The Cardinals and Marlins had their Grapefruit League game in Jupiter, Florida halted on Saturday by a one-hour, 49-minute rain delay.
During that delay the Fish got a little business done, holding a required MLB Players’ Association meeting in their clubhouse. These 30-minute meetings are held every year with every team, right around this time of the spring. The Cardinals, in fact, had theirs between 8:30-9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.
But new St. Louis skipper Mike Matheny is upset that his players had to sit around in the afternoon while the Marlins shifted their focus elsewhere and even indicated to MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch that he thought the rain delay could have been shorter.“I wasn’t real happy,” Matheny said. “We couldn’t get people to make decisions. We weren’t the home team there, and the home team was inside a meeting with Major League Baseball front office. So we were left to wait. The field does drain well, and it did turn out to be beautiful there at the end. It seemed like a completely different day. But in the meanwhile, I wasn’t happy. We have some pretty valuable players out there and we have some people in the bullpen just sitting still for a long time. None of that is a good situation.
Meetings are supposed to be after the game.”During Tony La Russa’s tenure, the Cards were known for making a fuss about trivial things (remember the complaint about the ribbon board at Miller Park?). Matheny might have a legitimate reason to be upset with what went on Saturday, but detractors will probably suggest that he’s only carrying on the Wrath of Tony.
