Thursday's temperatures were anything but mild--and would have been at home in late November. The day's 44-degree official high equaled readings observed here for the date in 1876, 1909 and 1943--each tying as Oct. 15's coldest on record. The tenacious cold spell--which is to last into Sunday morning before breaking--produces a 19th day of below normal temperatures Friday and limits highs to the 40s for a 7th consecutive day--the most ever so early in the season. Chicago's average temperature over the month's first 15 days slipped Thursday to 47.3-degrees---the city's chilliest October open in the 133 years since 1876. Not only has it been cool---it's been cloudy and wet. Rain has fallen 10 of the past 15 days and has totaled 2.13 inches---nearly an inch (0.85) above normal. The damp weather has allowed only 38 percent of October's possible sunshine to date---58 percent is typical.
Things aren't much better in the New York area, where snow fell within 50 miles of Yankee Stadium last night and where there is at least an 80% chance of rain and cold temperatures through Sunday.
This creates a real scheduling problem for the ALCS; they do have off days on Sunday and Wednesday, which they could use for rescheduling postponements. However, Fox, which is carrying the ALCS, won't want a Sunday day game, as they are committed to NFL telecasts during the afternoon. If there's a postponement and there's a game rescheduled for Sunday night, that would affect game 3 -- which is now scheduled to be played Monday afternoon in Anaheim. Further, that would mess up Yankee manager Joe Girardi's plan to use only three starting pitchers in the series; he'd probably be forced to let Chad Gaudin start game four. The mind boggles -- Chad Gaudin, who a year ago was recovering from an injury to his back suffered when he fell into or onto a trash dumpster, had a terrible spring for the Cubs and was released, might start a game in the American League Championship Series.
What a mess. And it's not necessarily anyone's fault for scheduling these games in mid-October; the average high in New York for today is 63 degrees.
Meanwhile, there are no such problems in Los Angeles for today's NLCS game two; it's going to be sunny and unseasonably hot in LA this afternoon, possibly as warm as 92 degrees.
Phillies at Dodgers, 3:07 pm CDT. Phillies lead series 1-0. TV: TBS. Announcers: Chip Caray, Buck Martinez and Ron Darling.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA and Phillies site The Good Phight.
Angels at Yankees, 6:57 pm CDT. TV: Fox. Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Angels site Halos Heaven and Yankees site Pinstripe Alley.
Once again, no overflows scheduled today. If you need one, post it in the FanShot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.