Baseball in the snow, rain, heat or gloom of night? Not exactly

It seems Major League Baseball would like to think of itself as the equivalent of the United States Postal Service.

Would Chicago baseball really be better if this monstrosity had been built nearly 30 years ago? Image provided by StadiumPage.com

You know, that jazz about snow, rain, heat or gloom of night not keeping the postman from fulfilling his rounds? Professional baseball teams began their 2018 season back on March 29 with the same theory that they weren’t going to let inclement weather prevent them from playing their games.

THAT’S NOT QUITE the reality of this season, which is now about two-and-a-half weeks old.

All throughout the East coast and Midwest – whose ball clubs are the heart-and-soul of professional baseball – there have been reports of teams playing in crummy weather (rain and snow) on occasion. Although the inclement weather has been more likely to cancel ballgames.

Just this weekend, the Chicago White Sox traveled to Minneapolis for what was supposed to be a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins – only to have three of the games cancelled due to snow. No word yet on when those games will be made up – other than the fact that having to make up that many games in one shot will be an inconvenience later this season.

Sunday was Jackie Robinson Day across baseball, but ...

In fact, the White Sox have had four of their 16 scheduled games thus far called due to inclement weather. That’s one-quarter of the season.

IT’S NOT JUST the White Sox. The Chicago Cubs had their Opening Day last week delayed due to snow. On Sunday, their Wrigley Field game against the Atlanta Braves was postponed due to this weekend’s heavy rainfall. Which means we won’t get to see either Chicago ball club take part in the annual April 15 tribute to Jackie Robinson and professional baseball’s racial integration where everybody wears uniform number 42.

... since neither Chicago team played, ...

Some people might have rejoiced in the Saturday ballgame in which the Cubs came from behind to win 14-10. But Cubs manager Joe Maddon grumbled about the rain that soaked the playing field so thoroughly he was convinced the ballgame should never have been played.

... No. 42 locally remains with these two

Moments like this get a certain type of person all worked up in saying baseball is stupid for even bothering to play ballgames this time of the year. They should know better than to fight against Mother Nature, because she’s a tough ol’ broad who never loses.

Some argue baseball shouldn’t begin play until sometime in May. While others argue that the first few weeks of the season should all be played in southern or west coast cities – or in places where the locals built stadiums with the retractable roofs that could keep the field (and fans) dry while games take place.

IT’S AN ARGUMENT I really don’t buy into – largely because I could see how it would put teams at a disadvantage if they had to play the first few weeks of the season on the road.

The first ballgame ever in Toronto (1977) saw White Sox infielder Jack Brohamer having to be innovative to get across the snow-covered turf of Exhibition Stadium

Plus, I’m sure those west coast and southern cities with teams would complain about having to stage so many of their home games so early in the season – which would wind up with them being road-bound at season’s end. If they’re actually contending for a league pennant, that would seriously stink.

But why I really don’t get into the idea is the fact that, as I wrote earlier, those Midwestern and Eastern cities are the ones with the long-standing baseball franchises with history and tradition.

Sun-shiny days like this will be with us soon enough

Part of that “tradition” is that fans know if they’re going to attend an early-season game, you bundle up to cope with the weather. It’s part of the reason why baseball attendance goes up come June – that and the coming of summer break means kids attending a game can actually contemplate staying for the whole thing (10:30 p.m. is NOT an uncommon finishing time for a ballgame).

YES, IT WAS kind of freakish last week when on the same day the Cubs’ Opening Day game at Wrigley Field was delayed because of snow, the White Sox managed to play (their home Opening Day had been the week before, so it was just an ordinary ballgame).

Official attendance for that game was just over 10,000 tickets sold (which is probably mostly the season ticket base), although reports indicated only about 900 people showed up – and I saw one broadcast type who said her personal count of people in the stands was about 300.

It’s quirks like this that can make baseball and its fans interesting – far more than those people who think ball clubs are entitled to have 40,000-or-so capacity crowds for all 81 home games.

So no, I’m not for delaying the start of baseball. For I actually get a jolt from seeing regular-season games taking place in the cool of a Midwestern spring. I also see the presence of baseball as evidence that these outbursts of wintry-like weather are merely the final strands of winter – and that we’ll soon move on to complaining about the 100-degree temperatures and how “It’s too hot!” to live here.

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Putting legal process on trial? ‘Hurry up and wait’ takes longer these days

It has been more than a couple of decades since I regularly hung around courthouses in my reporter-type person duties. Yet the general rule of thumb I remember was that it usually took a court case about two years to make its way through the legal procedure.

The Criminal Courts building looks similar in some ways. But the legal process seems to be getting more and more drawn out.

 

Back in 1989 and early 1990 when I was a regular reporter at the Criminal Courts Building, or roaming around the various suburban courthouses, I covered many a trial of events that took place in 1987.

SO IT IS with that memory in mind that I noticed a Chicago Tribune story that previewed the upcoming trial of Allan Kustok, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday at the courthouse in suburban Bridgeview.

Kustok is a man who has the image of a respectable pillar of society. Except that he now faces criminal charges for the slaying of his wife.

Back on Sept. 29, 2010!

The case is going to get its share of attention in coming weeks because Allan and his now-deceased wife Jeanie had two children who became athletes of some prominence at area universities.

BUT TO ME, the idea that this case took three-and-a-half years to get through the process so that a trial could be held is what is truly notable about this case.

I realize that criminal trials are not something to be rushed into – even though I’m sure the people who view themselves as “law and order” types (they’re really borderline fascists who want a justice system to bully others) wish they could be.

Delays can be just as lengthy at the federal complex

I also recall one of the most humorous moments I ever experienced in a courtroom was once hearing a woman tell someone else “We’re going to have a trial today” because her brother had been killed the day before.

Actually, it was just a bond hearing that day, and if I recall right, the defendant in question pleaded guilty about a year-and-a-half later. Which means there never was a trial.

BUT IT JUST seems like cases are taking longer and longer to work their way through the process. It was last month that Roy Valle, a former village clerk in suburban Lynwood, pleaded guilty to criminal charges for a February 2011 car collision that killed another woman.

He’s now a man in his mid-60s serving a six-year prison sentence. Not a pleasant experience for him, I'm sure. But it took nearly three full years for that case to get through the legal process – and it ended in a plea.

No trial necessary.

It’s not even just the Cook County Circuit Court system that has the delays. As I wrote last week, state Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, faces charges in U.S. District Court based on claims by prosecutors who say he was bribed for his government actions.

IF HE IS found guilty, he will have to give up his legislative post.

Yet Smith is now on the ballot for his third term in the Illinois House of Representatives, even though he was indicted in his first term. This is now becoming the ongoing joke of the local election cycles – that an indicted legislator will continue to get himself re-elected (because the opposition can’t come up with a credible candidate)!

I find the delay to be more troubling than the re-election of an indicted goof (who, theoretically, is innocent until proven otherwise).

And yet it isn’t just these three cases.

THE CRIMINAL COURT facilities truly are nothing more than a factory these days, watching as cases creep their way through the process of discovery (by which attorneys for prosecution and defense exchange information so that everybody is properly prepared for a trial – should a case come to that).

And with many people facing the process of sitting through hours of time every time they have to show up at a courthouse, the idea that a case can get endless continuances after just a few minutes goes so far as to create the idea that these cases linger on indefinitely.

Which makes that whole legal concept of how people are entitled to a speedy trial seem like a bigger joke than the idea that the Chicago Cubs will someday win something of significance.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Currently, I do some work for one of the daily newspapers in the suburbs, and occasionally have to show up at courthouses in Cook County. My superficial observation about change is that they seem not to. In that they look grungier as if they haven’t been cleaned since the days I was a courthouse regular, and sometimes I sit in a busted courtroom seat that I could swear was busted all those decades ago too.

Preoccupied with my mother

My mother, Juanita Tejeda (nee Vargas) died Saturday night. She was 66, and had been undergoing treatment related to diabetes for the past decade.

All of which means I will be preoccupied for the next few days, and will be too busy to be posting regular commentary at this weblog. I hope to resume soon, once my life and that of my brother, Christopher, get back to normal.

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