100 Years Ago, Rain Held Up The World Series … For A Week

From SABR member Al Yellon at Baseball Nation on October 27, 2011:

Game 6 of the 2011 World Series was delayed by one day due to rain which arrived, though not heavily, in the St. Louis area early Wednesday evening. It’s a minor inconvenience for the players; some fans might have to change plans to attend, but all in all, it’s a bump in the road and Thursday night, either the Rangers will become World Series champions, or the teams will play on Friday.

There have been other recent postponements due to rain; in fact, St. Louis was also the site of the most recent Series rainout before this one: Game 4 of the 2006 World Series. Before that, the decisive Game 7 of the 1986 World Series in New York was pushed back a day, and the famous Carlton Fisk home run in Game 6 in 1975 took place only after that game had been delayed three days by rain in Boston.

And a century ago, when the New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics — the Yankees and Phillies of their day — met in the World Series, they waited a very long time to play Game 4. On Oct. 18, 1911, with the Athletics leading the Series two games to one, it started to rain in Philadelphia.

No sweat, right? There was one small problem. Unlike the ballparks of today, most stadiums in those days didn’t have full-field tarps; those didn’t come into common use until the 1920s.

Read the full article here: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/10/27/2517516/world-series-rain-delay-postponement-100-years-ago/in/2259892



Originally published: October 27, 2011. Last Updated: October 27, 2011.