What actually happens when players have to sit around and wait for weather? Former MLB pitcher Ryan Dempster helps explain."On Monday Madison Bumgarner Jersey , August 20, 2018, the Cubs rested. It was an off day in the middle of a road trip to Pittsburgh and Detroit on which the Cubs split six games, oddly, scoring exactly one run in each of the first five (while still managing to win two of those five!).The Cubs had played 123 games through August 19. They then went on a stretch when, due to previous rainouts and further postponements and makeups during that stretch, they played 41 games in 43 days (including the divisional tiebreaker and the wild-card game). They flew from Detroit to Chicago to Atlanta to Philadelphia to Milwaukee to Washington to Chicago to Washington to Chicago to Phoenix to Chicago. (Frankly, I’m frazzled just reading that air itinerary.)I personally attended 26 of those 41 games and I was completely exhausted when that stretch was over. Even though the Cubs are young men in far better physical shape than I am, I can imagine that sojourn left them utterly drained by season’s end. Perhaps, then, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that the offense disappeared often in those six weeks.In addition to having just one scheduled off day (Thursday, September 20) in that time frame, the Cubs also played an inning and a half of a game in Washington Friday, September 7, which was made up the next day — but it wasn’t called until there were multiple hours of delay and even the Nationals beat writers thought it was poorly handled. Then they got rained out entirely Sunday, September 9, but not until they had to sit around for three hours after the scheduled game time before the game was called, even though it was clear there was no chance the rain would end. That game was made up in Washington the following Thursday, a previously scheduled off day, forcing the “Washington to Chicago to Washington to Chicago” portion of the itinerary noted above.There were no official games played on September 7 and 9 Juan Marichal Jersey , but they were hardly “days off” for the players. I had a chance to talk with former Cubs righthander Ryan Dempster recently, as you know from this article, and during our conversation I asked him what it would be like for a player to have to sit around during long delays of that nature.The first thing he told me about that stretch was, “I’m not making any excuses, and neither would anybody, but to say that it doesn’t have an effect is unfair to those guys.” He mentioned the lack of sleep that can come from flying back and forth as the Cubs did would definitely have an effect on their preparation and rest. “Even though they might not necessarily play a game because of a rainout,” Dempster continued, “They’re getting prepared to play, hitting in the cage, going to the weight room, going through their entire training routine, and then... ‘No game!’ Very few times did we walk into the field and they said right away, ‘No game today.’ You always have to be ready, you don’t want to not be ready and you go play and all of a sudden you’re down 6-0 in the third inning because you weren’t ready.”Beyond all those kinds of things, I wanted to know what it’s like for a player to prepare for a game, only to have it rained out. So I asked my longtime friend Kevin Ciarrachi, a catcher who played in the Mets and Pirates farm systems and in indy ball from 1999-2006, what a typical preparation day would be like. He sent me quite a detailed report:To me, the most important point made by both these men is the mental preparation aspect. It’s not just the sitting around, it’s the fact that a player has to be mentally prepared as well as physically ready. This is why the Cubs have hired several very good mental skills people such as John Baker and Bob Tewksbury. Teams haven’t realized until recent years how important the mental side of the game is and I think the Cubs under Theo Epstein have given players excellent support on the mental side of the game.So on that weekend in Washington last September http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , when the Cubs had to sit through nearly four hours of rain delays and the game wasn’t called until almost midnight on Friday and then they had to go out and play two games the next day, a single-admission doubleheader that started at 5:15 p.m. local time(due to another rain delay) and didn’t end until after midnight local time (due to another rain delay and a between-games ceremony that really should have been held another time) and then had to sit around until three hours after the scheduled game time the next day before it was finally called and then had a two-hour flight back to Chicago... well, it shouldn’t really be that big a surprise that the home game the day after that, Monday, September 10 against the Brewers, turned into a 3-2 loss.Now, if they had won that September 10 game, they would have avoided the divisional tiebreaker and wound up with the best record in the N.L. and had home field throughout the N.L. playoffs and who knows, maybe they get back to the World Series.In the end, though, Dempster says though he knew what the players were going through: “I was proud of them for never folding, for continuing to push forward and winning 95 games. I know they were tired, I could see it in them, but not one of them said, ‘I’m exhausted.’”Which is a credit to every single one of the players and coaches on the 2018 Cubs, even though they fell short of their ultimate goal.Footnote: The schedule-makers didn’t make things any easier on the Cubs for this season. From Tuesday, August 27 through the end of the season, Sunday, September 29, the Cubs have just two scheduled off days (Tuesday http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , September 4 and Monday, September 23), making it a stretch of 32 games in 34 days... at least that many, presuming they don’t have any postponements to make up at that time. During that time they’ll play a night game in New York Thursday, August 29 and a 1:20 p.m. game at Wrigley Field the next day — hello, Tom Tunney, time to give it up and let the Cubs play Friday nights at home under those circumstances — and though the 32 games are evenly split, 16 home and 16 road, they’ll finish on the road in Pittsburgh and St. Louis.So here’s hoping for better weather in the Midwest and Northeast in 2019 than we had in 2018, and I hope this article has given you a bit of a better understanding of what baseball players do during long rain delays, or days when they have to report for a game only to see it rained out hours later, or preparing to play in general. It’s way more than just sitting around, and far more than you’d see in three hours’ worth of game time. The D-backs picked up a left-handed reliver from Cincinnati today, for the ol’ "cash considerations"."Originally undrafted, Scott signed with the Red Sox in August 2011, after playing indie ball for the Yumas Scorpions under Jose Canseco. He pitched for them in each of the last three seasons. 2017 was his most active, appearing 57 times with an ERA of 3.79, with a K:BB of 31:13 over 35.2 innings. As that innings tally suggests, there was a fair amount of the left-hander being used as a LOOGY: almost half (27) of his outings involved him recording fewer than two outs. Last season was less impressive, with an 8.10 ERA over nine outings Dave Dravecky Jersey , though he pitched much better in the minors. At Triple-A Pawtucket, he had a 1.86 ERA in 48.1 IP, with a 63:21 K:BB ratio. He was especially tough on lefties, holding them to a .148 average.Scott was selected off waivers by the Reds from the Red Sox on December 10, and has now been moved on to the Diamondbacks. That brings our 40-man roster to 39 at the present time. He’ll certainly compete for an Opening Day roster spot, with the other left-handed relievers currently on the roster being Andrew Chafin, T.J. McFarland and Jared Miller. He’ll probably get on well with Chafin, being another outdoorsy type. In particular, Scott enjoys diving for lobsters: “My grandfather was a huge fisherman. My mother was born and raised in Miami. They lived on the water. They had a boat. And we just kind of picked it up from there.” Not sure how many lobsters will be found on Lake Pleasant... :)For local interest, here’s some more about his brief time with Yuma - less than a month. It ended unexpectedly, after one inning of a spot start. He remembers being told by Canseco, “I’ve got to take you out.” As Scott protested, Canseco interrupted him. “The Red Sox just purchased your contract. They want you off the field.” Said Scott, “I’ve never given the ball up so easily. ‘All right, here!’ and I ran off the field.” One of his team-mates there was Tony Phillips, an 18-year veteran in the majors who was the first Oakland player to hit for the cycle, bit was 52 years old when he played for Yuma. Scott assumed he just worked at the stadium, “Then that night he went 3-for-4 with two doubles.”Welcome to Arizona, Mr. Scott.