Rockies-Marlins Snow-Out Is First Postponed Game Of 2010, Longest Streak To Open Season Since 1985

Apr 24, 2010, 3:59 AM UTC

Friday’s snow-out of the Rockies-Marlins game in Denver represents the first postponed game of the 2010 Major League Baseball campaign. According to MLB.com, the nearly three week stretch of no postponed games to open the season was the longest such mark since 1985. This is only the second time since 1960 that a season had gone so long with no PPDs.

â†µAll told, 235 games had been completed before Friday’s tilt was called. As Tom Singer notes, there have been a few close calls, however:

â†µâ†µ• On April 11, the Braves and the Giants played an unscheduled “doubleheader” of rainfall and ball, waiting out a delay of four hours and nine minutes at AT&T Park before San Francisco could post a 6-3 win.
â†µ• On April 16, the Reds-Pirates game in PNC Park was held up an hour and nine minutes by rain.
â†µ• Rain “held over” last Friday’s Tampa Bay-Boston game in Fenway Park, which had to be suspended when tied in the ninth inning and completed the following night.
â†µ• On that same evening, the Yankees had to play only part-time for a 5-1 win over the Rangers, curtailed to six innings by rain after a wait of an hour and five minutes.

â†µâ†µThat 1985 streak of non-postponed games was remarkable. Opening Day that year was on April 8th, and the first postponed game was on May 20th, an amazing 43 days later.

â†µJust three years ago baseball was plagued with a number of early season postponements. In 2007, after a major snowstorm in Cleveland wiped out the first four Indians home games, the Indians traveled to Milwaukee to open their “home” schedule against the Angels. Subsequently, there were a number of calls for a dome and Sunbelt heavy April slate across the game. However, this very idea had been partially implemented in 1997, when the first week of the games were kept out of the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Nevertheless, the next week there were a number of postponements on the East Coast, and the idea of tweaking the schedule seems to have been scrapped as mostly unworkable.

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