Finally I have gotten around to posting an update on the worst tradition of baseball, the rainout. In basketball and hockey, you know that roof above you will protect you. In football and soccer, you know they will play through it (at least once the lightning clears). In baseball, you might not get what you came to see. That is why we have the rain check, getting free admission to another game that hopefully will be played. But until we have full cost of attendance rain checks that cover the cost of traveling to a canceled or postponed game, rainouts will always be bad and a plague upon this sport. A Minor League Baseball team has 70 home games a year. If you have more than 7 rainouts a year, that's too many. If you have 15 or more rainouts, you have some serious issues, either with the protection of the field or the climate itself. If that is the case, maybe you need to build the first dome for MiLB.
So it's time to take a look at the number of rainouts in the SAL so far with a week and a half left in the first half. When I have time I will try to look at other leagues for a comparison as well.
A summary of the rules for a rainout: less than five official innings have to be played for a rainout. If your power goes out and costs Tyler Badamo of an official win, that counts too (looking at you, Greenville). If a game is suspended, it counts as a rainout (Charleston's lone rainout comes this way). The exception is if 5+ innings were played before the game was called and resumed, as was the case for an Asheville game against Hagerstown in April.
1. Lexington 5
T2. West Virginia 4
T2. Delmarva 4
T4. Greensboro 3
T4. Hagerstown 3
T6. Greenville 2
T6. Augusta 2
T6. Rome 2
T6. Lakewood 2
T10. Charleston 1
T10. Kannapolis 1
T10. Asheville 1
T13. Columbia 0
T13. Hickory 0
The Fireflies have no home rainouts! Given Columbia's climate, this will change by the end of the season barring a huge miracle. It would be a minor miracle if we finish with no rainouts in the first half which could happen if the weather holds up for the conclusion of the series against Rome. But now that I say that, we probably will get unlucky now.
Actually the whole league has in general been pretty lucky. So far it has been mostly the northern teams in the league in hilly or coastal areas that have had an issue with spring rain. Southern inland swamps like Columbia are just now hitting their rainiest part of the year. Hopefully the rain will stay away, or at least problems can be kept to a minimum as we hit the worst of summer.
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