Idiots Write About Sports

One of the nice side effects of being a California-based baseball fan is that in two-plus decades of attending ballgames I’ve only had two contests affected by inclement weather. The A’s-Orioles game I saw at Camden Yards last year was delayed by about an hour due to rain. And waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1992, I went to a Cubs-Padres game at Jack Murphy Stadium in which a persistent mist fell leading up to the game, giving us a chance to nearly experience that rarest of occasions — a San Diego rainout.

If Bill Shaikin’s game notes are to be believed, I’m about to make it three games:

Showers are in the forecast for Anaheim today. The Angels last had a home game rained out on June 16, 1995 — three days after Garret Anderson hit his first major league home run.

Not exactly the circumstances I’d like my first in-person this-time-it-counts game of 2005 to be played under, but what are you going to do? At least, sitting out in the rain, I’ll be spared the dulcet tones of Rex Hudler.

So if you find yourself in Section 508 tonight, stop on by. I’ll be the portly gent in the A’s cap making sour faces at Eric Byrnes.

One prediction for tonight’s game: if Frankie Rodriguez comes in to pitch the ninth with runners on scoring position, I’m going to wager that he opts for the slider instead of the fastball tonight. Right, Scott Hatteberg?

Hatteberg was stunned not to see Rodriguez’s sensational slider in that at-bat, but guessed that Rodriguez was hesitant after bouncing two other sliders in the inning, one of which advanced both runners into scoring position.

“He’s got as good a breaking ball as there is in baseball with runners in scoring position, I just didn’t get (a slider),” Hatteberg said. “I just reacted on the fastball. I was really surprised.”

You and about 43,000 Angels fans, Picking Machine.

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