When a Rain Delay is Good

The St. Louis Cardinals were rained out last night and that’s a good thing.
April 16, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jake Westbrook (35) delivers a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at PNC Park. Image Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Until the rain delay started, Jake Westbrook was not only going to get the loss but he was going to give up his first earned run of the season.

At the time that the rain hit and the game went into a rain delay, the Pittsburgh Pirates held a 4-2 through two innings of play. The only positive to be soon from postponing the game was that Westbrook’s ERA is a perfect zero and he never gave up those runs.

However, Westbrook has the same problem with the Pirates that Homer Bailey has with the Cardinals. With 5 career starts at PNC park, Westbrook owns an 0-5 record with a 5.86 ERA. This includes four other appearances. However, in 13 games overall against the Pirates, he only has one win.

Now, for the negatives to the postponement. Outfielder Shane Robinson is still waiting for his first start of the 2013 season. Both Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina dropped an RBI from their season statistics.

Rain Delay Theater did give us some great entertainment. They played an interview with Cardinals broadcaster John Rooney and former Cardinal player Bob Uecker, who went on to become the Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster and the 2013 recipient of the prestigious Ford Frick Award. There’s something to be said about the city of St. Louis and Ford Frick Awards. Also, Spink Awards, too.

Later on during Rain Delay Theater when John Rooney and Rick Horton temporarily signed off from Pittsburgh to turn things over to Kevin Wheeler of KMOX Sports, KMOX went deep into the archives to 1962 and played a three part interview with former Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck and Jackie Robinson. Unfortunately, KMOX is unable to upload the interview onto the website but for those of us that were able to listen in, it was a great one.

It wasn’t just a reminder of what kind of person that Robinson was but just how great of a broadcaster that Buck was.

Following the Robinson interview, they were going to play an interview with Buck and the late comedy legend Jonathan Winters but word came from Pittsburgh that they game was officially postponed.