With the ongoing saga that was the Cubs–Giants game finally ending Thursday evening before the regular game got going at 8 PM, have you wondered where it ranks among the longest rain delays in MLB history?
For a bit of a refresher, that Cubs-Giants game started Tuesday night at its regularly scheduled time. Anthony Rizzo hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 1st inning and then the rain came between innings in the 5th, and it was then in a delay. The tarp malfunctioned, water went through it and onto the field, and finally at 1:16 AM, after the grounds crew tried and tried to get the field playable, and after some faithful fans waited through what was at that time a 4.5 hour delay, the game was called.
After the Giants protest was upheld, the first of such since 1986, the Cubs and Giants resumed play Thursday. Of course this was after another rain delay of about 2 hours. So the Cubs and Giants finally began play at 6 PM CT and the Cubs won, 2-1.
Now take a look at the longest rain delays in MLB history:
7 hours, 23 minutes, Aug. 12, 1990, Chicago
Hosting the Rangers, the White Sox waited that long before finally postponing a Sunday afternoon game without a pitch being thrown. Roughly 500 fans remained in the stands when the game was finally called off at 8:58 pm. Said White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, “The weather man kept saying it’d stop.”
6 hours, 31 minutes, Aug. 19, 2014, Chicago
Well…we kind of witnessed history folks. (To be clear, this was the time included from Tuesday and Thursday’s delay combined).
5 hours, 54 minutes, July 2, 1993, Philadelphia
5 hours, 45 minutes, Oct. 3, 1999, Milwaukee
5 hours, 32 minutes, May 30, 2013, St. Louis
5 hours, 26 minutes, June 18, 2009, New York
So as you can see, Chicago owns the two longest rain delays to date. Interesting.