On the Yankees beat

It was mid-way through Joe Torre's pre-game session with the media in the Yankees' dugout that the rain started falling heavy enough for this blogger to seek some shelter. So I kidded the Yankees' manager about wrapping up his anecdotes so I wouldn't get soaked. He obliged and ended his session with a laugh, but rain remained Sunday's story.
A visit to the field revealed puddles on the tarp and more puddles on the warning track but assurances from stadium personnel that the field would drain properly. Then, a quick peek into the room under the seats where the grounds crew gathered and watched radar projections. They told us "a six-hour deluge is coming up from Philadelphia in about 30 minutes."
Then GM Brian Cashman held court in the basement pressroom moments later and confirmed that he heard the 1 o'clock game might not start until 7 or 8. Would that be a delayed start for the early game or an on-time start for the scheduled night game? Cashman laughed and said, "That's not my job. I'm in charge of baseball, not scheduling."
So I settled in for a long afternoon of sitting around The Stadium with a bunch of other baseball writers in similar predicaments. Then we got a surprising announcement: The tarp was coming off the field and the game would start at 1:50, only about 45 minutes late. Sure enough, at 1:53, Mike Mussina delivered his first pitch to Alfredo Amezaga, the Marlins' leadoff hitter, and lo and behold, we were watching baseball not weather maps. For how long, none of us knew, but it sure felt good, even if the only thing more unpredictable than the weather is what happens on a baseball field.