Baseball History: rain and snow

[Soulkeeper]

In the early days of major league baseball did they play through rain, snow, hail, etc. ?

 

[Soulkeeper]

Does anyone here respect baseball less or more because they don't play through the elements like football ?

any comments ?

 

[Lonyo]

I don't think people respect baseball.

 

[dfuze]

They do play though the rain, at least until I think it starts pooling on the field anyway. Not sure about the other conditions as the time of the year they play doesn't usually have those conditions.

 

[Perknose]

In the early days of major league baseball did they play through rain, snow, hail, etc. ?

Only the US Postal team plays through all three. It's their motto.

Oh, and the old Chicago Wet Sox did until they changed their name to a more racist one.

 

[raystorm]

I remember seeing a game played during a snow storm and the game was eventually called because no one on the field could see the ball in the air when it was hit. lol I think the Yanks were part of that. Not sure though

 

[SludgeFactory]

Football can be played with brute force, you can change your gameplan and get away from the more skilled plays, as long as you're slipping and sliding in the right direction (and hang onto the football), you're doing OK.

Baseball is a skills game, weather dramatically affects those skills. It can quickly degenerate into a farce if the errors start piling up. There's also that pesky problem of facing serious injury or death if you can't visually track a pitched ball in heavy rain or snow.

Playing football in the rain is fun. Playing baseball in the rain sucks.

 

[Lithium381]

baseball players are bigger pansies than soccer players

 

[SP33Demon]

They play in rain and snow (see the 2008 Phillies clinching game in the World Series) but will stop play if it gets too bad. This is for a bunch of reasons: a wet ball weighs a lot more which dramatically changes the game (mainly pitching speed/movement), a muddy field will make the ball impossible to field, a muddy field also causes players' cleats to stick which can result in serious injury when they have to stop at a base from a full sprint, hydroplaning on the outfield makes it impossible to cover that much ground to get to a ball, pitcher's control and speed are dramatically altered by cleats sticking in mud, hitting a fastball with no visibility is incredibly hard, so on and so forth. Just makes it impossible to play the game like it should be played so they wait for the rain to stop. Some modern stadiums will opt for a retractable roof because rain does affect income (ticket sales and concession money lost because people don't want to sit in inclement weather).

 

[SP33Demon]

baseball players are bigger pansies than soccer players

Soccer players don't play 162 games, baseball is arguably the hardest sport to stay mentally focused because the season is such a grind. There's a reason why they're the highest paid athletes in the world and the most watched spectator sport (cumulative attendance per season) in the world.