The Game That Wasn't

The weather report said light rain from 10-11 AM, and thunderstorms starting after 3. With Roy Oswalt on the mound, I felt pretty confident that we might be able to squeeze in most, if not all, of a game before getting drenched and fried. Alas, it was not to be. By the 1 PM start time, it was sprinkling and the infield was tarped. Shortly after, the stadium lights went on.  The standing room only crowd that had come to see the Mets was getting restless.

 

Oddly, the Powers That Be decided to start the game just as it started to really rain. Who needs a spitball, when you can throw a snowball? Oswalt gave up a leadoff hit; then struck out the side. In the bottom of the inning, the Astros scored a run, And then it really started to pour and they put back the tarp. A little before 3 they sent us all packing.

I don't have any game pictures today, because I wasn't willing to get my camera all wet just to get my 500th picture of Oswalt on the mound. But I did manage to get a few Fans of the Game pix before the deluge. My special fans are Tracy and Austin from Odessa, Texas. Austin writes an Astros fan blog called The Bottom Line (check it out), and we've chatted online  in blog comments and Twitter, but we'd never met before Spring Training this year. Here they are at the game that never happened:

Next is a real Fan in Exile - Matthew from Queens who was brave enough to come to the game and cheer against the Mets. He's originally from Houston, and still cheers for his hometown team. We met when he tried to decode the writing on my Astros hat - the one with ASTROS written in Hebrew, which I always wear for Spring Training. 

The next Fan of the Game is Elizabeth, who has been working as an usher at the Spring Training games for the past 5 years. Sounds like a dream job to me, even if you have to tell people to go sit down for hours on end. She told us that she'd be glad to be on my website, and that we can't open umbrellas in the stands. (We didn't have one anyway, and we got soaked to the skin.) 

My final Fan of the Game comes from a bit further away. CJ from Hanover, Germany, is a general sports fan and enjoys baseball (which is not a sport that's played in Germany). Since he agreed to cheer for the Astros at this game, I'm giving him an honoray Fan of the Game slot.

Unfortunately, all of us were disappointed today, due to the rain. A Spring Training day without baseball is like, well, a day without baseball. The only bright side today was that the Astros did win their split squad game against Boston. Bud Norris, who was scratched yesterday due to illness, was the starting pitcher, but did not make it far in the game. He got hammered. Happily the Astros did some damage of their own, including homers by Matsui and Johnson, and came out on top, 10-7.

Only one more day of vacation. It's impossible that the week could have gone by so quickly!