Indians v. Mariners series snowed out

This past weekend, the Seattle Mariners visited Jacobs Field for what was supposed to be the only time this season. Paul Byrd got the start on Friday night, and he pitched nearly 5 innings of no-hit baseball. With one strike needed to complete the top of the 5th, Mariners manager Mike Hargrove came out to complain to the umpires. Not because of a bad call, or even suspicion of something illegal the pitcher was doing. By this time, it was snowing so hard his players could barely see, and seeing as how the Mariners were losing at this point, he wanted the game called before it became official.


I must say, this game should have been called a lot earlier due to the intense amount of "lake effect snow" they got in Cleveland. I'm not sure if Mike Hargrove only wanted the game called because he was losing, or if he just sort of assumed it would have been called many innings ago and finally he could take no more. But either way, it proved to be kind of a dick move, because subsequent doubleheaders were cancelled on Saturday and Sunday due to snow, and now MLB already has a 2007 season dilemna on its hands - how to handle this series.

These two teams should have gotten at least one game in on Friday, and now they will try one final attempt to finish at least two of the games today in a doubleheader, as the snow is supposed to subside. Since these are non-divisional games, they probably will not be made up unless necessary to determine playoff spots at the end of the season. Bud Selig is already in the works to try and get the Angels/Indians series moved to Anaheim instead of Cleveland, and their second series to of course switch to Cleveland. This also presents a problem since the Angels would have to fly all the way to Boston for a game on Friday immediately following Thursday night's game.



So this was one of the coldest Opening Weeks in recorded history, and if anybody made it out to see their favorite teams, you know this, as it even dropped into the 40s in Texas. Hey Major League Baseball, lets make sure that we don't have teams from the West Coast and Florida flying up to the Midwest and New England next year until at least late April. I'm not sure who decided the Twins, a dome team, should fly to Chicago, and that the Devil Rays should fly up to New York in the first week in April, but it wasn't very smart, as games in that series were also postponed/cancelled due to the cold weather. Here's to a warmer Week 2 of the 2007 season, mostly so I don't have to see people in Bengals jackets and stocking hats at the GAB.

AND THIS JUST IN!!!
The aforementioned Angels/Indians series has been moved to Miller Park! Yay AL baseball returns to Milwaukee (they should still make the pitchers hit though). This is certainly an unprecedented event, and certainly was the idea of Bud Selig, who has former ties with the Brewers organization. I wish I was back home purchase my $10 GA ticket to watch this series, but I will certainly be calling everyone I know back home very shortly.