When you’re looking out a window of a press box at a baseball game, it’s difficult to tell if it’s raining. So here are two tricks I’ve learned (through arduous research) to see whether precipitation is actually occurring:
1) Check in the lights of the stadium. If you can see water falling, it’s raining.
2) Check the tarp. If you can see water dropping onto it, it’s raining.
Right now, it’s too light outside to be able to tell by looking at the lights, but a quick check of the tarp tells me that it’s lightly sprinkling. It’s 6:27, so I’d put the odds of this game starting as scheduled at 7:05 at 705-1.
Dustan Mohr returned to the Wingnuts today, five days after undergoing surgery on his thyroid and a week after being put on the 7-day disabled list. He won’t be activated today, but that will probably happen soon. D-Mo got a little more than he bargained for medically — a fact I can’t discuss yet but hope to write about in Sunday’s notes column.
Wichita’s pitching staff is really hurting right now — literally. Setup man Amad Stephens left yesterday’s game with a right elbow injury and could be on the shelf for a while. Yesterday’s starter, the debuting Asher Demme, didn’t make it out of the first inning and the Wingnuts had to empty the bullpen, which was already overworked.
Stephens, who has been dealing with elbow tendonitis for a while, apparently told manager Kash Beauchamp he was good for an inning on Sunday, but he threw just nine pitches before exiting. He worked 2 1/3 innings on Saturday and pitched Friday, too. Maybe he shouldn’t have been in there, but the Wingnuts really didn’t have much of a choice. It’s not like they can call somebody up from Double-A to give the pitching staff a little help. They’re going with what they have.
Leonard Landeros is missing tonight’s start with an injured groin. David Cross gets the spot start. We’ll see if he can find a way to get Walter Young out. Young, a former big leaguer and a guy who had a 33-homer season in Double-A a few years ago, has nine RBIs in his first two games with Sioux City. Seven came yesterday against the Wingnuts.
A funny moment yesterday came after Sioux City manager Les Lancaster was ejected. He argued for a little while, covered up home plate with dirt and then looked over to Beauchamp and asked, “Was that good enough?” Beauchamp, who gained notoriety with his own meltdown a couple weeks ago, gave Lancaster a thumbs up and said “It wasn’t good enough for ESPN though.” I told Kash I almost ran video on my cell phone and posted it on Youtube to take a little heat off him. Funny stuff.
The tarp is off and it’s 6:40. Maybe we’ll start this game on-time after all. If so, I just lost 705 bucks.
UPDATE: First pitch happened at 7:11. Gimme my money!