The Most Ridiculous Weather of Baseball

Summary

Ridiculous History Podcast Summary
Episode: The Most Ridiculous Weather of Baseball
Release Date: November 14, 2024

Hosted by Ben Bolin and Noel Brown, with contributions from Max Williams, "The Most Ridiculous Weather of Baseball" delves into some of the most extraordinary and weather-related events in baseball history. This episode explores how unpredictable weather phenomena have not only disrupted games but also created unforgettable moments in the sport.

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Introduction to Baseball and Weather

Ben Bolin opens the discussion by highlighting the inherent unpredictability of outdoor sports, particularly baseball. He remarks, “If you've ever had the opportunity to go to a live baseball game, you will feel that electric energy” (02:52). Noel Brown echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the unique American charm of baseball compared to other cultural staples like apple pie.

The Astrodome Rainout (1976)

One of the episode's focal points is the unprecedented rainout at the Astrodome in Houston. Noel Brown introduces the story:

“The Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card of podcasting, Mr. Max Williams…at the Lakers game…like senior Craig seniors in left field” (01:27)
Max Williams expands on this by recounting the 1976 incident where a powerful thunderstorm led to massive flooding around the Astrodome, which is situated 45 feet below ground level. The severe weather made it impossible for fans and stadium staff to access the venue: “Fans couldn't get to the stadium. The staff working the Astrodome…couldn't get there either” (16:10)
Despite being a domed stadium designed to mitigate weather issues, the Astrodome fell victim to the extreme conditions. Team historian Mike Acosta explains that players arrived just in time, but stadium management, led by Tal Smith, made the critical decision to postpone the game for safety reasons: “…the management…decided that it would be probably the smart move to postpone the game because of concern for fans and employees safety” (17:41)
In an act of solidarity, the Astros provided dinner for the handful of fans who braved the weather, fostering a unique sense of community despite the chaos: “The Astros felt so bad that they said, all right, you know, we're not going anywhere, you guys. Let's... grab some nosh” (19:09)

The 1979 World Series Snow Delay

Transitioning to the World Series, Ben and Noel discuss the 1979 Fall Classic between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles, which faced a rare snow postponement. Noel Brown highlights:

“Game one was supposed to take place on a Tuesday, October 9, but was postponed an entire day due to snow and freezing rain conditions” (28:03)
The rescheduled game saw historically cold temperatures, leading to gameplay complications: “Rain, however, fell throughout Game 1. It definitely wreaked some havoc on the precision of the players” (28:35)
Despite the adverse conditions, the Pirates triumphed in a seven-game series, though not without significant disruptions such as a 67-minute rain delay in Game 3.

The 1925 Foggy Finale

The episode also revisits the 1925 World Series finale between the Washington Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates, which became one of the weirdest endings in baseball history due to thick fog and heavy rain:

“The honorable senator from the outfield, Goose Goslin...said the umpires couldn't see it… it was too dark and foggy” (35:08)
An extraordinary moment occurred when Red Murray, a New York Giant right fielder, made a breathtaking catch amidst a lightning storm and dense fog: “Stretching his bare right hand as far as he could, and snared the sailing liner just as another lightning bolt cracked behind him” (51:29)
The game concluded in a rare two-to-two tie, leaving fans and players stunned by the surreal conditions.

Modern-Day Weather Challenges

Max Williams shares a contemporary anecdote from the recent season where a bee colony disrupted a game at Arizona:

“They have to get somebody in, take care of the bee thing… the Diamondbacks go around… the guy… still in his beekeeping outfit… throws out the first pitch” (53:20)
This story underscores how even with advanced infrastructure like retractable roofs, unforeseen weather and environmental factors continue to challenge MLB teams.

Conclusions: Weather as a Game-Changer

Ben Bolin summarizes the episode by reflecting on the unpredictable nature of baseball:

“That’s why we play baseball outside” (29:44)
The hosts agree that while weather can create logistical nightmares and disrupt gameplay, it also forges unforgettable memories and unites fans in shared experiences. The episode celebrates these "ridiculous" weather moments as integral parts of baseball's rich history.

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Key Takeaways

• Astrodome Rainout (1976): Demonstrated that even domed stadiums are not immune to extreme weather, leading to a rare postponement and a display of community spirit.

• 1979 World Series Snow Delay: Highlighted the challenges of playing in extreme cold and snow, resulting in game delays and increased errors, yet culminating in a Pirates victory.

• 1925 Foggy Finale: Showcased an almost cinematic weather event with dense fog and lightning that led to a tied World Series game, featuring a legendary catch by Red Murray.

• Modern-Day Challenges: Illustrated that weather-related disruptions remain relevant, with unique incidents like bee colonies affecting games.

Notable Quotes

• Ben Bolin (02:52): “If you've ever had the opportunity to go to a live baseball game, you will feel that electric energy.”

• Noel Brown (17:41): “…the management…decided that it would be probably the smart move to postpone the game because of concern for fans and employees safety.”

• Max Williams (35:13): "There was a game in Arizona earlier this year...the show's postponed for like an hour and a half."

Closing Thoughts

"The Most Ridiculous Weather of Baseball" episode of Ridiculous History masterfully intertwines historical anecdotes with engaging storytelling, illustrating how weather has indelibly marked the landscape of baseball. Through vivid recounting and expert commentary, Ben Bolin and Noel Brown celebrate the sport's resilience and the unique moments that make baseball an enduring American pastime.

Transcript

[Ben Bolin]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as always, so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the number one Mickey mantle of ridiculous history, our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[Noel Brown]

The Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card of podcasting, Mr. Max Williams, the third Esquire.

[Ben Bolin]

Ooh, that was good.

[Max Williams]

Something that I thought was gonna be really lame, but it was actually really cool. A few weeks back, Ken Griffey senior and junior were at the Lakers game because it was the opening, opening night, and it was the first game that LeBron was going to play with his son. And I was thinking, I was thinking, like, oh, this can be kind of lame. But then it was actually cool to think about. It's like, how often in sports do you see a father and son play together? There's the amazing clip of like, it's like senior Craig seniors in left field. He's going to get a ball, and Griffey Jr. Jogs right in front of him and takes it from him.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, it's a family affair. The student has become the teacher. Maybe. I don't know.

[Ben Bolin]

Ah, you love to see it. You love to see it. We also love to see our man himself in the digital flesh, folks. It's Mr. Noel Brown.

[Noel Brown]

Tis I. Hello.

[Ben Bolin]

Hello. Hello.

[Noel Brown]

You're Ben Bolin, I hear.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, I've been going by that one for a minute.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, I think it's a good one. I think you should stick with it.

[Ben Bolin]

Thank you. I like the alliteration on it. No one checked me at customs. I was thinking in preparation for this.

[Noel Brown]

Episode and sports week or sports half a month season on Ridiculous History, we've.

[Ben Bolin]

Been going through a spot for sure I or a phase. I was thinking about the coolest part of seeing a live baseball game. Now, Max.

[Noel Brown]

Hot dogs. That's what it is. That's the answer. That is the answer.

[Ben Bolin]

Max, of course, is our expert sporto. Out of the three of us, folks, we know that a lot of us in the crowd today are big, big sports fans. And if you have ever had the opportunity to go to a live baseball game, you will feel that electric energy. Like Noel. I love the snacks as well. I love the Cracker Jacks, you know, with the prize at the bottom, the.

[Noel Brown]

Peanuts and the Cracker Jacks.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, there's a whole song about it. And we're. We're talking about baseball today.

[Noel Brown]

And unlike apple pie, baseball is a uniquely American thing.

[Ben Bolin]

Right? Nice. That's a callback, folks. Nice. Nice. We have the immense pleasure of exploring baseball today with you. I would like to ask you guys, and I know I'm sort of stacking the scales here, but I'd love to ask you guys about the last baseball game you remember being at in person.

[Noel Brown]

With my mom and my kid. We. The one that I remember most distinctly was when they have like father daughter day at Brave Stadium and we got to walk the bases and they give out all kinds of daddy daughter like merch and there's like, you know, it's pink Brave shirts and stuff. But it was cool. It's cool to get to go down on the field. And then I went to another one where. Remember the, the rap artist quote, unquote. Rap artist Flo Rida.

[Ben Bolin]

Yes.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, he performed. They, they were doing a series at Brave Stadium years ago where they would have like a different band play at the, at the end of the game on the, on the field.

[Max Williams]

So my most recent baseball game was actually not for our Atlanta team, but for one of the biggest rivals of Atlanta. I was in a New York City earlier this year for the NBA draft. The Atlanta Hawks won the draft lottery. So me and a couple friends flew in there for that. We were there and we wanted to go see a Yankees game, but unfortunately Yankees were just gone. They were on the road that week. So we settled for the runner up baseball team in New York. Of course. The New York Mets. Yeah, of course.

[Noel Brown]

Yes. You know, see, I know a thing or two about sport.

[Ben Bolin]

Are you doing that Yankee Mets thing?

[Noel Brown]

You have no right. You have no right. Max, you're not from. No, they're.

[Max Williams]

They're the runner up. And just in general, actually, when I was at dinner.

[Noel Brown]

Wow.

[Max Williams]

We, we went at dinner beforehand and like one of the, one of the waiters recognized this rotowear shirt I was wearing and we like talked about it. He was a Yankees fan. And what I found out is like Yankees fans and Knicks fans are actually pretty cool. But like the backup teams in New York, their fans kind of suck. They're the fans that suck. Like the main team fans are actually pretty cool. Like I like Yankees fans, I like Knicks fans now. But anyways, to digress.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, not.

[Max Williams]

Shay Stadium was a really beautiful ballpark, like tallest ballpark I've ever been. It was very tall. It was right underneath LaGuardia. Like there's planes flying over at all points. But it was a beautiful ballpark and it was a. The Mets won a big game. It was right after Grimace Mania had started. I don't, I don't know if you guys know about the whole Grimace met the Grimace shake. There was. Grimace threw a first pitch out on a Mets game this year and the season was going to trash. Then the Mets ended up making all the way to the nlcs. The.

[Noel Brown]

So they, they credit Grimace for this stroke of good luck.

[Max Williams]

It was like a celebrity thing. So at one point they're going around you, it's New York. Similarly, they do this at the Lakers games in LA where they just show the celebrities throughout the game and they're going around. And at the very end, they had Grimace who was like a standing ovation. Entire stadium going wild for Grimace. And I'm like, I'm all, I'm all for this. This is actually pretty cool right here.

[Noel Brown]

Grimace, the McDonald's purple mascot monstrosity who you hipped us to. The fact is historically actually meant to be a depiction of a giant anthropomorphic taste bud.

[Ben Bolin]

Yes. Well, that's the running theory. Please check out our series on what happened to the McDonald's mascots. Also, a quick shout out for all the Mets fans in New York and surrounding areas. You guys know, I think Noel and I go up to New York at different times on a fairly regular basis.

[Noel Brown]

Sometimes at the same time.

[Ben Bolin]

Sometimes, yeah, when the stars align. And I was, I was hanging out in New York, just kicking it with cool folks and a buddy of mine, we were standing on the street and some guy walked up to him and started, beat me here, Max, bitching about the Mets game. And then the guy immediately launched into an in depth conversation about statistics, the past, the future and the present. And then they, they fist bumped and the other dude left. And I said, oh, you know that guy, is he going to go with us to this comedy show? And he said, no, I don't know him. It's just the Mets are for the underdogs.

[Noel Brown]

We're brothers in sport.

[Max Williams]

That is something I saw so much in New York. We were walking around with our Hawks gear all the time. And I think, you know, a Hawks fan is something that people don't believe exists. In what? In the wild? Like, it's pretty rare. Everyone's like, whoa, they're actually our Hawks fans. But I would see people and like, they're so busy. You tell like they have like this deadline and they're booking it and they stop and they talk sports with you for 15 minutes. It's just part of the culture and I really appreciate. It was awesome.

[Ben Bolin]

Sports as a unifier.

[Noel Brown]

I was about to say, I do sort of, you know, feel a little bit of fomo. About that kind of camaraderie aspect of it because I just. It's not my world, but I'm learning a lot this week on ridiculous history.

[Ben Bolin]

Just pick like baseball.

[Noel Brown]

My team will be the the Mets. No, I don't know. But we are talking about baseball today and weather in fact.

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[Ben Bolin]

Yes, the weather. How dare anyone be a fair weather fan. Which is a pretty big insult. You ever heard that one?

[Noel Brown]

Of course. Yeah, I always call myself a fair weather gamer, which I think is okay. I enjoy it, but I'm not obsessed about it. And I don't know all the stats. I'm not what you would call like a twitch streamer or anything of that nature. But here's the thing about weather as it pertains to baseball. It is one of the sports that is typically played out of doors. Usually, you know, football oftentimes will be in like a covered stadium, but according to the MLB schedule grid, in 2024 there were 37 games that were either postponed, suspended or canceled due to rain delays. That is in 2024 alone, or weather delays in general.

[Ben Bolin]

But I think if you've ever had the privilege of living in a town that has a baseball stadium, then you will naturally at some point encounter a weather delay or the whole enterprise may get rained out and it turns the stadium into a weird liminal space. It's like being strand at an airport. And we have a story about that for a different day. Today's episode, which may indeed turn into a series, is about the strange interaction between weather and baseball. This is where we get to the concept of something being mostly outdoors, AKA the domed stadium.

[Noel Brown]

That's right. We did mention at the top that Baseball is typically played out of doors. Typically. But there are some outlier type situations, and that is largely because of this thing called a domed stadium, which has become popular in colder or higher rainfall areas of the country because of its ability to kind of take weather out of the equation. The kind of commonality is the retractable dome stadium, which is sort of an indoor, outdoor situation.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The idea is that depending on the current environmental conditions, the top of this stadium, this thing we call the dome, can retract or extend. Right. Further, shielding the players and the audience, to be honest, from the inclement weather. But in the early days of this concept, the stadium would have an entire dome over it. It would be an indoor stadium, a fixed dome.

[Noel Brown]

Right.

[Ben Bolin]

There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's talk about the Astrodome, with some help from our pal Rick over at the Society for American Baseball Research, also known as Sabre.

[Noel Brown]

That's right, Rick Schabowski. He talks about a rain out in the Astrodome. How is this even possible? It's domed, protected from the elements. The Houston Astros don't even have the traditional rain check printed on their tickets. That's where that term comes from. Yet on Tuesday, June 15th of 1976, the supposedly impossible happened. A game between the Astros and the Pittsburgh Pirates was postponed because of rain. Bench, how did this happen?

[Ben Bolin]

I'm so glad you asked, and I'm over the moon over the Dome that our research associate, Max, has helped us out with the answer. As Rick says, the day of the game, a powerful thunderstorm developed over the Houston area and was caused by humid, unstable atmospheric conditions along the Gulf Coast. These combined with a cold front extending from the Gulf all the way through Central Texas. It was similar to a tropical storm. Lots of rain that just kept coming down. Got to the point where you couldn't reach the Astrodome because the streets were flooding. Fans couldn't get to the stadium. The staff working the Astrodome, the folks who sell you those Cracker Jacks and hot dogs, they couldn't get there either.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, well, that's because the stadium itself is actually 45ft below ground level. So all of the lower ramps and entrances, you know, into the stadium, would have been absolutely impassable because of the flooding. So Schabowski poses the question, I think is on all of our minds, how did the players manage to arrive for the game without major issues? And he goes on to quote the Astros historian Acosta, who said that players started arriving around 1pm when it was still possible to get to the stadium. They had to be dressed by 3 or 3:30. The Pirates team bus made it through, as did the Astros coming by themselves.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah. And that again is Astros team historian Mike Acosta. It's true, folks. You can have an entire career as the historian of a single sports team, you know, and in some cases, a historian for a single individual in the world of sports. Shout out to everybody writing their dissertation on Kobe or Tiger as we speak. So as like, you nailed it. As the game is approaching, the weather is approaching as well. The Pirates and the Astros get into the venue in just enough time, but the weather is turning and there. This is where we go to the management of these teams, especially a guy named Tal Smith.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, it's up to him to kind of make the call to assess the situation. And he decided that it would be probably the smart move to postpone the game because of concern for fans and employees safety, not to mention the players themselves. So at 5pm it was announced that the game would be postponed essentially due to a rain delay situation because it was so heavy and it wasn't showing any signs of slowing.

[Ben Bolin]

Oh, nice. Is that a Willy Wonka reference?

[Noel Brown]

It has to be.

[Ben Bolin]

So. All right, so here's what happens. The local news is reporting this, and a lot of people are obviously aware of the weather and concerned and the streets are flooding. People can't make it to the game. A local TV reporter quotes a spokesman for the Astros who says, this wasn't exactly a rain out. It was a reign in. We do have. This is my favorite part of the story, though. This is the coolest part. Some fans are so die hard that they did make it to the stadium. And when they did, it was only about 20 of them. When they did, the Astros felt so bad that they said, all right, you know, we're not going anywhere, you guys. Let's.

[Noel Brown]

Everyone's stuck. I mean, the players aren't. Yeah, you're right.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, let's just grab some nosh, you know, let's all have dinner together. And so they went to the stadium cafeteria, except for the players. The actual baseball players ate on the field because it was covered and not flooding.

[Noel Brown]

Exactly. You know, this reminds me of like there's that. I think it's in the first season of the Sopranos where there's a huge storm in Jersey, you know, where the Soprano family lives and everyone kind of. All the main characters end up at Artie Bucco's restaurant. Who's the. He has gas so he can make them their linguine or whatever. And it becomes this like really lovely kind of family like you know, coda for the first season of the Sopranos.

[Ben Bolin]

And so an indoor stadium got rained out. If we go to infielder for the Astros at the time Rob Andrews, he says even on the next morning things were far from normal. The drive home was surreal. No one was on the road. As I got on the interstate by the dome, I had to weave through abandoned cars left, right where they stole the night before. I couldn't shake the feeling I was in some kind of world ending disaster flick.

[Noel Brown]

Oof. I think some of us here in Atlanta have experienced similar things with the Snowmageddon that plagued our fair city a handful of years ago. Pretty wild, very post apocalyptic vibes. Well, let's move on to another story of whether postponing the sort of end all be all of baseball events, the World series. See Gladiator 2 only in theaters November 22nd.

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That Japan won the 2023 World Baseball Classic. There's been three of them. The United States has never won one.

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But you know, it is what it is. But there have been throughout the history of this series, multiple games that have had to contend with, let's just call them kind of odd weather anomalies.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, let's go back to 1979 to the grand metropolis of Pittsburgh. The only game in all of World Series history that was canceled due to Snow was the first game of the 1979 Fall Classic between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Max, don't put a boo here. The Baltimore Orioles.

[Max Williams]

I love The Baltimore Orioles. They're one of my favorite teams.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, no.

[Ben Bolin]

Well, don't put a boo then.

[Noel Brown]

Don't. There's no need. No. No boo. No boo required.

[Ben Bolin]

And we're getting a lot of this from Mark Poleo writing for accuweather. Noel, do we have the details on how snow froze out the World Series?

[Noel Brown]

We do. Game one was supposed to take place on a Tuesday, October 9, but was postponed an entire day due to snow and freezing rain conditions in Baltimore. When it finally did take place the very next day, the first pitch temperature was the coldest in history. That is until 1997, when World Series Game 4 broke that record. Rain, however, fell throughout Game 1. It definitely wreaked some havoc on the precision of the players. Let's just say.

[Ben Bolin]

And for reference, World Series Game 4 in 1997 was between the Florida Marlins and the Guardians from Cleveland, who were going under a different name at the time.

[Noel Brown]

Exactly. And the rain caused six total errors between the two different teams. Game three also was plagued by rain delays, a 67 minute rain delay. However, the series was ultimately won in seven games by the Pirates.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, this feels a little bit like trench warfare. I don't think the players were having the best time ever. It was super cold. They had a wintry mix. You know what I mean?

[Noel Brown]

I hate a wintery mix. It's kind of a bummer if you think about it. You're like, this is like the biggest moment of your life for some of these players. And it's an absolute, you know, crap storm. Literally just not fun.

[Ben Bolin]

And a wintry mix is all the worst parts about cold weather and none of the cool, fun stuff.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. Like snow. Baseball sounds like it could. Could potentially be fun, but not wintery mixed baseball. Yeah.

[Ben Bolin]

So you can look at an article from the New York Times that gives step by step blows of just how messy this initial postponement was. This back and forth. And of course, our good friends at Sabre come in to outline just how difficult the conditions were during all seven games, especially game three. And you're absolutely right, Noel. It was not an ideal weather condition. But that's why we play baseball outside.

[Noel Brown]

It's true. Well, with that in mind, why don't we stick around the berg. That is Pitts, that's Pittsburgh. Let's go. Thank you. Let's go back just a couple more decades in history and find an even more ridiculous example of whether. Absolutely. Wreaking havoc with a World Series.

[Ben Bolin]

Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. The final game of the World Series in 1925 was between the Washington Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is considered one of the weirdest final. I know you don't like the word. One of the oddest final games in all of major league baseball history.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, on contrary, I like. I like weird. No, I get what you're putting down there. Yeah. I gotta say though, a battle between Senators and Pirates, classic seems like a no brainer. The Pirates are gonna win. Senators are a bunch of squares. Pirates have swords and grappling hooks and eye patches.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah. They also have a lot.

[Noel Brown]

What do the Senators have? Notebooks, ties?

[Ben Bolin]

I mean, hopefully some sort of moral compass. I walked down the street for that one, but. But yeah, the Pirates also historically will have parkour of some sort. Right? The Sailors parkour, which they all know.

[Noel Brown]

All kinds of knots.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, they're super into knots, those guys. Over 42,000 fans watch the Pirates try to succeed against a big deal pitcher for the Washington Senators, A guy named Walter Johnson.

[Noel Brown]

The Senators had a secret weapon, didn't they?

[Ben Bolin]

They sure did. That was like this guy is their cutlass, their Sailors parkour. All the stuff you named at once.

[Noel Brown]

All rolled into one.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, yeah, he's super good at pitching. It's like Walter's main thing. The only problem is that for these thousands of fans, they cannot see the game because there is thick fog and heavy rain. So they're. They're just cheering off vibes.

[Noel Brown]

Well, you know what? There's nothing wrong with vibes based activities. We fully support that here on ridiculous history and on stuff they don't want you to know. And Ben, the reason they had to resort to vibe checks is because of a thick fog that had descended onto the event, which I've been. Sorry, I'm sticking with my pirates theme here. It makes me think of the John Carpenter movie the Fog, about ghost pirates emerging from the fog. Sounds like a real spooky situation there. Heavy rain, thick fog, Writers in the press box couldn't even follow the action on the field.

[Ben Bolin]

Dude, the guy at the outfield couldn't see the infield.

[Noel Brown]

You talking about Goose Goslin?

[Ben Bolin]

What the hell?

[Noel Brown]

That's not a real person. Goose Gosling. That's incredible. He's both the Goose and the. Is he also the Gander? I'm sorry, I'm blown away by this name.

[Ben Bolin]

He's the Goose for sure. Yeah. We also see a journalist from the New York Times, a guy named James Harrison, who was at the scene and described the infield as a, quote, grave of mud.

[Noel Brown]

It was like Woodstock 94 during the Nine Inch Nails set. Yeah. Absolute mud, people.

[Ben Bolin]

So there was a weather related controversy that. You know how it is when you feel like the authorities at a sporting event make the wrong call. The fans are super pissed.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. And they can't see much better. So everyone's running off vibes and the vibes are starting to get nasty.

[Ben Bolin]

Tell us what happened.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. So in the eighth inning, Kiki Koer, it was a big deal on the Pirates. He hit a double, what's called a ground rule double, scoring the. Again, some of these terms are not in my lexicon, but the go ahead runs. Max, tell us what a ground rule double and go ahead runs are.

[Max Williams]

The ground rule double is when you hit a double that bounces out of play. So instead of people just being able to run, because instead of play, they just give you second base. Go ahead run runs, you go ahead.

[Noel Brown]

I see you just wave them on through.

[Max Williams]

Go ahead runs. Like you're like, you know, it's a six, six game. You score a run, you get that run right there. The one that made it seven to six is a go ahead run because you went ahead.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah. So this is bad news for the Senators. This is great news for the Pirates. But our buddy, the senator from the outfield, Goose.

[Noel Brown]

The honorable Senator Goose Goslin. Right.

[Ben Bolin]

From the outfield.

[Max Williams]

What's funny is he actually did serve two terms in the U.S. senate.

[Ben Bolin]

It.

[Noel Brown]

No, he did not.

[Max Williams]

Yeah, look it up.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. No one believes you. I believed you, Max, you rascal.

[Ben Bolin]

Hey, I believe in you guys.

[Noel Brown]

Max, I'm sorry I called you that horrible name. I didn't mean it.

[Ben Bolin]

So the. I think a team called the Rascals would be cool. So the issue is the umpires also cannot be authorities at this point. And the honorable senator from the outfield, Goose, says to reporters later, look, these umpires couldn't see it referring to the play. It was too dark and foggy. It wasn't fair at all. It was not a ground rule double. It was foul by two feet. I know, because the ball hit the mud and stuck there. Going back to the earlier grave of.

[Noel Brown]

Mud comment, Ben, this is literally a fog of war type situation.

[Ben Bolin]

I love that you pointed that out. I didn't even think about that. So it's true that the weather got in front of the game on top of the front on top of. Yes. You guys noticed. I stopped saying under the weather and I started saying the weather is on top of people.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, I clocked it, Ben.

[Ben Bolin]

No, you clocked it. No. Let's end today's exploration with the story of of Red Murray.

[Noel Brown]

Good old Red Murray. See Gladiator 2 only in theaters November 22nd.

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[Noel Brown]

Let's go back to the good old days of the MLB Major League Baseball and talk about how weather might have played a significant role in providing one of the most, I guess, remarkable and kind of beautiful moments in baseball history. Jay Guthrow and another excellent name, Dan Bonk. That's not nominative determinism. I don't know what is.

[Ben Bolin]

Also sounds like a crime in a different language.

[Noel Brown]

Dan Bonk writing for Sabre Again, the Society for American Baseball Research. He had this to say. This took place at Forbes Field, he said. While Forbes Field had its share of legendary home runs, Mazeroski's 1960 Game 7 World Series clout and Babe Ruth's final three, the Old park was the scene of some memorable defensive moments as well. Unassisted triple plays by Pirate shortstop Glenn Wright on May 7, 1925 and Cubs shortstop Jimmy Cooney on May 30, 1927. And the bare handed catch made by New York Giant right fielder red Murray on August 16, 1909. Not an actual Giant, a member of the team known as the New York Giants.

[Ben Bolin]

A giant in our hearts indeed. And also this leads us to an interesting side note about when people were allowed to use gloves for a time. Just so everybody knows, in the early days of baseball it was considered unsportsmanlike to use a mitt.

[Max Williams]

Interesting thing about cricket, they don't use mitts in cricket.

[Noel Brown]

Well, that's because they're real men.

[Ben Bolin]

Max, how does cricket work? What is what is a wicked that.

[Max Williams]

Is a two part podcast, Ben Right there. I cannot. I know in Common concept how cricket works, but I have you watched it? I've tried. I can't. Like I I I can watch it and what I've researched and learned doesn't click.

[Ben Bolin]

So all Right. So we're gonna do an episode on cricket. God be with us. We'll figure it out. Because I have to go back, you guys. I was watching that game live, and I was doing. I was like a Pirates fan in the fog. I was looking around. This is true. I was looking around to see when other people were clapping and cheering. I figured out the two groups that clapped and cheered at different times. I picked the group I liked the most and I beat. Me, Max. I went with that and I rolled with it, man.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, I respect that. I respect that.

[Ben Bolin]

I don't know.

[Noel Brown]

Adaptable.

[Ben Bolin]

It's also ethically fraud. But this is. This is an amazing catch by Red Murray. Again, the game, as you said, is between the Giants, who are now the San Francisco Giants, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. People were already thinking of this as a Wizard duel between the pitchers.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, a real face off between future hall of Famer Vi Willis and Christy Mathewson.

[Ben Bolin]

This is definitely a battle between the two pitchers. The Giants get an early lead in the top of the second inning, 2 0, and the Pirates get a run in the bottom of the third inning. However, we have to go to the final part of this battle. All right, so we're going past the seventh inning. Can we get some seventh inning stretch music?

[Noel Brown]

Oh, yeah, the stretch. I know the stret. It's the middle part, right?

[Ben Bolin]

It's like the penultimate part.

[Max Williams]

The part when they stop selling beer.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, bummer. Okay.

[Ben Bolin]

Is that what happens?

[Noel Brown]

It.

[Max Williams]

Not all. Not at all stadiums, but that's commonly.

[Noel Brown]

It's a good demarcation of time.

[Ben Bolin]

I'll tell you. I always thought that, being an Atlanta Braves fan, I always thought the seventh inning stretch was when people tried to get in front of traffic.

[Max Williams]

That is very much at at least a Turner Field. So the problem that happened at the infamous infield fly game is the infield fly problem happened right after they stopped selling beer. So everyone had plenty of projectiles to throw onto the field. Because they double. Double bought beer. Right.

[Ben Bolin]

They were double fisted.

[Noel Brown]

My. My analog for this in my, you know, stadium going. Life is leaving before the final encore of a band, Right?

[Ben Bolin]

Yes. Yeah. And so some people may have left during that seventh inning stretch. And if so, they must have historical fomo because at the bottom of the eighth inning, the Pirates turn the game around. And as they turn the game around, the weather.

[Max Williams]

Song. Sorry.

[Ben Bolin]

Well, you know, it's a mixtape, right?

[Noel Brown]

A ridiculous one. So what happens with the weather, Ben? It comes down, it changes things.

[Ben Bolin]

The fog rolls in. Let's go back to Sabre Noel, from what I understand, this gave a legendary pitcher a bit of a pickle. Christy Matheson was at a loggerhead, huh?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, he is. He has to make. He's sort of just biding his time a little bit. He's trying to stall. He hopes that the oncoming storm would work in his team's favor. However. And this is from Sabre. Legendary umpire Bill Clem ordered the bottom of the eighth to begin. Just the same. Mathewson delivered the first ball as a crash of thunder bellow, boom. Zigzag, flash of lightning lit the darkening grandstands. Good writing. Pinch hitter Ham Hyatt. These names, baseball names, what the heck? Met the ball and swatted a ringing triple to right.

[Ben Bolin]

The fireworks in the sky and on the field were followed by a brief lull during which Ed Abattacio was sent in to pinch run for Ham Hyatt. Matthewson did his best to kill time, but while the rain held patiently back, Abaticio came around to score on a sacrifice fly. So this is peak drama for the audience, you know what I mean? We've got the thunder, the rain, the lightning.

[Noel Brown]

I mean, I'm on the edge of my seat and I really don't care about sports. As I've mentioned, with the score tied, they go on. The storm's approach was heralded by multiple thunderous booms. Like the Costco guys were in the room. The next batter, Tommy Leach, belted a double to right. Hall of Fame gamers to be Fred Clark and Honus Wagner, I've heard of him, were coming up. The winds kicked up so much dust that the players were barely discernible from the stands.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, you get in situations, right? This is where the rain begins to fall, but the game must continue because the umpire called it. So. Our buddy Matheson is playing strategy, I would say, because if you're a pitcher at this level, you're not just blindly throwing different types of trick balls, you're thinking of strategy. So this guy is using kind of a chess mentality. He intentionally walks one guy, which you can only do if you're really good and really smart pitcher. As the weather gets worse and worse out there in the dark, Matheson's pitches become increasingly difficult to discern. But a guy named Dots Miller, since we're doing fun names, Dots Miller, like dippin Dots. He hits one of these balls out there in the dark and drives it deep into right center. Everybody runs. Our buddy Red Murray that we mentioned earlier is sprinting in an all out pursuit. Running like Forrest Gump, dude.

[Noel Brown]

Indeed. The the. The writers for Sabre go on. From the stands, the ball looked to be heading for the wall. A home run, or at least a two run triple. Seymour pulled up, apparently losing sight of the ball. Murray continued into the gap at full speed, stretching his bare right hand as far as he could, and snared the sailing liner just as another lightning bolt cracked behind him, framing his body and light.

[Ben Bolin]

So imagine this looks like a painting from the Renaissance. You know, we've got the right hand extended as if toward God and then the lightning in the backdrop. And then what's that? The ball not in the mitt, in this guy's hand.

[Noel Brown]

I had to have smarted a little bit. Yeah.

[Ben Bolin]

Oh, I'm sure.

[Noel Brown]

And then. And then there comes the rain. It opens up, douses the field. The game was called ending in a two to two tie. And one of the most remarkable and as they described the saber picturesque moments in baseball history.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, and after the game, right, It's a tie. So in terms of the sport itself, this is not ideal for either team, but this is amazing for fans of baseball, fans of the great triumph of sporting pursuits. The local papers are going nuts. People are saying this is the greatest catch ever made on a baseball field.

[Noel Brown]

Ever, never to be duplicated.

[Ben Bolin]

And these are only three examples, loosely put, of weird, weird stuff that has happened on a baseball field. Spoiler alert, folks. A lot of people got struck by lightning.

[Noel Brown]

My favorite part in what we've talked about today is when they all ate dinner together on the field.

[Ben Bolin]

I'm so hungry right now.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, I got some. I got some fuff from yesterday that I'm gonna.

[Ben Bolin]

Oh, it's perfect.

[Max Williams]

I can leave y'all with one. It's one we unfortunately cannot use because it literally happened this past season, but.

[Ben Bolin]

Oh, it's past the cut off. Yeah, yeah.

[Max Williams]

There was a game in Arizona earlier this year. Arizona has retractable roof and is also Arizona.

[Ben Bolin]

Arizona the state Arizona Diamondbacks versus somebody.

[Max Williams]

I don't remember who they're playing, but right before the game, a bee colony took up residence on the field. And. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it happened. But this is where the story gets great. So they have to get in, they have to get somebody in, take care of the bee thing. The game's postponed for like an hour and a half. And, you know, I watch, you know, a lot of baseball.

[Ben Bolin]

So I thought you were going to say you watch a lot of bees, but I'm in.

[Max Williams]

I watch a decent amount of bees. And so I was wondering. It was that night there wasn't really much going on in the late window. And I was like, what's going on with this one? So that happened. So they get the guy out there. It takes like 45 minutes. He goes up into a crane, he sprays it down, and he gets like a standing applause. And the Diamondbacks go around like, you know what? Come here, buddy. So still in his beekeeping outfit. He goes on the mound, throws out the first pitch for the game.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, that's kind of cute. I like that.

[Ben Bolin]

We should watch more bees, you guys.

[Noel Brown]

We should start keeping them.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, we should keep.

[Noel Brown]

Should have a ridiculous history bee, Colin. We'll take turns doing the. Doing the keeping duties.

[Ben Bolin]

It takes. A village will be a blended family for bees.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, we could generate some merch out of it. Some ridiculous history candles, perhaps some.

[Ben Bolin]

Okay.

[Noel Brown]

Some ridiculous history artisanal honeys.

[Ben Bolin]

All right, go on. You know, I buy that honey from a monastery.

[Noel Brown]

That's all I've got.

[Ben Bolin]

It was great. Those are absolute bangers. We are not joking about generating an apiary of some sort. It would be cool. We just need a little bit of initial investment.

[Noel Brown]

So a little seed capital.

[Ben Bolin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little hive capital. Right. So ridiculous historians, thank you as always so much for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did. Big, big thanks again to our super producer and research associate for this one, Mr. Max Williams.

[Noel Brown]

Indeed, Alex Williams, who composed our theme, Christopher Osceotis and Eve's Jeff Coates here in Spirit Age.

[Ben Bolin]

DJ Bahamas Jacobs, Rachel Big Spinach Lance. And of course, our number one weather delay, Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quister, and.

[Noel Brown]

The easy breezy, beautiful cover girl that is you, Ben.

[Ben Bolin]

Shucks, maybe it's Maybelline.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, it might be. And we'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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