Orioles-Yankees Rain-Soaked Disaster Proved MLB Needs to Handle Weather Differently

Another long, unnecessary rain delay, another opportunity for the Bronx Bombers to sell beer and sweets for hours before an unsatisfying conclusion.

Monday night's handling of the Orioles-Yankees game that wasn't turned into a total embarrassment for both Major League Baseball and the Yankees. Anyone who looked at the forecast in the Bronx at any point in the day could have told you that there was no way conditions would be good enough for a baseball game. Rain was in the forecast all day and all night. Yet, despite how obvious it was that the game should be called, the people who actually make that decision disagreed until far later in the evening.

Before the scheduled first pitch at 6:35pm ET, the Yankees announced the game would be pushed back about an hour to 7:45pm. Yet 7:45pm came and went without such a pitch, despite the rain slowing down by then. As repeated shots of sloshy grass showed us, the field was simply too wet to be played on. A bizarre sequence then commenced of the grounds crew attempting to drain the field while the umpires and team managers met to discuss the conditions several times.

At this point, it was undeniable that the game would be called, with more rain in the forecast even if the field somehow became dry enough to be played on. The Yankees currently have a dozen players on the IL, and I doubt Aaron Boone would want to risk his guys playing on a slippery field and inviting injury. The game still was not called, however, until 8:48 pm, and postponed to a doubleheader on Wednesday, once fans had been kept in the lurch eternally.

The entire situation was just embarassing. Fans sat in the stands for over two hours waiting to see if baseball would be played. Instead, the MLB and the Yankees, for some odd reason, waited things out. The fans' feelings need to be taken into consideration more in a scenario such as this; had the game been called earlier in the day, it would have saved people a lot of time and money.

Parking, food, drinks, souvenirs...ah, right. Now it makes sense.

Changes need to be made, and fast, as to how the MLB handles such extended, inevitable delays.