The new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the players called for more off days during the 2018 season.
That was because players requested such to help out with travel, which is more complicated these days with interleague play and more coast-to-coast trips. But MLB and its players have no control over Mother Nature, which has given baseball one of the wettest springs in recent memory.
“It’s right up there,” Yankees rookie manager and former player Aaron Boone said late Wednesday afternoon.
Boone, an infielder for the Nationals in 2008, was standing in the bowels of Nationals Stadium less than one hour after both the restart of Tuesday night’s unfinished game and Wednesday night’s regularly scheduled contest were called due to the weather.
The rainouts spoiled an early-season battle between teams picked to be in the World Series by Sports Illustrated and poured cold water, so to speak, on any more Bryce Harper fodder for the New York City tabloids.
MLB says the games will be made up on June 18 at 5:05 p.m. The teams were slated to resume Tuesday’s suspended game at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday with the contest tied 3-3 going into the last of the sixth inning.
Both teams are off Thursday, but Nationals Park has been reserved that night for the annual MS benefit for Washington first baseman Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman told 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday, before the games were rained out, that his MS event was still slated to be held Thursday.
And there were concerns about available hotel rooms in the Washington area on Wednesday night for the Yankees. New York begins a series Friday night in Kansas City.
“I think there were hotel issues. There were Nationals issues with an event they had,” Boone said. “I was just told definitely yesterday Thursday was not an option” for a makeup date.
Now the Yankees will have a makeup doubleheader on June 4 in Detroit against the Tigers and then two weeks later be at Nationals Park for, in essence, a doubleheader.
“It is a challenge but one we have to meet. The expectation is we will handle it well and get to know each other even better,” said Boone, with a smile.
The Yankees will come to D.C. on June 18 to break up a homestand. The Nationals are at Toronto on June 17 and then begin a series at home with Baltimore on June 19.
“We will be fine. It’s not perfect,” Boone said of two doubleheaders in June. “I know we are not alone. It has been this way (with bad weather) for a lot of people.”
Washington manager Dave Martinez and players were not available to the media after Wednesday’s games were rained out.
Washington ace Max Scherzer (7-1, 1.69) was slated to pitch in the regular-scheduled game on Wednesday against the Yankees.
Is Boone happy not to face Scherzer?
“Always like facing the best. Especially when I don’t have to face him,” said Boone, who played 12 years in the majors.
The Yankees manager is the son of Bob Boone, a former catcher and vice president, senior advisor to the general manager, for the Nationals.
The Nationals are 24-18 and began Wednesday 1.5 games back of the first-place Atlanta Braves. The Yankees are 28-12 and started play Wednesday one game ahead of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East.
Washington is slated to begin a three-game series with the slumping Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday at Nationals Park. The Dodgers began play Wednesday with a record of 16-25.
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