expert in either subject, so, to learn more, I went Googling.

A 2004 article in the San Francisco Chronicle gives a bit of insight into the subject from high school physics teacher Paul Robinson who was determined to get to the bottom of the physics involved in the Splash Hit. Below are some excerpts from the article.

Before he was done, Robinson would be crawling around the stadium with a tape measure during the offseason, checking distances, discovering among other things that the right-field wall is a little lower than the 24 feet advertised by the team.
He studied classic baseball-physics research by Robert Adair of Yale University and Mont Hubbard of UC Davis. He pondered his own view of the water from his charter seats in Section 317, behind home plate.

Robinson got together with a couple of computer simulation software experts, and …
Together, they analyzed the key factors that account for the distance a batted baseball can reach -- angle and speed of the ball leaving the bat, mostly, but also ambient temperature and the aerodynamic lift produced by backspin. All this data was then loaded into an MSC proprietary computer program, called "Interactive Physics," that was customized for the dimensions and odd outfield angles of SBC Park (Now AT&T Park), including a left-handed Bondsian hitter standing in.

So, what did they learn?

If the program can be believed, a hitter must get the baseball moving at least 105 mph off the bat straight down the right-field line, imparting a strong 1,800 rpm backspin, lifting the ball somewhere between about 30 to 45 degrees, in order to have any real chance of making the water. And that assumes no wind blowing the ball back toward home plate or toward the deepest part of the outfield, which often seems to be the case at SBC (AT&T) Park.

Sharply hit line drives -- a speed of 130 mph and a 15 degree angle -- smash into the outfield bricks. Lofty fly balls hit steeper than 45 degrees can reach an impressive 150-200 feet in elevation above the outfield, but unless they are hit at maximum velocity, which seems unrealistic for such a steep angle, they tend to fall back well short of the cove.

Practically any ball hit toward the gap in right-center, where the wall stands 365 feet from home plate, is doomed to stay dry. Even a 120-mph screamer hit an optimum angle of 42 degrees won't make it without a near- maximum boost from backspin.

That explains the physics behind launching the stitched-up spheroid (I said spheroid, not steroid. Bonds fans tend to get a little uncomfortable when you mention the ladder.), but there really isn't any information concerning the atmospheric conditions that may come into play except for a brief mention of wind blowing off the bay. I'm sure that explains much, but we also need to take in account altitude and humidity.

Further Googling turned up nothing about atmospheric conditions at AT&T, but I did find an interesting article from the Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette. The story was published in 2001 when the Pirates opened PNC Park, and its writer, Chuck Finder, asked similar questions about the Pirates new pad. Finder's article did investigate atmospheric conditions and he wrote about the chances of what he called an Alleghany Splashdown at PNC.

Pittsburgh ranks second in the NL to the Mile High City in altitude, even if we're some 5,100 feet behind Denver. The North Side home to PNC Park is roughly 730 feet above sea level. In baseball, this translates to a 1- to 1.5-percent increase in home-run distance. "So that's as much as 6 more feet for a ball hit around 440," (John) Pastier (of the Society of American Baseball research) said.

Humidity helps homers, too. The air, although it doesn't feel it to us, is lighter for baseball air travel. So the sticky summer here translates to another foot increase in distance.

Finally, there's the variable of wind. The Pirates commissioned in 1999 a wind study that showed breezes around PNC Park would travel from left field to right, up to 15 mph. Such a blow could amount to a decent tailwind. "That could add several feet," Pastier said.

Finder added this about wind coming into play at both the San Francisco and Pittsburgh ballparks:

You might think San Francisco would have a windy advantage over Pittsburgh. But the Giants constructed their park in such a way that it served to mitigate the wind, although sometimes 2 to 10 mph breezes would curl around the right-field-line seats and sneak into play in that short-porch corner.

Notes: Perhaps Carlos Delgado has been studying up on his physics and knows all about the physical mechanics behind achieving the Splash Hit. Of the 14 visiting team home runs to splash down into McCovey Cove, three have been hit Delgado, including the last two and both were hit off Matt Morris. …The Giants web site features a listing of each Spash Hit, and includes video of each hit by a San Francisco player. ...Splash, Starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks, was a hit in 1984. …Below is video from YouTube of Gary Faselli after he caught a Bonds' home run while boating in McCovey Cove in April.