It was a beautiful day for baseball in Philadelphia, as it turned out. The temperature reached into the low 80s, the air was booming, and at least in the early innings Kyle Schwarber had the benefit of a wind blowing toward the right field bleachers.
So how was the Phillies’ opener against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday postponed?
The decision was made late Wednesday as the National Weather Service was recording an 85% chance of showers during the game, and at least one computer model showed harvesting lightning.
A private local weather service maintained by the Phillies, Bobby Martrich, a meteorologist with EPAWA, has indicated that a window to play the game may be open.
In the case of the April showers, he said, it’s hard to tell the timing 24 hours in advance, but he saw an outside chance that rain might miss Citizens Bank Park entirely.
The Phillies also consult with two national forecast services, and Major League Baseball, which had ultimate responsibility for issuing the decision to postpone, maintains its own weather services.
Howard Smith, Phillies vice president of business, said that had it not been for the opening game, which involved a lot of planning and celebration, an effort might have been made to play the game.
The decision was likely influenced by the fact that games in both Baltimore and New York were rescheduled.
Officially, the decision to postpone the Phillies-Reds game was in the hands of Major League Baseball because local teams only make those calls for divisional games, and then only for the first half of the season. However, league officials were consulting with the Phillies on Wednesday before making the decision.
The Phillys won’t be afraid of rain on Friday, but it will be 20 degrees cooler.