Ok, so I’m pretty new to baseball, so I assume there’s a lot I don’t know yet. But we’ve been going to games all summer (Lakewood Blue Claws here in NJ) and loving it.
On Saturday night, we went to a game and found that the previous night’s game had been called in the 3rd inning due to rain. So they finished that game up, ending 1-0 finally in the 9th.
Then the actual scheduled game started, and we watched it…right up until the end of the 6th inning, when the score was 3-2 at 11:30 PM. And just like the scoreboard lights up with “We Win!!!” and the players jump and down congratulating each other.
What did I miss? I was following the game quite closely—it’s not like I was drinking beer and chatting with friends and lost track of time. The scoreboard was quite clearly still on the 6th inning. My wife, daughter and I were all equally perplexed. Why would a game end in the 6th inning like that?
Actually, your game lasted 7 innings, here’s the box score. As for why it only last 7 (the home team doesn’t bat in the bottom of the last inning if they’re ahead), I have no idea. Still looking…
I didn’t realize it was still in practice, but it used to be common for minor league twi-night double headers to end after seven innings. The first game would go nine full innings and then the second would end after seven.
I was never sure of the reasoning behind it, but I’ve seen it happen several times.
Some minor leagues have the rule that each single-event game lasts nine innings, unless called for rain after the fifth (at which point it is deemed a complete game), but…
If a game begins and is halted prior to the firth inning, to be played out prior to the next official game between the teams, or if a double-header is scheduled, either both games or the second game of the planned or impromptu-due-to-rescheduling doubleheader is to be a seven-inning game.
I suppose that explains why no one else there seemed confused. Of course, because of the length of the game, the rain earlier in the day and then the temperature dropping, there was hardly anyone left in he stadium by the 7th inning anyway. It’s almost July and we’re freezing our butts off at night because of the miserable weather here.
If you’ll take the #$#@! rain with you then you can have the cold. Yesterday was the first day since 5/30 that it hasn’t rained in my town for at least part of the day. My daughter started playing softball at the end of May, and has had a grand total of 2 practices and a game because of the rain.
And they don’t sell crab, that I know of. Nor do they wear blue. Nor is their mascot a crab. I was a bit surprised by all of that myself.
