NEW YORK (AP) -Drayton McLane understands why his Houston Astros had to play a pair of “home” games against the Chicago Cubs in Milwaukee, even though he’s not happy about it.
Houston had won 14 of 15 heading into the weekend, getting back into contention in the NL wild-card race. But then Hurricane Ike caused Major League Baseball to move the series against the Chicago Cubs to Miller Park.
“I violently protested from the time it was mentioned on Thursday,” McLane said in a telephone interview, “but as we went through the exercise and there was no other domed stadium with availability, and with rain predicted in Atlanta and Arlington, there was no other place it could have been played.”
With pro-Cubs fans on hand at Miller Park, just 90 miles or so from Chicago, the NL Central-leading Cubs swept two games Sunday and Monday. Carlos Zambrano pitched a no-hitter in the first game, and Ted Lilly took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning of the second.
t that. I need to tell the commissioner that. I will tell him that.”
Commissioner Bud Selig spoke with him.
“We spent 24 hours examining every alternative. We had three national weather services. We were very thoughtful in calling other franchises in seeing where we could go,” Selig said Tuesday. “We finally determined – everybody was in on this – the only, safe practical option was Milwaukee. People can say we could have done this or that; it turns out this was the only practical option.”
Chase Field in Phoenix was ruled out because the Diamondbacks were home, and the Metrodome in Minneapolis was unavailable because of football games.
The third game of the series will be made up on Sept. 29 – the day after the regular season is scheduled to end – in Houston, but only it’s needed to decide a playoff berth.
Minute Maid Park in Houston had only minimal damage, but McLane said it would have been “inappropriate” to play there last weekend.
“Downtown was just devastated, and they closed off downtown after the hurricane hit. Our ballpark came through with no problems whatsoever. We could have played a game there Saturday afternoon,” he said.
He agreed that options other than Milwaukee were unfeasible.
“No one likes going that close to Chicago. When Chicago goes to Milwaukee, they have a big percentage of Cubs fans,” McLane said. “Sometimes in life you’ve got to understand there was no other alternative.”
Add A Comment