Before the game starts it’s the home team -- not the umpires -- who decide if a game should be delayed due to rain. According to Dejan Kovacevic -- one of the best beat writers in the business, by the way -- the Cubs screwed up yesterday’s rainout against the Pirates royally:
First, there was a delay because of the threat of a storm. Then, after about 20 minutes of solid rain, there was barely a drop for nearly two hours while the Cubs -- the home team is singularly responsible for calling the beginning of any game -- waited for another storm to arrive.
It never did.By the time the game was called at 4:35 p.m. Central time, skies were almost fully clear, and many in the capacity crowd shouted and booed loudly. No more rain would fall the rest of the day.
My old man was a weatherman for the National Weather Service. He always liked to say that he had the greatest job in the world because, hey, where else could you be wrong all the damn time and not get fired? The only possible answer I can give is being the people that run the Cubs.