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Even the Cubs' ground crew is bush-league.
The difference is, their screw-up actually won a game for the beleaguered North Siders. Against the Giants, of course. 
http://blog.sfgate.com/giants/2014/08/20/details-of-sf-giants-protest-rules-were-not-properly-applied/
The Giants formally filed a protest with Major League Baseball this morning, citing Rule 4.12 (a)(3) and claiming the Cubs’ grounds crew didn’t do what umpires requested Tuesday night at Wrigley Field....
Baer wouldn’t provide specifics of the protest, but the issue concerning the Giants is that the umpires directed the grounds crew to cover the field – and the grounds crew didn’t comply.
The crew brought the tarp onto the infield crookedly, and the weight of the water from the rainstorm prematurely ended their efforts to cover it fully. As a result, areas around the plate and on the left side of the infield were exposed to more rain.
When the tarp was removed after the rain stopped, the infield was covered in water. After a 4-hour, 34-minute delay, umpire crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt deemed the field unplayable and called the game, giving the Cubs a 2-0 victory even though just 4 ½ innings were played.
Baer wouldn’t provide specifics of the protest, but the issue concerning the Giants is that the umpires directed the grounds crew to cover the field – and the grounds crew didn’t comply.
The crew brought the tarp onto the infield crookedly, and the weight of the water from the rainstorm prematurely ended their efforts to cover it fully. As a result, areas around the plate and on the left side of the infield were exposed to more rain.
When the tarp was removed after the rain stopped, the infield was covered in water. After a 4-hour, 34-minute delay, umpire crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt deemed the field unplayable and called the game, giving the Cubs a 2-0 victory even though just 4 ½ innings were played.
Hoo boy. If they end up losing the division, or being shut out of $elig's goofy play-in game
, by one game... 
11 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Bush-league indeed
The Chicago Cubs denied an assertion by the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday that the tarp debacle earlier in the week against the San Francisco Giants happened because the club short-staffs the grounds crew at Wrigley Field in order to avoid paying health insurance.
A surprising storm at Wrigley on Tuesday night caused a long delay because chief Roger Baird's working crew couldn't get the tarp — which had become saturated with water as it was unfurled — to cover the infield quickly enough. With field conditions unplayable even 4 1/2 hours after the rain stopped, umpires called the game in favor of the Cubs, who were leading in the bottom of the fifth inning. In a surprising but just turn of events, Major League Baseball upheld a protest by the Giants, and the teams resumed the suspended game Thursday. The Cubs won 2-1, but not before being thoroughly embarrassed.
Thoroughly, but not completely. That's if the Sun-Times report, which cites several unnamed sources within and outside the organization, is true:
A surprising storm at Wrigley on Tuesday night caused a long delay because chief Roger Baird's working crew couldn't get the tarp — which had become saturated with water as it was unfurled — to cover the infield quickly enough. With field conditions unplayable even 4 1/2 hours after the rain stopped, umpires called the game in favor of the Cubs, who were leading in the bottom of the fifth inning. In a surprising but just turn of events, Major League Baseball upheld a protest by the Giants, and the teams resumed the suspended game Thursday. The Cubs won 2-1, but not before being thoroughly embarrassed.
Thoroughly, but not completely. That's if the Sun-Times report, which cites several unnamed sources within and outside the organization, is true:
Good thing they suck. Otherwise I'd have to root against them!
