Under current Major League Baseball rules, if an in-progress game has to be called off due to rain or other factors, it will be considered a “complete game” if five innings have been completed, and whichever team had more runs at that point will be declared the winner.
This is why I have always been puzzled by this Norman Rockwell painting, which appeared on the cover of the April 23, 1949 issue of the Saturday Evening Post:
It depicts a game between Pittsburgh and Brooklyn. It’s the top of the 6th inning, and Pittsburgh is ahead, 1-0. It is starting to rain, and the umpires appear to be considering whether to call the game. Behind the umpires, the Brooklyn manager is laughing in the face of the Pittsburgh manager.
Under the current rule, the Brooklyn manager would have been unhappy at this turn of events, as the game would be ruled “complete”, with Pittsburgh winning 1-0. Brooklyn has lost the chance to possibly come from behind.
That leads me to believe that the 5-inning rule must have been introduced at some later date. Anybody know when it was introduced?
ETA: The term should be “official game”, not “complete game”
I think Pittsburgh is at bat and the guy in the gray uniform is a Pittsburgh player on base, there are two Brooklyn players in the field in white uniforms. So the manager in white is from Brooklyn, and the Pittsburgh manager is laughing.
I don’t know when the rule started though. It seems to have been in place for pitcher’s win stats going pretty far back.
No, the manager in white is the Pittsburgh guy - note the black and yellow piping, and he’s still wearing his hat. The hat in the hand of the laughing manager is clearly a Brooklyn cap.
But yeah, looking at the players in the background contradicts the scoreboard. I hadn’t noticed that.
Also, the scoreboard shows that Pittsburgh is the visiting team, so they should be in grey uniforms, not white.
So never mind my question. I’m just going to charge Rockwell with an Error.
I think the happy-faced Brooklyn manager is trying to argue that the sun is coming out and the game shouldn’t be called. If you look toward the outfield, the sky is nice and blue.
Well there’s an interesting resolution. I never would have gone so far to figure out which team was which on my own. Rockwell amazes me, this image and those details of circumstance just add so much breadth and depth to his images, which have a beauty in their own right. Those still pictures seem to be alive to me, maybe my brain anticipating how it will continue if I release the pause button. This isn’t just a picture of a baseball game, it’s a picture of competition, argument, anticipation and dread. Simply brilliant.
And yes I see that the laughing manager has a B on his hat, he’s definitely from Brooklyn. Just look at the faces on those umpires! Again, brilliant.
It’s definitely the bottom of the sixth, not the top. The scoreboard shows a zero for the top of the sixth, and a blank for the bottom, meaning that the top of the inning is completed but not the bottom.
The player in the background to the left is a Pittsburgh fielder. You can see Pittsburgh written on his shirt, and he is holding a glove. His uniform is gray, as the visitor’s uniform should be.
The uniforms of the two players in the background to the right look whiter, but I think that’s because they are standing in sunlight. While unclear, it looks like the one facing us has Pittsburgh on his shirt, and they are both holding gloves.
Given the explanation posted, it seems that the Pittsburgh manager is miming being cold and wet, rather than being unhappy.
It’s weird that this piece is called “Game Called Because of Rain” in some places and “Tough Call” in others. The latter title makes way more sense given the content of the art.
The Pittsburgh manager is in gray. You can’t see much of the uniform of the Brooklyn manager except for his sleeve and leg, but they are whiter than that of the other manager.
Yeah, that was my mistake. I listen to baseball on the radio, rather than watching on TV, and it’s been quite a while since I saw a game in person. I forgot that no score is displayed for the half-inning until either the batting team scores, or the half-inning ends.
I’ll blame my monitor, then. It looks quite white to me (but yeah, so does what I can see of the other manager’s uni). I regularly see a print of this painting, and the Pirates manager’s uniform also looks white there, but the print has been hanging there for years and may have faded.
Anyway, thanks for the replies. That painting had been bugging me for years!
Another note: The scoreboard shown in the background was in right field in Ebbets Field. Right field is always on the westerly side of the ballpark.* Any storm would be heading westerly, so the dark clouds have to be moving away from the park.
Realistically, given what you see, the game would be delayed, not declared official. It’s not even raining hard enough to stop play.
Right field and the scoreboard were on the east side of Ebbets Field.
Rule 1.04 states that it is desirable for ballparks to be oriented so that the line from the pitchers plate to second base runs East-Northeast, putting right field to the South-Southeast, so that the afternoon sun is not in the batter’s eyes. However, many MLB parks deviate from this (although none are oriented toward the west).
This orientation is also the reason a left-handed pitcher is called a southpaw, since his left hand will be to the south when he is facing the batter.
