Rain Rain Go Away

Some things get better as weather takes a turn for the extreme. Football in blizzard conditions has become romanticized as the ideal conditions for play. Soccer in a downpour has a sort of dramatic quality to it.  Golf in hurricane winds is a trademark of the British Open.  

Baseball in the rain, on the other hand, is just plain and simple NO GOOD. 

The 6th inning of  rain-suspended Game 5  provided a nice snapshot of why baseball and rain just don't mix. Talented players doing what they do best ought to be a thing of beauty. In the top of the 6th, Cole Hamels was really dealing for the Phillies. One of the games most exciting and talented young left-handed pitchers and the eventual World Series MVP in near top form. At the plate was Carlos Pena, slugging first baseman for the upstart Rays. On first base, the fleet-footed uber-phenom BJ Upton who, when running, glides like the trade winds across the Hawaiian Islands. 

With rain pouring down, Upton darted through 90 feet of brown muck to steal 2nd base.  A couple of pitches later, Pena reached down and lined a Hamels breaking ball into leftfield. Upton tip-toed his way around third and made his way home with the tying run. Somehow, he made a tight turn around third without ending up on his duff on the slippery, rain-soaked grass between third and home. The game was tied. And soon thereafter, it was suspended.

In the aftermath of the abomination that was the 6 rain-drenched innings of the initial effort at Game 5, national sportswriters have sounded off on the insanity of attempting to play in monsoon conditions. Woody Paige wrote a piece calling for the World Series to be played every year in Hawaii in order to ensure temperate weather conditions late in the month of october. Its an interesting argument. Football plays its title game every year in a domed or warm-weather neutral site. (This coming despite the fact that we all swoon (and rightfully so!) over January games played on the frozen tundra, yada yada yada) Why not the World Series?

The argument has some obvious advantages:

1-- A seven game series would end the need for off days, or at least the need for multiple off days. We could start on a wednesday and play every day until the following tuesday if needed.

2-- The weather would be ideal. Granted, During October and November, rain does fall, sometimes for long stretches of time in Hawaii. BUT, we have an almost iron-clad guarantee of 80-85 degree temperatures. 

3-- A return to day baseball. In order for the game to go on the air on the east coast at 8:00EST, the first pitch would need to be thrown at 2:00HST. That means all future World Series games would be played (if not viewed) in sunlight. 

4-- It could compensate Hawaii (and maybe even receive a warm welcome from local officials) in case the NFL ever makes good on its threats to move the annual Pro Bowl away from the Aloha State.

The cons:

1-- Hawaii is ill-equipped to house the game, at present. Aloha Stadium is falling apart and would be unfit for baseball. Unless major league baseball is willing to play the games at Les Murakami Stadium at the University of Hawaii (Capacity: 4,312), a new baseball palace would need to be built that would only be used for 7 games a year.  The State of Hawaii is not going to be overly thrilled with building and maintaining a baseball-only stadium.

2-- Baseball, unlike every other major team sport, allows for variations in the shape and size of playing fields. Each park is different in a way which does effect the outcome of games. Theres the Green Monster in Boston, the hill in centerfied in Houston, and the vast outfield in San Diego.  To take that away from the World Series would be pretty artificial.

3-- We would say a sad "aloha" to the possibility of a team winning a championship in their home town. No more fans pouring out of the park into the streets to celebrate a championship. 

I'm torn. It would make a lot of sense to take the weather factor totally out of the equation. Fans at the game sure wouldn't mind. And, if we're trying to promote the game in Asia, Honolulu is pretty much the closest thing we've got to an Asian city in the United States. But, we'd be closing the book on the way we've done things for more than 100 years in the grand old game and depriving ourselves of seeing history take place at parks with which we have a fair degree of intimacy. 

I'm not going to picket MLB offices calling for the immediate relocation of the World Series to Hawaii. But, should Comissioner Selig announce that the World Series is moving to Hawaii, i think I would be on board with the idea. In fact, I may even do my best Rodney Dangerfield and announce "hey everybody, we're all gonna get lei'd!"