Class A Rainout Watch

It's now time to check again in with baseball's worst tradition, the rainout. Here is a look through the July 8 games, where two rainouts occurred in the SAL. I have now for comparison added the Midwest League, so all 30 "Low" or really Middle Class A teams are shown. For how this works, here is my last Rainout Watch entry.

1. Lexington            6
T2. Beloit                5
T2. Bowling Green 5
T2. Delmarva          5
T5. Clinton              4
T5. Greensboro       4
T5. Hagerstown       4
T5. West Virginia    4
T9. Asheville           3
T9. Dayton              3
T9. Kannapolis        3
T9. Lakewood         3
T9. Quad Cities       3
T9. West Michigan  3
T15. Augusta           2
T15. Burlington       2
T15. Cedar Rapids   2
T15. Charleston       2
T15. Fort Wayne      2
T15. Greenville        2
T15. Lansing            2
T15. Rome               2
T15. Wisconsin        2
T24. Great Lakes     1
T24. Kane County   1
T24. Lake County    1
T27. Columbia         0
T27. Hickory            0
T27. Peoria               0
T27. South Bend      0

Poor Kentucky. Lexington leads the South Atlantic League in not playing baseball, while Bowling Green is tied for the Midwest League lead. It's probably a matter of timing with the rains that have cut across the south central U.S. and headed to the mountains in West Virginia.

On the other end, we still have no rainouts! Only three other teams our level have no rainouts, with Hickory the only SAL team. The Crawdads are very close to having one, with a rain delay to start in a game against the Fireflies a couple weeks ago and then having the game suspended after the 5th inning. But as long as the game is suspended after the 5th inning, then it's good. I really doubt that we (or Hickory for that matter) will finish with zero rainouts. The forecast for this upcoming home stand looks a bit iffy, so we'll see. If the Fireflies win the Class A title of fewest rainouts, that to me would make up for the subpar play of late on the field and the middling attendance numbers. In fact since the team's goal is related to total attendance (and not per game) then having few rainouts would be a big boost. But given our climate, that's extremely unlikely.

In general, climate hurts the SAL. The Midwest League had more of their weather cancellations early in the spring, while the "Sally" has had some throughout including two this past evening in Greensboro and Lakewood. The Atlantic gets a lot of rain, especially in the South part of it. Going by the northern climate schedule has hurt pro baseball's growth in the South IMO, similar to how the early spring/late winter climate has hurt the growth of college baseball in the North.

Need to include the High A teams at some point, as I would love to see how many more rainouts the Florida State League has over everyone and how few the California League has against everyone.