Did Larussa Cheat?

[Starscream]

Please no Reds fans or Cards fans vote in this thread.



Did La Russa cheat with the rain delay?

Dusty Baker is obviously very unhappy about how information concerning the weather forecast was handled last night. Is there a chance the matter will be referred to Major League Baseball?

“I haven’t talked to Walt (Jocketty) about it,” he said. “What can MLB do? Forfeit the game? Give it back to us? You can’t fault the umpires. They told me we’ve got a window here. It’s going to rain some time tonight and we’re going to play through it, based on what they were told.”

The umpires told Baker that at home plate as they went over the ground rules. The head umpire supported that version.

“They told us we had a window of an hour. That window turned into two minutes,” crew chief John Hirschbeck told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The game was delayed for two hours, 10 minutes during the top of the first. That meant Reds starter Edinson Volquez couldn’t pitch after warming up.

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was asked if the Cardinals considered not starting the game, given the forecast.

“The forecasts were flying fast and furious,” he told reporters. “They’re just guessing. You don’t know what’s going to happen. But right after we announced it was starting on time — around 7:05 — somebody said it was raining at (Interstate) 270 and they thought it’d be here in 15 minutes. By then, it’s pretty tough to back off.

“Sure enough, five minutes into the game it’s raining.”

At home the Reds rely on reports from stadium operations chief Declan Mullin.

“I don’t know if he’s the best weatherman around,” Baker said. “But it seems like he can predict in minutes.”

Baker said he wasn’t told until 15 minutes before game time that Kyle McClellan wasn’t starting. McClellan reportedly was told at 75 minutes before the game.

Again, Baker was not happy.

“Yeah, I lost my pitcher,” he said. “We lost the game. I was upset because we still had action on winning that game.”

I'm obviously biased and think that La Russa is a dirty manager. He does a lot of shady things, and this one just adds to his record.

Once again, no Reds or Cards fans vote on this poll.