Sox-nagains At Work?

Funny, on Tuesday, I thought that this was not the first time in the past few years that the Red Sox have hosed their fans in a rain situation – making them come to the park and then sit in the rain when they knew there was no chance for a game. But, then again, I’m a Yankees fan. So, I’m biased, right?

Now, CBS’ Rob Gill in Boston has the same thought:

On the CBS4 News at 6:16 AM Tuesday morning, Barry Burbank offered this pretty solid prediction: “I really doubt they will get that game in tonight at Fenway… It looks like a rainout.”

Six hours later, according to CBS4’s aforementioned Chief Meteorologist Ken Barlow, Fenway Park had already received about one inch of rain with, as he put it, “no end in sight.” That fact could easily be deduced by glancing at a radar reading, which the Sox have at their disposal and use as a reference for rainout decision-making.

The time-elapsed First Alert Doppler radar showed what, as a layman, I could only describe as a giant green blob that set up camp over eastern Massachusetts and hovered all afternoon. The green blob was, of course, a wall of rain that soaked Boston as predicted by local meteorologists up and down the TV and radio dials.

Still the Red Sox delayed announcing the inevitable rainout until 7:40 PM. That came after they established a one-hour delay of the 7:05 start time during the lightest rain of the day. In their never-ending generosity, they ended the madness a mere thirty-five minutes into the delay.

A source with the Red Sox confirmed that the team “knew at three o’clock there wasn’t going to be a game.”

Sox team officials uncharacteristically avoided cameras and microphones on Tuesday rather than attempt to justify their course of action. However, on NESN’s pre-game show, Chairman Tom Werner echoed a theme presented in conversations with team personnel earlier in the day. Specifically, Werner indicated that the Sox recognize that fans travel long distances to attend their games, and on those fans’ behalf the team didn’t want to cancel the game prematurely. What he and the rest of the organization somehow fail to grasp is that they could have made a truly magnanimous gesture to such fans by postponing the game long before they ever had to get in their cars. Now they get to do it twice.

Gee, could the fact that it was a get-away day for the Yankees have anything to do with this call? After all, why call the game at three o’clock and let the Yankees get on their way, and be rested, for Tampa?

Related, am I the only one who noticed that during Monday’s game, the Yankees dugout phone to the bullpen went dead in the first inning just as New York’s starting pitcher (Wang) was having issues on the mound? Co-winky-dink? Ya think?

Lucchino & Epstein would never do something like that, right?