The Futility Infielder

Thursday afternoon's Yankee-Devil Ray ballgame was rained out. Or rather, "rained out," for anybody within range of the Bronx could tell you that while the skies had emptied in the morning and remained overcast throughout the afternoon, very little additional rain fell. Presumably, the ballgame could have and should have been played.

The fact that it didn't is quite curious. First off, Thursday's game marked Lou Gehrig's 100th birthday, and a celebration took place prior to gametime (or so I'm told, as I wasn't there). Second, the day's giveaway honored another Yankee first baseman -- a Jason Giambi bobblehead. Third, the Yanks were playing the D-Rays, the next best thing to scheduling their own AAA farm team. Fourth, the Yanks claimed to have sold 36,000 tickets, not horribly off the previous week's draw for an interleague matinee with a division leader (39,888). By all rights, the Yanks should have been itching to get this game in.

That they didn't has set off the alarm bells of conspiracy theorists heavily vested in "Yankees Suck!" regalia. According to the predominant theory, the Yanks preferred to bump Andy Pettitte back to Friday's Subway Series opener and knock struggling starter Jeff Weaver (0-4, 6.56 ERA in his last five starts) into next week, where he would face a less heated rival than the Mets -- the Devil Rays.

Lost in all of this is the fact that until the game starts, the decision to start the game rests with the home team, unless it's the final series of the season between the two clubs. In that case, the league may override the decision and force the start of the game. Once a game begins, it's in the hands of the umps.

Yankee GM Brian Cashman refuted the conspiracy talk, telling one newspaper, "I think it's irresponsible. If anybody wants to rip me for the decision based on the weather, that's fine, because it cleared up. But it was based on the forecasts saying we'd have rain all day and that it would get worse." He also pointed out that by opening the gates, the "game" cost the Yanks about $40,000 in salaries, not to mention the inconvenience of a day-night doubleheader in September.

Major League Baseball VP Katy Feeney, who is in charge of scheduling (a fact that didn't escape George Steinbrenner's notice a few weeks ago), backed Cashman's story: "It was no conspiracy. With weather, you don't know 100 percent. Both the umpiring crew and the Yankees were looking at the radar and in contact with local meteorologists and they were told it would get heavy and not stop. Obviously, it turned out wrong, but that's what they had to go on."

The irony of the situation is that Saturday's Yankee-Met game succumbed to rain after three innings, washing away a 3-for-3 Alfonso Soriano performance and an unspectacular start by Mike Mussina. On the other hand, it enabled Robin Ventura to make a Caddyshack reference: "I don't think the hard stuff's coming down for a while.'' The game will be made up as part of a crosstown day-night doubleheader, similar to the one three years ago. Meanwhile, Sunday night's game is equally endangered, with a forecast showing a 60% chance of showers (by the way, I'll put in a plug for weather.com as the best source for event-related forecasting. They may not necessarily be correct all the time, but the information is at least easy to find, unlike going through a particular team's sources).

The Yanks have already had four rainouts this year, so don't be surprised if some Yankee hater starts yammering about the Great Flood and jeering that the team should board a wooden ship by twosies. After all, wasn't that the last time the Red Sox won anything?