It's Mother's Day, and that means something bizarre is going to happen at Wrigley Field, either weather-wise, baseball-wise, or both.
How do I know this? Here is the evidence from the last three years of games played on Mother's Day:
2002: After two hours of rain delays, and no evidence that the game was going to be played (I didn't even go), the Cubs got blown out by the Brewers 13-4. Included in the carnage was a grand slam by Brewers backup catcher Raul Casanova, his only homer that season. It was the first of a nine-game losing streak. And oddly, it featured the same starting pitchers who went yesterday: Glendon Rusch for Milwaukee and Jon Lieber for the Cubs.
2003: This was the famous Monsoon Game with the Cardinals, where it was raining sideways. They never did get an official game in. Here's what I wrote about it at the time.
2004: It was 80 degrees last year, but that didn't stop the strange from happening. There were three short rain delays in the sixth, ninth and tenth innings, and it took 13 innings before the Cubs outlasted the Rockies 5-4. Rusch was again involved, getting the win in relief.
So, much as we like Glendon Rusch, perhaps it's a good thing that he'll be viewing today's game from the dugout.
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Myers is third in the league in strikeouts (tied with Javier Vazquez and Roger Clemens); Z is eleventh. The wind should be blowing out. Expect weirdness.
Discuss amongst yourselves.