The major league baseball season is not even a week old, and the Yankees already had their first rain out. Last night's game between the visiting Minnesota Twins and host New York Yankees was postponed due to steady light rain, and no makeup date has been announced. The two teams will play just one game this afternoon before the Bronx Bombers travel to Boston to play the Red Sox in their home opener tomorrow afternoon.
Baseball and April weather in the Northeast just don’t mix very well. We’ve seen our fair share of rain, snow, wind, and below-freezing temperatures during April. Many fans come to the ballpark dressed as though they’re heading to a football game. They bring blankets, heavy coats, and even gloves. I’ve always felt that the baseball season shouldn’t start until May, but the bottom line is “the bottom line” in today’s big business world of professional sports, and more games means more money.
Consider what happened in April of 2007. Mother Nature played havoc with Major League baseball that month. Snow, rain, or threats of tornadoes forced postponement of 21 games during the month — including six games on April 15 — the most for baseball’s first month of the season since 24 were postponed in 1997, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In addition, four of the attempted makeup games were also postponed, meaning 25 games Major League Baseball tried to play in April couldn’t be played because of the weather.
While areas of the Northeast and Midwest were hardest hit, the postponements impacted all six divisions and all but six of baseball’s 30 teams. From April 3-17, at least one game was postponed because of weather every day except April 10. The only teams that were not involved in at least one weather postponement in April were the A’s, Reds, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Padres and Rockies. One year earlier, a total of eight games were postponed due to inclement weather.
However, if you think April weather can be brutal in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and the Northeast in general, imagine being a baseball fan in Seattle. Four years ago, no team lost more games to Mother Nature than the Mariners, who saw four games postponed because of snow, one by rain, and one at Texas on April 24 due to a tornado watch.
According to the Mariners, it’s the most postponements due to weather-related issues in club history, breaking the old mark of four set during the 1978 season. No American League team in the last 13 years lost as many games in April as Seattle did in 2007. Trying to reschedule the games can be extremely difficult, especially when traditional doubleheaders have become the exception rather than the rule, and other teams’ scheduling and travel plans need to be considered.
Fortunately, our weather in the Northeast will be fairly quiet and milder through the upcoming weekend, and that's good news for fans in Boston and New York, where the Mets will open their home season at Citi Field. Tomorrow will feature a mix of sun and clouds with a high in the 50s. Saturday will bring partly to mostly sunny skies with highs in the mid 50s, and Sunday will see increasing cloudiness with a high near 60 degrees off a morning low in the low 40s. Let's play some baseball!
Paul
