Rate Field, Chicago (MLB #20 -- How rain delays are like baseball games themselves)
Like baseball games themselves, every rain delay is different in sometimes subtle, but usually interesting, ways. For this game, we spent close to a full eight-hour work day at the stadium to see a nine-inning game. That sounds like it could be horrific, but we had a good evening. Or maybe I should say shift. We got to the stadium at about 5:15, shortly after the gates opened for the scheduled 6:40 opening pitch. About 15 minutes before the scheduled first pitch, the grounds crew covered the field with the tarp (they were more adept, hence less entertaining, than the crew at the AAA game at Memphis ). Soon it started raining, hard. At about 8:45 or 9, more than two hours after the scheduled first pitch, the rain stopped, the tarp was removed, and they announced that first pitch would be at 9:40, exactly three hours after it was originally scheduled. At that point, our two guests for the evening, Brianna and Joe, decided to leave, since Joe had to be...