ESPN Should Welcome Rain Delays More Often

ESPN had its Monday Night Baseball game of the Cubs-Astros all ready to go tonight, but an extended rain delay made for great TV. With the rain coming down and tarp going on at Wrigley, ESPN jumped around from game to game, showing fans a small morsel of almost all the games around the country tonight. And they had a knack for picking games at the right time.

In Texas, we saw a couple big home runs for the Rangers against the Yankees. In Tampa, we saw David Dellucci's moonshot for the Indians to give them the lead for good over the Rays. They also showed games that normally you would never see on national television, such as the Rockies-Nationals and the Pirates-Diamondbacks. Of course when they went to the Pirates game, the D-Backs were finishing a six-run eighth inning in a 13-7 win. They also sent us over to see Seattle's big comeback against the Twins as the Mariners put up a 10 spot in the seventh inning.

In the middle of this smorgasbord of games, the Cubs game got going again for a couple innings, but went to a delay again due to lightning in the area. It was eventually called a short time later. Before that though, ESPN capped off the live look-ins with the Angels-Orioles in what was the best game (or finish) of the night. With LA leading 5-1 in the ninth with two on and two out, the Angels summoned K-Rod in what would appear to be an easy save only needing one out for his 46th save of the season. That was not the case. Rodriguez got Roberts to ground to first base, but everybody was save after the ball skipped off Mark Teixeira for a fielding error. With the bases loaded, he served up a two-run single off Nick Markakis to cut the lead to 5-3. After a wild pitch that moved the runners into scoring position, Melvin Mora ripped a two-run double to tie the game. K-Rod stood shocked on the mound after only his fourth blown save of the year. The Angels went on to win it in the bottom of the inning, but at the point the Cubs game was over and we were sent to Sportscenter.

I don't say this often, but kudos to ESPN for not leaving us with John Kruk and Buster Olney for the entire length of the rain delay to hear them yap on telling rain delay stories. I felt like I had the MLB Extra Innings package as we jumped around from game to game all night. Maybe ESPN can just schedule nights where we see 8-10 different games. That would be fantastic, but I'm sure contract obligations and what not get in the way of that. Maybe I can just pray for rain delays on Monday and Wednesday nights. Either way, one thing is for sure. Tonight was a lot more fun watching that then any Cubs-Astros game has even been.