00:00how ridiculous of an enterprise this entire evening was
00:04for Major League Baseball,
00:05but just watching people leave the game for me
00:07because I was coming in right at 9 o'clock
00:09and how sad they were.
00:11It was right as the game was getting postponed
00:13that I hit East 9th,
00:14and everybody just was sad.
00:16I even joked with a couple people in the elevator,
00:18like, oh, man, that sucked.
00:19There was no joking attitude.
00:21It was like, yeah, I sat outside,
00:24stood outside for two, three, four hours.
00:27How long were the standing room people out there for?
00:29I did, like, three and a half hours
00:30by the time he got postponed,
00:31up to three and a half hours.
00:33So, and we were talking in between the break.
00:34If you're in that standing room,
00:36those people were probably there at 4.30, 5 o'clock.
00:39You rushed over to your standing room
00:41so that you weren't behind nine different people
00:43and a six-foot linebacker,
00:44and you couldn't move.
00:46You could maybe send the girlfriend or the wife
00:48to go sit down and get you some food
00:50or another beer at some point,
00:51but you had to hold down the 40.
00:53You're going to lose your spot.
00:54So those people were standing out there
00:55in the soaking down rain.
00:57I mean, everybody in Cleveland
00:58is going to have a cold tomorrow morning.
01:00Like, this was just a pathetic showing,
01:03and if you were anywhere around Cleveland
01:05at any point today,
01:06from the second that we all woke up,
01:08it was like, there's no chance
01:09this game is happening, right?
01:10It was windy.
01:11It was rainy.
01:12It was awful.
01:13I know I said I live right off of the lake,
01:15but it sounded like there were gale force winds
01:18coming through my window.
01:19Like, I thought that the sliding glass door
01:21was going to come on to me on the couch.
01:24It was ridiculous.
01:25I don't understand why we needed to open the gates,
01:28let everybody consume the beer and the food
01:30that's way overpriced as it begins with.
01:32We talked about the parking.
01:34I'm sure plenty of people downtown tailgated
01:36at one of the many lovely establishments down here.
01:39So that's like a $100 night
01:41on top of your overpriced playoff ticket,
01:43and even now with the discounts,
01:45it was still a costly night,
01:46and then at the end of the day,
01:48you let everybody do their whole thing,
01:50and then you cancel it an hour in.
01:51Just pathetic.
01:52Like, pathetic showing.
01:53And like, I said it,
01:54but I understand kind of a lot of the earlier stuff,
01:57right, when they said they were going to have
01:58a meeting at 6 o'clock.
02:00Like, earlier today,
02:01the forecast did maybe show a little bit
02:03of an opening to play this game
02:04right around 8 o'clock,
02:05and the rain wasn't quite still going then.
02:08Maybe it's light enough
02:08that you can get the field ready,
02:09play them,
02:10or you go into a slight delay and play.
02:11Okay.
02:12When they met at 6 o'clock,
02:13the rain wasn't supposed to stop
02:14until 10 o'clock.
02:15And like, Major League Baseball told you flat out,
02:17this game starts at 10 or it doesn't start at all.
02:19Like, by the time they canceled it at 9.05,
02:21we know that the field's going to take
02:22about an hour to get ready,
02:23plus the players to get warmed up.
02:25They're like,
02:2610, 10, 10 is probably right about
02:28where we draw the line,
02:29where no baseball after this,
02:30because that game's going to be going
02:31until 1, 1.30 in the morning.
02:35Where did they think that they were getting that?
02:36Again, the rain forecasted the whole time.
02:38I was staring at the Doppler.
02:39I was staring at the hourly forecast
02:42over and over again at the rain.
02:44Everything told you like 9.45 at the earliest.
02:47We're not getting the field ready by 10, 10, 10.
02:50If you're going to have this thing done raining at 9.45,
02:53when I'm watching the poor damn grounds crew
02:54having to squeegee a bunch of water
02:57into the drains off the warning track.
02:58Well, it wasn't just the fact that
03:00if it ended at strictly at 9 o'clock
03:02and then we're good to go,
03:03it takes an hour to get the field ready or whatever.
03:05It had been raining all day.
03:08It wasn't like this just popped up out of nowhere.
03:10Like this was, we knew that this was happening.
03:12I just don't understand how on Wednesday night
03:15they somehow figured 12 hours in advance
03:18that we could move the game up seven hours
03:20and that we as Cleveland fans
03:21had to spend all day on social media
03:23battling with people about why it wasn't a sellout
03:25and why there were only 30,000 people there
03:27despite the fact that it was still
03:28a loud, awesome playoff atmosphere.
03:31Also in like a ballpark that stadium capacity
03:34is what, like 35,000 to 37,000?
03:36Like, yeah, you're missing 5,000 to 7,000 people
03:38on less than 48 hours notice at the game time
03:41got moved up to one o'clock on a weekday.
03:44Right, and how many people,
03:45how many people in this town can't just be like,
03:47yeah, I'm just not gonna work today
03:49or I'm gonna take a half day.
03:50Like, that's just, it's getting close
03:52to the end of the year.
03:52I'm sure your sick days in PTO are running thin.
03:55Like, you gotta save those
03:55for when you actually do have to get out of town.
03:58And somehow, someway, they figured that out.
04:00And then the very next day,
04:02they met in the morning,
04:03they met the night before,
04:04they met two hours before scheduled first pitch,
04:06and still, nothing had changed weather-wise.
04:09How many great meteorologists do we have in this town?
04:11You couldn't have asked any of them.
04:12And everybody would have said the same thing.
04:15This game is not happening today.
04:16And I know the big thing was that Major League Baseball
04:18didn't want four straight games in a row.
04:21If the alternative was letting everybody sit around
04:24for five hours,
04:26that's not a good alternative at all.
04:27No, and the big thing is that we know
04:29that part of this is having to go up
04:30against football on Sunday, right?
04:31Like, I've been saying that across the last hour,
04:33even before the game officially
04:35was supposed to get underway,
04:36they don't want to compete against the NFL.
04:38They know that's a losing.
04:39Even in a game four of the ALCS,
04:41we know that football rules America.
04:42We know that people are going to tune in
04:44to watch their teams at one o'clock
04:45and four o'clock and Sunday night football
04:48over what is legitimately a nationally,
04:51not a beloved CS game, right?
04:52Like, the LCS is not,
04:54Ray's Guardians is not something
04:55that gets the entire country up and moving.
04:57Obviously, locally, yeah, we're amped.
04:59We're juiced.
05:00In Tampa, they're amped and juiced,
05:01and half of them are Guardians fans.
05:05But the national scope of it, you lose that.
05:07So I get why they don't want to push it back.
05:09Like, you have to accept reality at some point,
05:12and it shouldn't come at the expense
05:14of a lot of Cleveland fans,
05:16but also Tampa Bay fans that are here, too.
05:17I feel for those people just as bad
05:19that we talked to Jorge a little bit earlier.
05:23He's got two flights booked back home
05:25to get back by Sunday.
05:26He can't go to the game on Sunday.
05:28He's just, you know, SOL.
05:30I mean, we talk about, like,
05:31regular season baseball all the time
05:33that if you sign up for an outdoor event,
05:35you know, part of the factor
05:36that you have to, you know, think about
05:38is the fact that it might just rain for the entire day
05:42and the game gets rained out,
05:43and it is what it is.
05:44So if you're driving in from Columbus
05:46or Detroit or Youngstown even,
05:49like, yeah, okay, that might be a possibility.
05:51But, I mean, there are a lot of people,
05:52I'm sure, that were, like, kind of waiting it out.
05:55You know, were done with work.
05:56They were sitting at home,
05:57and they're like, do I go?
06:00And then it gets to 6 o'clock.
06:01An hour later, nothing comes from that meeting,
06:04not even a word from that meeting
06:06about whether or not this was going to be in a rain delay.
06:08That's what was fascinating, too.
06:09The communication was horrible.
06:11Like, okay, you tell everybody in the media
06:14to tweet out,
06:14we are having a meeting at 6 o'clock to determine.
06:17So if you're in the greater Northeast Ohio area,
06:20you're thinking, great,
06:21I have, like, a 30-minute window to figure out
06:23whether or not I should leave right now,
06:25or maybe I can stave this thing off
06:27or this game's not happening at all.
06:28And then we just sat in our hands for the next three hours,
06:30and we're like, I don't know, it's still raining.
06:33Do I go? Do I not go?
06:34You said that Baskin left late?
06:36Yeah, I mean, he called us at,
06:38I mean, what time is that, James?
06:39Like, 840, 9 o'clock?
06:42Somewhere, it wasn't quite 9 o'clock,
06:44but I think it was, like, 820, 840
06:45that he ended up calling in.
06:46He was just then leaving.
06:47And so I'm sure there were a lot of people
06:49that were like that,
06:50and then by the time you leave,
06:51you get right downtown,
06:52and you have to turn back around.
06:53Yeah.
06:53Like, it's just ridiculous.
06:55Lack of communication.
06:57PJ Ziegler of Fox 8 tweeted that
06:59nobody from Major League Baseball Communications
07:01was made available post-game to talk about,
07:03or post-not-game,
07:04to talk about what the hell happened here
07:07and the lack of communication.
07:09So you just kind of have to throw up your hands.
07:11Like, I feel bad for it.
07:13Mostly, I feel bad.
07:14The players are the players.
07:15They get it.
07:15It's rain delays.
07:16It is what it is.
07:16Because everybody's exhausted
07:18at this point in the season,
07:19whether you play seven straight games
07:21or it's the regular CS schedule,
07:24whatnot.
07:25Everybody's going to be tired.
07:27But I feel bad for the fans
07:28that spent a lot of money
07:29and that hung out downtown all day
07:31and that if somebody called off work
07:32to, like, loop themselves up
07:34real good and good and good
07:36for the game tonight,
07:37like, those are the people
07:38that I feel bad for.
07:39Those are the people
07:40that it affects the most.
07:41And again, this is just another example
07:42of Major League Baseball
07:43showing you, like,
07:44those people are never front of mind.
07:46They are constantly thinking about
07:48the TV money
07:49and everything else
07:50valued over the local fans
07:52who do spend a lot of hard-earned money
07:53who do get to the games
07:54that ultimately are benefiting
07:56a lot off of the team.
07:57But, like, Major League Baseball
07:58benefits off of the people
07:59who are going to this
07:59in the postseason, too.
08:00Like, let's not, you know,
08:02get that twisted.
08:03The teams are paying out
08:04a portion of this stuff
08:05to Major League Baseball
08:06for sure, too.
08:07They are sharing in the revenue.
08:08So, like, it's just,
08:11it's all around it bad,
08:12but I think the communication part
08:13is really, like,
08:14it's one of the things
08:15that I haven't hit on yet.
08:16But, like, other than the fact
08:18that we were sitting around
08:19and I start my show
08:19and I'm like,
08:20the game's supposed to start
08:20in an hour and they haven't said,
08:21they didn't say anything
08:22the whole time.
08:22Other than, until games
08:23starting in a delay,
08:24they had a meeting at 6
08:26and we didn't hear that
08:27until 7.20, 7.30
08:29that this game was starting
08:31in a delay.
08:31Yeah.
08:32I was about ready.
08:33I just put on my pants
08:34to get ready to get out the door.
08:35Like, I was ready to go.
08:36And then as I was grabbing my keys
08:39and said, okay, delay.
08:40And then same deal.
08:41Like, I knew that no matter what,
08:42I had to be in here at 10.
08:43So, you knew if you were going
08:45to the game that eventually
08:46maybe it was going to start.
08:48But I was just kind of sitting there
08:49like, I don't know when to go.
08:51Like, I want to be at the station
08:52for the start of this game.
08:54I have, like, a 15-minute window to go.
08:56And by the way, you know,
08:57I'm driving up the inner belt
08:59on the freeway and whatever
09:01and my car's getting ripped around
09:02by wind and rain and everything.
09:05And I'm, like, hitting puddles everywhere.
09:07I'm, like, oh, my God.
09:08I'm not even going to make it
09:09to the station.
09:10Like, this is ridiculous.
09:11So, that's, I don't know.
09:12It just, it sucks.
09:13And it sucks for everybody.
09:15Like, I don't know.
09:16I don't know.
09:17It just sucks.
09:19That's all I got.
09:20I mean, just to simply put.
09:21If you're TBS,
09:22if you're any, not to name, whatever.
09:25If you are a TV entity
09:27and you're, like,
09:28we are going to put this in prime time.
09:29We already moved the game
09:30to 8 o'clock
09:31so that we're going to have it.
09:32Whatever.
09:32We don't want it to be at 1 o'clock
09:34because that's less eyeballs.
09:36Blah, blah, blah.
09:36Even though at 1 o'clock, frankly,
09:38probably would have been better
09:39to play today than 8 o'clock
09:41because you wouldn't have had
09:41all day of the rain
09:43batting down on the warning track
09:45in the field.
09:45Yeah, I really don't think
09:46you're playing at 1 o'clock either.
09:47But if you were going to play the game
09:48at 10 o'clock,
09:49like, how many people are staying
09:50to watch the end of that game?
09:51That's kind of what I brought up.
09:53Like, even the people who are staying,
09:54like, energy of the crowd
09:56at some point has got to be drained
09:57a little bit,
09:57like, when you're getting
09:58to that end of the game.
09:59Listen, it's postseason baseball.
10:03But, I mean, there's got to be people
10:04who are leaving to go home early.
10:06Like, I get it's a Saturday,
10:07but people got families.
10:08People don't want to be out there
10:09until 1.32 in the morning
10:11if that game ends up going long.
10:12Yeah.
10:13There's youth football, youth soccer.
10:15Everything's going on.
10:169 o'clock sharp, Saturday morning,
10:17whether you were at the ballpark
10:18late or not.
10:19Yeah, like, kids got to get up
10:21in the morning for a tournament.
10:22What am I supposed to do here?
10:23I'm supposed to just keep them up
10:24until at the ballpark
10:25until 1.32 in the morning,
10:27not get them home until 3, 3.30.
10:28And then 7 a.m.,
10:30up and out.
10:30We got a tournament.
10:31You better be ready.
10:32Like, no, you can't do
10:33that type of thing.
10:34So, yeah, I don't even know
10:36what that crowd would have looked like.
10:37And certainly,
10:38when we get to the idea that,
10:40I don't know,
10:40you were supposed to turn around
10:42and also have fans amped and juice
10:44after they've been standing up.
10:45Like, the standing room people
10:46who have been on their feet
10:47for eight hours,
10:48like, they're probably
10:48slap happy at that point.
10:50A little lubed up
10:51and slap happy at that point.
10:52Well, I'm sure you and I
10:53have been to regular season games
10:54like that where it's a
10:55two, three-hour rain delay
10:56and it's a weeknight.
10:58And those standing,
10:59not just standing room,
11:01but anybody, it's like,
11:02well, I pre-gamed a little hard here.
11:04I've been drinking,
11:05like, thinking that this game
11:06was going to start.
11:06Now, all of a sudden,
11:07the game starts.
11:07I can't see straight.
11:08That was, you know,
11:09that's a regular season game.
11:10This is postseason.
11:11This is a Friday night.
11:12This is the beginning of your weekend
11:13and a huge weekend at that.
11:15So, yeah, I mean,
11:16maybe people are a little,
11:17eh,
11:18so get home safely.
11:20Yeah, I mean,
11:20I hope there were a lot of
11:21rideshare services called
11:23on this late night.
11:24Well, if it's the way it was
11:24after that Thursday night
11:25Browns game,
11:26then nobody's getting home.
11:27That's very true.
11:29All right,
11:29before we're going to talk
11:30more about this,
11:31we're going to get
11:31to your guys' calls.
11:32Again,
11:32216-474-0092.
11:34But Stephen Vogt
11:35talked about kind of
11:36the process that they were in
11:38trying to get to
11:39how they got to this point,
11:41how they ended up
11:41getting the delay,
11:42why this game
11:43was just postponed
11:44or delayed to begin with,
11:45not postponed.
11:46And here's what Stephen Vogt
11:49ended up having to say about it.
11:52I mean,
11:53we knew how many days ago
11:54that today was going
11:55to be a challenge
11:56and numerous weather calls,
11:58numerous back and forths,
11:59and ultimately MLB decided
12:01that we needed to wait it out.
12:02And so obviously
12:03it's an important game
12:04and we need to make sure
12:05that we're doing everything
12:06we can to play the games
12:07when they're scheduled.
12:08But MLB ultimately decided
12:10to wait this one out.
12:11It's completely out of our control.
12:13I mean,
12:13our guys hung out today.
12:15They, you know,
12:16we got some work in obviously
12:18so we wouldn't just sit around all day.
12:20But it was obviously a long day
12:22to wait to not have a game.
12:24But this is what happens.
12:25This is baseball.
12:26This is Cleveland.
12:26We're more than used
12:28to these kinds of days.
12:29I think just,
12:30I didn't hear.
12:31I just think, you know,
12:33with it not really stopped raining
12:35and there's more coming,
12:37keeping everybody here
12:38until 2 in the morning
12:39with delays
12:40ultimately probably
12:41was the deciding factor.
12:43And there you have it.
12:44I mean, Anthony,
12:45and we're going to talk about it.
12:46We're going to get to
12:46some of your guys' calls.
12:47Again, 216-474-0092.
12:50That sound like a manager
12:51who wanted to be there?
12:52No.
12:53I don't really think so.
