Cubs/Astros Series and Hurricane Ike

[wibadgers23]

Hurricane Ike could really disrupt the Cubs/Astros series.

 

Ryan Theriot doesn't even want to go and Derrek Lee wants to play at a neutral site. It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend in Houston. Hopefully everybody stays safe though.

[PeaveyFury]

The Rangers are in Oakland this weekend, so it would seem to make a ton of sense to move the games to Arlington.

[lcbj68c]

Move up Friday's game, and play a doubleheader on the off day on Monday.

[jeffy]

It's expected to "only" be category 3 and Houston is not right on the coast. I think it'll end up being much ado about very little.

[craigharmann]

It's just a bit of wind and rain.....Ryan Theriot grew up in Louisiana, didn't he? He's scared of hurricanes? Wimp.

[bball123h]

Minute maid park is ~20 miles inland from Galveston Bay. If the storm heads west across the bay, it could be somewhat ugly. Best wishes to everyone down there, stay safe!

[craigharmann]

It's not going to be pretty, at the rate this is going. As much as I'd like the games to be played, I'm all for safety first. Even here in SA, we're supposed to get 50+ MPH winds and 2-4 inches of rain. Harris County (Houston) is going to get hit hard, and keep praying that the seawall holds up in Galveston! It's 17 feet, and the storm surge is predicted to be 20 feet.

[lcbj68c]

It's expected to "only" be category 3 and Houston is not right on the coast. I think it'll end up being much ado about very little.

I'm not calling you out, but the second sentence is totally incorrect.

 

Cause: The traffic volume in and around the city will be severly increased, due to people & vehicles moving inland towards Houston.

Effect: Getting umpires, players, coaches, clubhouse staff, parking attendents, concession employees, cleaning employees to the stadium will be extremely comprimised.

 

Cause: The devotion of resources, the availabilty military personnel, police personnel, and medical personnel will be stretched thin

Effect: Minute Maid Park hires local law enforcement, nurses, first aid staff, ambulances, and doctors for fans, players, umpires, coaches for things that happen during the game. The numbers available will be extremely limited because I'd like to think that a natural disaster takes precedent over a three hour baseball game.

 

Cause: Power outages and flooded streets make going anywhere a beast.

Effect: Again, it's more than just three hours of baseball, it's making it to the stadium from the hotel and back again, repeat 3 times.

 

There are more examples of why this isn't much to do about nothing. In fact, it's the grand scheme of concerns rather than a 3 hour baseball game that makes it important to be cautious. Perhaps you've never been in a Cat 3 hurricane, but a simple tropical storm can do enough damage to render a city's emergency response pretty inoperable. As a former law enforcement officer in Florida who had to mobilize and plan many a times for hurricane season and went through a few myself, I'm glad they are taking the "cautious approach" rather than the many time seen approach of "Oh, it's just a baby hurricane, lets go to "X" or lets go see "Y".

[NeedMoreFans]

The problem with moving the series to Arlington will be that Ike's rain/Tropical Storm-ness will still affect the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so they could get rained out as well.

 

As stupid as this sounds, Miller Park wouldn't be a horrible "neutral" site.

[jeffy]

• Today: Partly cloudy. High 93F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tonight: Cloudy intervals. Low 77F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow: Windy with occasional showers or thundershowers. High 89F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
• Tomorrow night: Bands of heavy rain containing strong gusty winds at times. Low 79F. ENE winds at 25 to 40 mph, increasing to 40 to 60 mph. Significant rainfall amounts possible.
• Saturday: Periods of heavy rain and windy. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the upper 70s.
• Sunday: Thundershowers. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the low 70s.
• Monday: Cloudy with showers and thunderstorms.. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 60s.

[trwi7]

As stupid as this sounds, Miller Park wouldn't be a horrible "neutral" site.

 

 

I actually think it would. These are supposed to be home games for Houston. Moving the games 90 from where the away team plays and 1,000 miles away from where the home team plays. I can't imagine Houston players or fans being happy with that, especially now that they're back in the race. It's basically three home games for the Cubs if it's moved to Miller Park.

If they do decide to move it I would guess the only place it would make sense is Tropicana Field in Tampa. I'm sure there's a lot of Cubs fans there, but it's at least close enough for people in Houston to go if they want.

Even better would be get as many games in Houston done as you can before it hits, then since both teams have off days on the 15th hope the storm has passed by then and get the final two games played that day.

[And That]

If they do decide to move it I would guess the only place it would make sense is Tropicana Field in Tampa. I'm sure there's a lot of Cubs fans there, but it's at least close enough for people in Houston to go if they want.

St. Petersburg is only ~150 miles closer to Houston than Milwaukee is. However, I agree that it's a better option that Miller Park due to proximity to Chicago.

[trwi7]

St. Petersburg is only ~150 miles closer to Houston than Milwaukee is. However, I agree that it's a better option that Miller Park due to proximity to Chicago.

Well you know, I was kind of thinking, well I don't know what the hell I was thinking. It just seems closer. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[SeriesFinale]

I thought that seemed a little bit of a strange suggestion!

 

What about the Louisiana Superdome?

[DatHoser]

How about Puerto Rico? That way Soriano can fall down on a rampway. . .

[cubfan1126]

Yesterday, the talk was to play a day game on Friday and then a day-night on Sunday.

 

Latest word is that the Cubs will head back to Chicago after tonight's game in St. Louis and wait it out.

 

Stay tuned.

[Patrick425]

• Today: Partly cloudy. High 93F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tonight: Cloudy intervals. Low 77F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow: Windy with occasional showers or thundershowers. High 89F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
• Tomorrow night: Bands of heavy rain containing strong gusty winds at times. Low 79F. ENE winds at 25 to 40 mph, increasing to 40 to 60 mph. Significant rainfall amounts possible.
• Saturday: Periods of heavy rain and windy. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the upper 70s.
• Sunday: Thundershowers. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the low 70s.
• Monday: Cloudy with showers and thunderstorms.. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 60s

Did you post this forcast to illustrate your point about "being much ado about very little"? Not sure what the source of this forecast is, but I'm not sure a simple forecast like this can really capture the nature of what a Hurricane can do. It's kind of like snow storms up hear "Snow heavy at times with gusty winds, accumulations 6-10 inches." Doesn't sound like much, but can be enough to close several businesses and schools.

As someone else mentioned, Houston is only 20 miles from Gavelston Bay and the storm surge from this hurricane is expected to be massive. Right now, as a Cat 2, Ike has Tropical Storm winds 275 miles from the center with hurricane force winds 115 miles from the center. In comparison Katrina had wind extentions of 230 and 105 respectively. This storm is likely to cause wide spread flooding and power outages. There are not going to be too many fans, players, umpires, stadium personnel who are going to feel very safe traveling to and from the stadium under these conditions.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Maybe there's a higher power that wants to mess with the Cubs...the forecast for their game tonight against the Cardinals looks pretty dicey, too.

[PeteP]

From cubs.com:

 

The Cubs' game on Friday in Houston against the Astros was postponed, and the Cubs will head back to Chicago after Thursday's game against St. Louis to avoid Hurricane Ike, which is churning in the Gulf of Mexico and headed in the direction of Texas.

A Cubs official confirmed Friday's game has been postponed. There was no word on the Cubs-Astros games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Hurricanes are among the most unpredictable storms there are - what happens if Ike hits near Houston and the cold front it's running into stalls it right there? The hurricane-force winds may dissipate, but Houston would be measuring the rainfall it receives by the foot, not the inch, in that scenario. Something similar to that happened with a tropical storm that came in a few years back, and parts of Houston were several feet under water after 46 inches of rain fell over a relatively short period of time.

 

I think since Friday's game is already cancelled and the brunt of the storm isn't supposed to get there until Saturday, there's a good chance that the Cubs/Stros can only get 2 of the 3 games in this weekend (probably a DH monday) - that would leave one game to be played at season's end in the event it needed to be to determine homefield advantage, division, or wild card scenarios.

[bbaehman]

HOUSTON (AP) - The first two games of this weekend's series

between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros have been postponed

because of the potential impact of Hurricane Ike.

The teams were to have started a three-game series in Houston on

Friday night. No makeup dates have been set.

"There are various scenarios under consideration with regards

to the rescheduling of the postponed games," the Astros said in a

statement.

Ike had sustained wins of near 100 mph on Thursday and was

expected to make landfall on the Texas coast late Friday or early

Saturday. Some forecasts projected that Ike could strengthen to a

Category 4 hurricane with winds of at least 131 mph.

[patrickgpe]

As stupid as this sounds, Miller Park wouldn't be a horrible "neutral" site.

 

yeah it would as it would give the cubs a huge home field advantage for an astros home game.

[SeriesFinale]

Well, on one hand, maybe this cools off the Astros. On the other it could allow the Cubs to regroup. Likely it won't affect too much either way.

 

Although I do seem to remember the Cubs dealing with some postponement havoc down the stretch last year, which couldn't have helped with their bad play the last week or so and subsequent sweep.

 

Of course, a natural disaster is a terrible thing, so I feel bad even surmising how it will affect these teams (much less hoping it does) on the backs of those folks down in Texas. I hope all's well down there.

[jeffy]

Hopefully it means a double header on monday, with both games going into extra innings.

[TauPentaRei]

Hopefully it means a double header on monday, with both games going into extra innings.

True true, this is advantageous to the True Blue Brew Crew.

 

However, I believe the Prince of Darkness noted the Padres landed in Milwaukee at 5:30 in the morning after playing a night game coinciding with a day off of ours and proceeded to "field dress" us for game 1 of that series.

 

We need a hurricane, too, so Kendall can get some rest. Aah, Yost would have him doing extra squats or something.