Baseball and Rain

[Ryan A]

Can anyone come up with a good reason baseball games can't be played in the rain?

All I can come up with is Tradition.

[triggercut]

Absolutely there are very good reasons.

The first is the health and well-being of hitters. A big-league pitcher is bringing it at 90-95 mph. The only thing that even partially assures that he has the foggiest of ideas of where that baseball is going is his grip on it. Should that grip begin to slip, the ball can go *anywhere*, including right into the brainpan of a hitter, who's going to have trouble picking it up in a downpour.

Since baseball has seen one death (Ray Chapman) and more than a few careers ended or altered in bad ways from beanballs (Mickey Cochrane (fractured skull), Cass Michaels (given last rights and put in critical condition despite a batting helmet, but survived) Tony Conigliaro, Dickie Thon, Paul Schaal, Bryce Florie, Paul Blair, Mike Jorgenson, etc.) it seems like a pretty smart move.

[Ryan A]

It's not like baseballs become super slippery when they get wet though. For one thing, the seams help. For another, a slightly damp ball provides *more* pitcher grip than a completely dry one. That's why the spitball is illegal, right?

[triggercut]

It's not like baseballs become super slippery when they get wet though. For one thing, the seams help. For another, a slightly damp ball provides *more* pitcher grip than a completely dry one. That's why the spitball is illegal, right?

A baseball becomes incredibly slippery when wet. A big leaguer has two fingertips on a fastball (at the top of the baseball) but then "holds" the ball with the inner knuckle of his ring finger and the inside of the second joint of his thumb. He's not really gripping the thing at all at the bottom of the ball, and creates the danger. (If you're actually "holding" the ball with the inside tip of your thumb, that's why your fastball is flat and everyone including my dead grandma can crush it.) One of the duties of major league umpires before the start of a game is to rub a substance they refer to as "mud" onto all game baseballs; it's invisible, but it does take the shine off the surface of the ball and makes them a bit "tackier" so as to be easy to grip. That stuff comes off instantly in the rain.

Spitballs became illegal after Carl Mays killed Ray Chapman with a beanball. One of the contributing factors was that the ball in play that day was a dark brown and Chappie never picked it up out of Mays' hand. Since players were just as likely to use tobacco juice and mud to make a "spitball", the pitch was outlawed. (It isn't the grip that makes spitballs so tough to hit; it's the disfigurement of the spherical shape of the baseball that does it. The spit, soap, tobacco, mud, or cuts in the surface of a doctored ball increase the drag on one small surface, which makes the pitch behave crazily.)

Another reason for calling games in the rain. Ever try to catch a major-league pop fly in a torrential downpour? You can't *see*...and you've got a potentially hazardous cannonball coming down on you, perhaps at your head. Glasses don't help--like having a windshield without wipers.

[Robert Sharp]

Trigger has it right. If you throw in the potential for lightning, the slickness of the running lanes, the chance to tear up a field that will have to be used again tomorrow, and the fact that the umps need to see what is happening, you have lots of reasons to just cancel the game.

[Ryan A]

Yeah I know how to throw a fastball, and while I'm obviously no major (or minor) league talent, I think the index and middle fingers on the seams provide ample control on a damp baseball.

I'm certainly not trying to argue that playing in the wet is an optimal performance situation, but then again playing football, soccer, laccrosse, etc. in the wet decreases performance and increases the likelihood of injury, but those sports don't wuss out on account of a wet playing surface.

When we were kids, one of our favorite things to do was to head out to the local ballfield for BP in the rain. We'd pitch easy-to-hit BP pitches and intentionally pop up as high as possible into the outfield so the guys in the outfield could make sliding catches.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Sliding catches are great; sliding deep field ball catches into the wall are not. Not to mention trying to keep your eye on a small beisbol after it pops high up into the air. And the wild wet ball theory holds true AFAIK.

Contrast to football, where the players are padded and helmeted, the only things they are in danger of hitting are each other, and the much larger football doesn't fly up nearly as high as a deep hit (except on a punt or kickoff, but those are hardly analogous to average hits), and running the ball as well as shorter passing are options, not so much with baseball. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if it was a holdover, comparing baseball's age to football's, but not because people in the olden days were pusswimps. Remember, them first ballparks probably didn't have much overhead protection for the fans (or even owners or VIPS), so maybe they postponed the games out of consideration for the ticket-buyers, because parks would get zilch at the box office if it started to rain or looked like it might (and fans would stay away if no provision for getting their money's worth was in place).

[Ryan A]

Question: can Crickett be rained out?

[Bill Dungsroman]

Question: can Crickett be rained out?

The question is, can Crickett be played in anything but rain?

[Ryan A]

The question is, can Crickett be played in anything but rain?

Ask the Indians (dot, not feather)

[Bill Dungsroman]

Ask the Indians (dot, not feather)

Yeah, that was a lame English weather joke, there.

PS: "dot, not feather" is so awesomely crude I'm going to have to use it with your permission.

[Ryan A]

Yeah, that was a lame English weather joke, there.

PS: "dot, not feather" is so awesomely crude I'm going to have to use it with your permission.

Go for it, I stole it from Good Will Hunting

[steve]

Yeah I know how to throw a fastball, and while I'm obviously no major (or minor) league talent, I think the index and middle fingers on the seams provide ample control on a damp baseball.

Have you ever thrown a damp baseball? It's incredibly unpleasant.

In addition to grip issues (which affects quarterbacks too, though they have a lot more surface area to work with), the ball also gets heavier. A heavier ball isn't good for a pitcher's arm.

I'm certainly not trying to argue that playing in the wet is an optimal performance situation, but then again playing football, soccer, laccrosse, etc. in the wet decreases performance and increases the likelihood of injury, but those sports don't wuss out on account of a wet playing surface.

Okay, let's assume baseball players are wussy. What benefit is there to playing in the rain? It's not like fans want to sit there and watch. It might be different for the NFL, with its 16-game season. But with 162 games, I'm going to go out on a limb and say no individual game is worth playing when it's raining.

Besides, double headers rule.

[Ryan A]

Have you ever thrown a damp baseball? It's incredibly unpleasant.

I grew up in the Puget Sound region of Washington. I grew up playing baseball. Which is to say, yes... I'm quite familiar with throwing wet baseballs! :)

I'm also familiar with having every other little league game rained out which is quite frustrating.

Okay, let's assume baseball players are wussy. What benefit is there to playing in the rain? It's not like fans want to sit there and watch. It might be different for the NFL, with its 16-game season. But with 162 games, I'm going to go out on a limb and say no individual game is worth playing when it's raining.

Besides, double headers rule.

Yeah I don't know that it really matters for MLB.. especially with the wet region teams being in domes or under retractable roofs now. But the tradition trickles down through the college, high school, and little league ranks and it's ridiculous how disruptive it can be.

Take collegiate women's fastpitch, for example. Did you know there are ridiculous conference/regional tournament rules that in case of rainout, the team with the better regular season record advances? So when that team happens to be the team that is hosting the tournament, the home coach will conveniently "lose" the field tarps to encourage an "unplayable" infield when it rains the week before the tournament weekend.

[triggercut]

I will go on record as categorically contradicting the opinion that a wet baseball is easier to grip. It isn't. At all. Now, you'll see pitchers wet their fingers a bit from time to time...but that's a far cry from a saturated baseball. When your hands are wet and the baseball is wet, and you're generating the kind of torque and force that a major league pitcher's arm is generating, if there's a steady downpour that ball is going to go *anywhere* but where the pitcher wants it.

[Steve Canyon]

Take collegiate women's fastpitch, for example. Did you know there are ridiculous conference/regional tournament rules that in case of rainout, the team with the better regular season record advances? So when that team happens to be the team that is hosting the tournament, the home coach will conveniently "lose" the field tarps to encourage an "unplayable" infield when it rains the week before the tournament weekend.

I guess that means if you're going to be a competitor in collegiate women's fastpitch, you're going to have to police the away team's field, especially if they've got a better record than your team, even finding the field tarps if necessary.

[Ryan A]

Oregon State is infamous for that sort of thing.

[Bill Dungsroman]

I will go on record as categorically contradicting the opinion that a wet baseball is easier to grip. It isn't. At all. Now, you'll see pitchers wet their fingers a bit from time to time...but that's a far cry from a saturated baseball. When your hands are wet and the baseball is wet, and you're generating the kind of torque and force that a major league pitcher's arm is generating, if there's a steady downpour that ball is going to go *anywhere* but where the pitcher wants it.

Yeah, and again, hearkening back to the Ye Oldenne Days, they probably used one ball per inning (or game), with cheap fucks like Comiskey as owners, the jerseys probably itched like hell when soaking wet, and pitchers used to pitch entire games so a heavier, harder to grip ball definitely came into play (as it were).

[John Merva]

The question is, can Crickett be played in anything but rain?

Why the double t?

[Ryan A]

Why the double t?

I don'tt know, whyy do you thinkk?

[Bill Dungsroman]

Why the double t?

Because Ryan A did it and I thought he'd know SOB

[John Merva]

I don'tt know, whyy do you thinkk?

I rreally ddon't kknow RRyan.

[nutsak]

Question: can Crickett be rained out?

Yes, it can and often is. They cover the pitch with a tarpaulin too so it doesn't get too wet .

Alsoo whenn yyou guyys postt likke thiss itt makess me feell drunnk.

[Alan Dunkin]

In baseball, field condition is considered to be important enough to gameplay to stop or restrict games, especially the infield with it's turf 'n dirt aesthetics. Rain can also make games dangerous in any number of ways, and baseball players wear very little for protection.

Cricket in many ways is worse; games are suspended because of rain or even bad light conditions. However, test cricket has all of these factors built in, which is one of the reasons why they have five-day (sometimes even six-day) scheduled games. If you can't finish in that time it's a draw, pure and simple. There's really not a lot of leeway in scheduling for makeup sessions.

--- Alan

[Elton]

I read somewhere recently that due to better drainage in the newer parks, the outfields don't get all puddly in the rain like they used to. Partly because of that, rain-threatened teams wait longer than before to try and squeeze a game in*, and to avoid the logistical & financial burdens of rescheduling.

I thought that one of the big problems with playing during rain is that the pitching mound becomes soft and unstable, leading to pitcher injuries and ineffectiveness.

* Actually during the game it's entirely the umpires' call, but before the game it's the home team's decision on whether to wait for the rain to subside or call the game. So they wait as long as possible, annoyingly for the fans at the game. I remember abondoning a game at Wrigley once where it was coming down pussies and pooches, figuring it would certainly be postponed and I'd get to go to a different game, and by the time I got home it was on TV and they played the whole game.