I didn’t think I would open with a hurricane named Hilary. Stop your snickering right now, my politically savvy friends. While she may have made an appearance on television with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on the night former President Donald J. Trump was indicted by a Georgia grand jury related to the 2020 elections, that is not the Hilary I am referring to.
Nope, this is a real nasty Pacific hurricane, one that will certainly ratchet up to a Category 4 storm, and it may even reach Cat 5 strength before landfall somewhere between the Baja Peninsula and the Southern California coast. If it makes landfall in the United States, this will be the first time that a storm of this magnitude will affect Southern California since 1939.
While the storm will weaken as it gets nearer to the colder Pacific water off the Southern California coast, the impact of the storm has prompted the National Weather Service to take the unheard of step of issuing a Tropical Storm watch for the area. It is projected that, in addition to wind, copious amounts of rain will drench California, Arizona and Nevada, where the states will be ill-equipped to handle the runoff. Having been on the freeways of Orange County in the rain, Southern Californians are not good wet weather drivers.
Having stated all of this, and in spite my being a bit of a weather geek, I know that I am writing a sports blog. While the weather on the East Coast will finally be nice and without humidity this weekend, there are a number of games to be played out West which will be impacted by the approaching storm.
Hurricane Hilary picked a jackpot weekend for it to hit Southern California. It is rare enough to have a tropical cyclone strike the West Coast. Just like it is rare that the three SoCal baseball teams will be home this weekend. Plus the Chargers have a Sunday night exhibition game with the Saints at SoFi Stadium, which may be covered overhead, but has its sides open for ventilation.
I am certain that the National Football League is carefully monitoring the situation—probably as much and Dr. Greg Postel, Mike Seidel and Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel already are. Undoubtedly, Major League Baseball and the Padres, Angels and Dodgers organizations are on top of the weather forecasts.
At least the Saints and Chargers engaged in joint practices this week in Costa Mesa. If the pre-season game needs to be canceled, there was some meaningful work conducted with an opponent.
I believe that the storm will reach San Diego first, by Saturday night. Anaheim currently has a 50% chance of rain for Saturday night. Los Angeles should escape the rain on Saturday night.
What makes the baseball games more important is that there is a pennant race and a chase for the Wild Card spots. The Dodgers are streaking while it is more of a long shot for the Padres and/or Angels to reach the post-season.
Moreover, the teams that the Angels and Dodgers are playing are the Rays and Marlins. Isn’t that highly ironic that the two Florida teams, residing in a state synonymous with tropical weather, will be impacted by that exact phenomenon on the West Coast. And Tampa Bay is chasing the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East, while Florida is deep in the NL Wild Card hunt.
I don’t know how this will all play out. Grounds crews normally have difficulty in terrible conditions. The number of home rainouts for the Padres since the franchise began play in 1969 is 18, with 3 at Petco Park, the last in 2017 versus the Dodgers. (Another irony?)
We must not forget that in 1990 at Jack Murphy Stadium, the Padres’ previous home, on that infrequent occasion when the ground crew went to roll out the tarp, they encountered a family of skunks which had migrated from the nearby San Diego River to a location which was almost never touched. Of course, there is always the danger of the tarp consuming a grounds crew member like it did in Cincinnati in July.
That is a location where rain is more prevalent. One would have expected that they practice and have experience with unrolling the tarp in a rainstorm. I dare say that the amount of knowledge about rain in San Diego is far less, allowing for greater danger to the crew.
There may have to be some creative scheduling to avoid the rain or to make up any games. San Diego plays the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend. Arizona is home on Monday night against Texas, but how the weather impacts the Phoenix area is uncertain.
Then the Padres host the Marlins beginning on Monday, depending on what happens and how the team can get down to San Diego. The Dodgers leave the area for a series in Cleveland starting on Tuesday. The Angels open a set with the Reds on Monday. The home teams may be further impacted by the weather into next week.
Whatever happens, expect a nightmare for games, travel and for the fans, with anticipated mudslides and other natural disasters occurring. My mind is so deviant that I even thought what if an earthquake took place in the midst of the stormy weather? I truly hope not.
Who knew this could be a reality in beautiful Southern California. I am not going to blame global warming for this occurrence. It is certainly an El Niño year with a warmer-than-average surface water temperature and reduced trade winds fueling significant Pacific weather events like this hurricane and the one partly responsible for the damage in Maui.
Domed stadiums can leak—that happened in New Orleans. SoFi Stadium had rain coming inside during the recent College Football Playoff National Championship. Plus games in Houston have been postponed when the rainfall outside of the stadium created a dangerous situation. Besides, the weather in Southern California does not warrant a dome for almost every season.
Maybe the ominous forecasts will be for naught. Perhaps all of the games can be moved up so that they can be played without the havoc that the storm could wreak. That would be a best case scenario. Squeezing in make up games this late in the season with the attendant travel will not be easy.
Normally, the on air personalities at The Weather Channel would be having a segment named “Eye on the Tropics.” Instead, their eyes will be focused on the Mexican and Southern California coasts as well as significantly inland.
Who would have thought that? Shouldn’t the baseball world be watching the Red Sox and Yankees battle for three games in the Bronx?
The greatest rivalry in baseball. A packed Yankee Stadium, with rabid fans screaming their lungs out with choice obscenities, while cheering loudly for the home team. Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole taking on the hated Bostonians, with Rafael Devers hitting and Chris Sale on the mound. History in the making once more. Does it get any better than this?
Not this weather person. Tropical weather trumps bad baseball.
No comments:
Post a Comment