Freese-ing rain in St. Louis

To help me along on those days when I feel motivated to update The Rainout Blog, I subscribe to Google Alerts to get a heads-up on stories containing key words and phrases. One of those word combinations is “baseball” + “rain.”

In November, as you might expect, I rarely receive many links to stories about baseball, but today I did.

Hmm. What could this be?

Naturally, like the curious cat, I followed the link and found this gem in a story from KMOV-TV in St. Louis about Cardinals’ General Manager John Mozeliak:

“The trade of David Freese for Los Angeles Angels outfielder Peter Bourgos extracts maximum value for a soon-to-be 31-year-old third baseman who made it rain in 2011 with a pyrotechnic burst of glory that could never be repeated.”

Sure, curiosity killed the cat, but as Grandpa Munster once said, “Satisfaction brought him back.”

(Yes. Yes, I did write this post for the sole reason of making a Grandpa Munster reference, a first for The Rainout Blog, I believe.)

-- rain --

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.

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.

Raindrops and Curveballs

We've officially hit a dry spell here at The Rainout Blog since football season came to an end. Good news, however, is on the way. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in just a few days and soon there will be potential rainouts during those March exhibition games. And in April, when the first pitch is fired to open the regular season (Actually the season opens March 31 this year), there will be great potential for scenes like this. Last April was hectic with rain and snow hitting Major League ballparks at a maddening pace. I made more posts in April 2007 than any other month during the brief history of this blog.

By the way, the headline to this post – "Raindrops and Curveballs" – was the original name of this blog, which initially was intended to chronicle baseball rainouts and delays. And you think the current format is narrowly focused.