Eric Hinske shivered in the Tampa Bay dugout in Philadelphia last October, the final game of the World Series playing out in the slop of a rainstorm. It was no way to decide a champion, and the game was suspended in the seventh inning.It was warm enough on Saturday, but the rain in the Bronx was so heavy that Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels did not even start. The game was postponed until Sunday at 8:20 p.m., just another day off in a series that has been full of them.The Angels and the Yankees have played five games, three of them riveting, one-run dramas. But there have also been four days off. Two have been the customary travel days, one aday off between Games 4 and 5, and now the rainout.The reason for the elongated schedule is the recent change in the start of the World Series. From 1985 through 2006, the World Series was scheduled to start on a Saturday. Then baseball and the networks concluded that Saturday was a dead night for ratings. They built a few extra days into the schedule, which pushed Game 1 to a Wednesday.The uneven pace of the postseason is an adjustment for players who are used to being in the lineup every day. As the Yankees took batting practice in their indoor cage Saturday, Mark Teixeira mentioned that to Jerry Hairston Jr.The Yankees are sticking with their plan to start Andy Pettitte in Game 6, even though C. C. Sabathia could now start on four days’ rest. Manager Joe Girardi said Sabathia would start Game 7 on Monday, if necessary.Pettitte was one of the few players to venture outside the drenched dugouts on Saturday. He has won four postseason clinchers in his career, but another chance will have to wait.“We all wanted to play, and we’re ready to play,” the Yankees’ Nick Swisher said. “Sometimes, rain happens. You can’t stop it. We don’t have a roof. Maybe they can put a roof up?”Alas, that was not included in the $1.5 billion budget for the new Yankee Stadium.
Eric Hinske shivered in the Tampa Bay dugout in Philadelphia last October, the final game of the World Series playing out in the slop of a rainstorm. It was no way to decide a champion, and the game was suspended in the seventh inning.It was warm enough on Saturday, but the rain in the Bronx was so heavy that Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels did not even start. The game was postponed until Sunday at 8:20 p.m., just another day off in a series that has been full of them.The Angels and the Yankees have played five games, three of them riveting, one-run dramas. But there have also been four days off. Two have been the customary travel days, one aday off between Games 4 and 5, and now the rainout.The reason for the elongated schedule is the recent change in the start of the World Series. From 1985 through 2006, the World Series was scheduled to start on a Saturday. Then baseball and the networks concluded that Saturday was a dead night for ratings. They built a few extra days into the schedule, which pushed Game 1 to a Wednesday.The uneven pace of the postseason is an adjustment for players who are used to being in the lineup every day. As the Yankees took batting practice in their indoor cage Saturday, Mark Teixeira mentioned that to Jerry Hairston Jr.The Yankees are sticking with their plan to start Andy Pettitte in Game 6, even though C. C. Sabathia could now start on four days’ rest. Manager Joe Girardi said Sabathia would start Game 7 on Monday, if necessary.Pettitte was one of the few players to venture outside the drenched dugouts on Saturday. He has won four postseason clinchers in his career, but another chance will have to wait.“We all wanted to play, and we’re ready to play,” the Yankees’ Nick Swisher said. “Sometimes, rain happens. You can’t stop it. We don’t have a roof. Maybe they can put a roof up?”Alas, that was not included in the $1.5 billion budget for the new Yankee Stadium.
