After what seems like an eternal wait for the season to begin, Rays fans were forced to hang on just another day for the first pitch of the 2009 campaign.
Monday's opener, an ALCS rematch against the Red Sox was pushed back to today because of heavy rain forecast for the area around Fenway Park throughout Monday afternoon and evening.
The decision was announced just four hours before the scheduled first pitch, with most of the Rays players and coaches still at the team hotel, and no one seemed concerned that the delay would have any impact today's events.
"The weather's not going to be good, and I much prefer that we wait under those circumstances," Rays manager Joe Maddon said Monday as the drops began to fall. "As opposed to battling through inclement weather again, I'd rather do it this way."
Considering the last official contest they played, way back in game five of the World Series, took three days to complete because of poor weather, the Rays are used to this sort of delay.
Starting pitcher, James Shields, was not the only one to mention that this situation could have been avoided if the Rays had been the home team. "We definitely wouldn't mind being at the Trop right now because we wouldn't have this problem," Shields said.
Hopefully they won't have any problems today, and we can get the season off to a winning start. It's been a long time since Rays fans looked forward with such optimism, let's hope it is well founded.
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