Monday on Sunday

Hohokam about 1:05 today

It wasn’t raining upon my arrival at Hohokam this morning, I thought, we might get lucky and squeeze this game in…no such luck. It started to sprinkle early but the Cubs were able to get most of bp done until they were forced off the field by rain. Then the wait came, as it rained off and on for about the next two hours. The Sky lightened and the rain stopped around 12:30 but it soon started again before the Cubs called an official rainout at 12:48 pm AZ time. I never like to be the bearer of that bad news (luckily it rarely happens here), but it’s part of the P.A. job.

Normally I use the stairs to reach the pressbox level at Hohokam, unless like today I arrive dragging equipment with me. Only two of us were on the elevator, I recognized the guy standing next to me as former Cub and Dodger Rick Monday. I introduced myself and Rick said it already was raining very hard on the West side of the valley. Weather conversations aside he mentioned he’d been coming to Mesa since the days of Rendezvous Park (Cubs original spring home in Mesa). That was back when Monday played with the Oakland A’s, when the Cubs were training in Scottsdale.

Rick has longtime ties to the valley playing college ball at Arizona State University, helping the Sun Devils win a national title in 1965. Monday earned College Player of the Year honors and was a Sun Devil teammate of then freshman Reggie Jackson, who he also played with on the Oakland Athletics. Older fans may remember Rick Monday having his finest pro season in 1976 as a Chicago Cub scoring 107 runs, belting 32 HR’s and batting .272 from the lead-off spot. He is perhaps best remembered for snatching the American flag from a couple would-be flag burners at Dodger Stadium in 1976. Rick’s been a longtime broacaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I also met and chatted briefly with Neil from Chicago Cubs Online, one of the very informative websites in the Cubs blogosphere.

There’s always something interesting going on a the ballpark, even when raining.

Xavier Nady laughing today during bp before the rain