THEY’RE GIVING AWAY FREE HOT DOGS!!!

July 8, 2017 4:50 PM

A night/morning at the ballpark A 1st person account of a Nationals game that went into the wee hours of the morning thanks to a long rain delay.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero (22 comments total)

That's not far off from "we got locked in the ballpark by mistake after they closed so we got to RUN AROUND THE BASES ALL WE WANTED," and in many ways it's even better.
posted by chrominance at 5:23 PM on July 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

More of a cloud delay really, and not all that many clouds either.
posted by mattamatic at 5:26 PM on July 8, 2017

I know I'm way too close to this, but I really have a lot of difficulty wringing enjoyment from the way the Nationals repeatedly screw over their fan base. This isn't the first time THIS YEAR that the Nats have postponed a game for hours with nary a speck of rain to be seen and I'm still really upset that a post season game was postponed last year in the same manner (they let us into the stadium, delayed the game, sold us beer and food and said there's no re-admittance and then postponed the game to 1pm on a weekday after hours of no rain. No refunds. No free ice cream). Yeah, if you show up late and don't pay for anything it's a hoot, but if you are an actual fan who tries to go to games regularly it's painful being charged outrageous amounts from a team that steals money from the city, derides the fan base for not being excited enough and then repeatedly treats attendees like trash.
posted by cyphill at 5:37 PM on July 8, 2017 [14 favorites]

I think the author makes that point pretty solidly -- he doesn't really give the team much credit for the fun and weirdness that ensued after the game finally started, but the fans that he talked to and sat with and he both starts with and circles back to the idea that the Nats owe the original ticket holders something much better than what they got.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:53 PM on July 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

The Cubs cancelled a game earlier this year for rain on a day it didn't end up raining. The Brewers paid them back by shellac'ng them in the make up game.
posted by drezdn at 6:26 PM on July 8, 2017

I see Trump finally nominated his Secretary of Deciding When Games are Delayed.

I was reading a post from a guy on Reddit who took his kid, his kid's friend and their family -- most of whom had never been to a game before. He spent $hundreds and had to leave before the game started because a 10 PM start time is not compatible with kids. Needless to say, he was pissed. Were I a Nats fan behavior like this would have me switching out my gear for Orioles gear.
posted by dirigibleman at 6:42 PM on July 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

I have heard of these no rain rainouts more and more recently. The Twins here in Minneapolis have a weather guy in the stadium. I would always think, there's no way they fit that game in between this rain, but more often than not they do. I'm always surprised.

I'm more surprised other stadiums don't give a weather guy some money on iffy days like this. That's a lot of money lost and fans pissed off. And thus more money lost.
posted by sanka at 6:51 PM on July 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Braves broadcasters were not at all impressed with the Nats approach to game management.
posted by Dr. Grue at 7:08 PM on July 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

And judging by today's 13-0 Braves win, the baseball gods weren't either.
posted by Dr. Grue at 7:15 PM on July 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

What I don't understand is why they made the call they did. That's the part that's most incomprehensible to me given the weather and the time and everything else going on.
posted by Carillon at 8:11 PM on July 8, 2017

My question is....with Metro closing so early now how did anyone get home?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 8:25 PM on July 8, 2017

I would just like to preemptively defend Dan Steinberg and the harried corps of Washington Post copy editors regarding this:

We were all in it together, which is just one of the many ways this reminded me of 2009 or 2010, the Natinals era.

For the unfamiliar, the 2009 season had many issues.
posted by pykrete jungle at 8:47 PM on July 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can't say I've ever spent twelve hours at a game due to rain delay, but I did attend the longest M's game in many years in 2012, 18 innings and well into the next day. Things got silly. IIRC, the M's head office people were there with the commissioner, none of whom left. The diminishing crowd migrated closer and closer to their field-adjacent homeplate seats. As the night wore on the crowd was more boisterous, less prosperous, and ever-more loudly angry at increasing ticket prices, the Mariners' seemingly-fated lack of World Series appearances, and so forth. Smart phones enabled the crowd to razz individual bigwigs by name, which was mostly given and received in a spirit of apparent goodwill. It was very, very interesting.
posted by mwhybark at 9:51 PM on July 8, 2017

The Post's Capital Weather Gang did a summary story about the rain day Why did the Nationals delay last night’s game? Beats us — but here’s an attempt to explain it. I had seen their tweets the night of the game as they were confused why the game hadn't started on time. Their article is slightly illuminating, maybe?
posted by skynxnex at 9:54 PM on July 8, 2017

MetaFilter: I can’t speak for everyone who changed out of their pajamas
posted by Splunge at 10:20 PM on July 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is this a [string >0] that [item] should [variable] B4 I [variable_n$]
posted by Splunge at 10:24 PM on July 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pfft back in Montreal you just had to keep an eye out for falling concrete.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:18 AM on July 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

At the old Candlestick Park they gave out survivors' pins if a night game went into extra innings.
posted by chavenet at 4:13 AM on July 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

What I don't understand is why they made the call they did. That's the part that's most incomprehensible to me given the weather and the time and everything else going on.

They were worried rain would show up relatively early in the game and they'd have to rely on their historically awful relievers for a big chunk of the game.
posted by dirigibleman at 6:45 AM on July 9, 2017

I've watched rainy games at PNC Park and they keep playing until it's a total downpour, they don't stop on the threat of rain. The park has a vacuum assisted drainage system under the playing field so that they can clear the water off quickly, doesn't the National's field have that?
posted by octothorpe at 9:00 AM on July 9, 2017

it's painful being charged outrageous amounts from a team that steals money from the city, derides the fan base for not being excited enough and then repeatedly treats attendees like trash.

Glad to see some things survived the transition from Montreal.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 3:55 PM on July 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's just ANOTHER case of corporate sports forgetting they are nothing without the fans.
posted by Samizdata at 2:06 AM on July 10, 2017