When It Rains, Spring Training Sucks

BRADENTON, FLORIDA.

Spring Training is one of the absolute best ways to energize your fandom.  The only thing that can bring down the spirit of a baseball fan this time of year is a rainout.  The Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees were rained out today in Grapefruit League action.

The Pirates had Gerrit Cole throw 80 plus pitches in a minor league game in the morning, but the fans that were headed to see their Buccos take on the Evil Empire are left with this:

"Today’s game has been cancelled due to inclement weather. Tickets can be exchanged for any future 2014 Pirates… http://t.co/3JlbyY867b— MaraudersBaseball (@The_Marauders) March 17, 2014"

Screw off.  It happened to us last year on the final day in Bradenton.  I burnt my tickets.  It made me feel better.  Suck it Mother Nature.

So for those of you a few beers into it this afternoon on this glorious St. Patrick’s Day we feel for ya.  It made us think of what we wrote last year……

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Just south of the Tampa Tornado.

Baseball parks suck when it rains, especially McKechnie Field. Just look at that little guy in the picture. painful. Go ahead, click on it. Embiggen that heart wrencher. Soak. It. In.

Mother nature put a damper on the morning, all but forcing us to enjoy the new tiki bar, but the afternoon sun was spectacular. If only someone would have bothered to look at the radar and suggest a bit of a delay.

But we get it. The field was too wet. It is, always has been, and always will be about the talent on the field, not the ‘customers’ as Bob Nutting puts it. If only baseball would work like golf, the radar looks bad, bump things back an hour and then get it on. Heh, whatever we love baseball. It’s a curse.

When we saw Buck Showalter (in his sweats) swagger out onto the McKechnie outfield to join Clint Hurdle and Neal Huntington in a discussion, we were confident that it wasn’t a meeting about Manny Machado coming to the Buccos for Clint Barmes.  (Did Showalter just wake up? Wow)

But anyway, we can exchange our ticket for another spring training game. Yeh, that helps my friend Sheldon from Iowa who was here with his Dad, his buddy and his sister. It was their last day. Just like it was Shelly and Mick, Nick and Billy from Arizona and others just like me.

Baseball sucks when it rains.  And what the organizations do for fans when it rains sucks too.

So here’s the best we can do for today.

It’s coming down pretty good from my seat.

The squeegee skills on display in the McKechnie infield were impressive. Especially the third guy on the right. Talented. Keep an eye out for him in the bigs one day.

There is Steve Pearce!!! Hide! No…it was the damn rain blowing in so quickly, the bartenders took cover.

Kyle McPherson cranks out some crunches at McKechnnie today

Did we ever mention Kyle McPherson is a beast? A double black belt?

Kyle McPherson recovers from his abs workout.

Well, that’s all we have for today. the sun will be out tomorrow.

The kid in the picture will probably turn out to be a Yankees fan anyway.  (Kidding)