ATLANTA — Meteorology might be an inexact science, but when the National Weather Center issues warnings for a hurricane that is forecasted to be severe enough to warrant multiple emergency declarations, it’s probably safe to say the storm is coming.
MLB and the Atlanta Braves knew Hurricane Helene was heading toward Atlanta days ago. The storm’s path hasn’t changed and the storm has only grown in intensity, projected to reach Category 4 by the time it makes landfall on Florida’s gulf coast Friday morning. And yet, the league waited until about 5 p.m., Wednesday to make a decision that ultimately, isn’t fair to a handful of teams, but it’s especially unfair to the Mets.
With thunderstorms and high winds already affecting the area, the second and third games of the series were postponed. The Mets and Braves will play a doubleheader Monday at Truist Park, meaning the team will have to leave Milwaukee on Sunday night to go back to Atlanta and play 18 innings only hours later. Then, if they’ve clinched a Wild Card berth, they’ll have to turn right around Monday night and go to one of three locations, Milwaukee, San Diego or Los Angeles to begin a best-of-three series without an off-day.
That’s three time zones and a lot of innings to pitch between Sunday and Tuesday. Sure, the Braves will also have to sacrifice their off-day if they reach the postseason, but they have the luxury of being at home this weekend against the Kansas City Royals.
Much of the blame does fall on the Mets’ NL East rivals. The club wanted three primetime games to cash in on a packed ballpark. They wanted three nights of sellout crowds, parking fees, concessions sold and consumer activity in the Battery. Atlanta Braves Holdings owns the Battery, an area of bars, restaurants, entertainment venues and hotels attached to the ballpark, through an LLC.
Of course they want the revenue. It’s a no-brainer, especially since the team is in danger of missing the playoffs and losing out on postseason revenues. Most teams would make the same decisions, and teams get to make the decisions when the games are scheduled at their ballpark.
However, the league has the authority to step in and change the schedule in the event of something like a hurricane. This was wholly preventable.
The two teams had a mutual off-day Monday, which would have allowed for an earlier start to the series. They could have played a doubleheader Tuesday knowing that Wednesday and Thursday were likely to be wiped out with rain. They could have even moved up the second game to early Wednesday before the rain began.
Instead, the Mets got no answers from the league until Wednesday. As of Tuesday night, the Mets hadn’t heard anything from MLB. Finally, there was a call with the league around 5 p.m., Wednesday. By then, it had been raining all day, the field was waterlogged and there was no window without rain in the forecast.
“We just had that one call today,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “So yeah, there wasn’t much [communication], especially from my end. I don’t know if David [Stearns] had any conversations with MLB, but from my end, I didn’t have much until 30 minutes ago.”
Mendoza was deferential and diplomatic about the situation. The manager had the Mets prepare as though they would play Wednesday, holding meetings and going over the game plan to get to Braves’ left-hander Chris Sale. The Mets could avoid facing Sale and this buys them some time for Francisco Lindor’s injured back, but those two silver linings don’t fully make up for the logistical nightmare they might be facing.
Some of the clubhouse veterans expected the league to fumble the ball on this one. They know MLB moves the slowest when haste is required. Decisions aren’t typically made proactively and players have come to expect that the league will get it wrong.
So, baseball heads into a wild weekend that may or may not decide the NL Wild Card race. The Mets are in second place in the standings, behind the San Diego Padres, ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Braves, who are 1.5 games out of a playoff spot. Arizona could be left in the dark all weekend, as well as the higher-seeded team.
It’s a bad look for the league, and it all could have been avoided with a little foresight and a weather report.
