Twins Cardinals game at Legion Field in Albany got started lst night but never made it to an official game. Rain, lightning delays, and more rain.and darkness finally made the field unplayable. The two teams will meet for a double header under artificial light in beautiful Kingston this Friday evening.
And if you're losing 11 - 1 after three innings, you slow the game down to a crawl until it finally rains enough for the umpire to call the game. Then you play a double-header on Friday night.
The game was halted three times due to rain and lightning as required by league rules. There were 10-12 lightning bolts seen between about 7 and 7:26 PM . I know, because we resumed play the final time at 7:46 PM. The Cardinals were imploring the umpire to allow the game to continue because a number of them had to drive 50 miles. As the GM of the Twins, I was not about to allow anyone on our team to stand in the field with lightning flashing . We did nothing to slow the game down. When we went back on the field after the initial rain delay in the 3rd inning, our pitchers did not walk any of the Cardinals. There were only 3 walks issued by Twins pitching , 2 in the 1st when the Cards scored 5 runs, and 1 in the 2nd when the Cards scored 6 runs. We pitched regularly to their batters and got them out in 4 batters in the 3rd with only 1 reaching on an error by our third baseman . When we went back out in the field in the 4th and final inning the Cards batted, our pitcher retired them 1-2-3 with 2 strikeouts and the Cardinal dugout was imploring their batters to swing at anything to speed the game up. As a matter of fact, I asked our final pitcher Tom King if he intended to walk Cardinal hitters in the 4th to prolong the game and he emphatically said "NO". Tom said that would make him a hypocrite because in the previous inning he had chided one of the Cardinal hitters for swinging at bad pitches. I told him I agreed with him. When we (Twins) came up to bat in the top of the 5th , it was raining steadily,and our first hitter, Ben Phillips hit a clean single. The rain started to come down quite a bit harder and our second batter (me) went to a 2-2 count receiving 7 pitches total and fouled off 3 pitches . Then, Sean, the umpire stopped the game because it was pouring and there were puddles at home plate. I , nor anyone else on the Twins asked him to stop the game. 5 minutes later it was raining very, very hard and got extremely dark. It was the right call and , in my opinion, should have been made earlier.
I might note that during one of the delays I was approached by Cardinal Don Ball , who I have always had respect for, and asked if we would resume the game so they could get 3 outs and make the game official which would give them the win. I don't blame him for asking because they were way ahead, but I told Don that I would act in the best interest of my team and not resume play until the umpire told us to do so. No way. What manager in his right mind would do differently ?
-- Edited by crowbait on Wednesday 19th of July 2017 06:24:03 PM
-- Edited by crowbait on Wednesday 19th of July 2017 06:33:05 PM
-- Edited by crowbait on Wednesday 19th of July 2017 06:35:19 PM
