Snowpening Day

No fair-weather fans in downtown Cleveland today.

Nope, the weather's just not that good.

The Indians won't be playing their home opener today in Cleveland Browns Stadium, but they will be playing it in Cleveland Browns weather. Snow has been falling all day and forcing fans to bundle up football-style. Most likely the Indians and Seattle Mariners will be wearing mittens under their gloves to withstand the cold temperatures.

Not since Game 4 of the 1997 World Series have the Indians played a game in such horrendous conditions. In that one, it snowed during batting practice and intermittently throughout the game as the Indians beat the Florida Marlins 10-3 in freezing temperatures.

But hey, what do you expect in a football town?

3:44 p.m. What a surprise. The first pitch has been delayed, but no one will say how long. WKYC says it has just been announced on the scoreboard. That's right, wait 20 minutes before the game is supposed to start to tell people something you have known would happen all day long. Apparently the Indians want as much beer money as they can get.

3:51 p.m. Nice job, Tribe. Now that everyone's making their way into the stadium, they can sit on their butts and freeze for an hour before anything happens. The game is now scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Winners: Bars in the Jacobs Field area, as people planning to the game now plan on getting even drunker. Losers: Everyone crazy enough to head into the stadium expecting a baseball game to be played in the snow.

3:57 p.m. What a snow job! Mother Nature Hates Cleveland sports, too.

4:04 p.m. WKYC is really feeling the effects of this snow job. So far on the pregame show in the past 15 minutes, they have had a bad interview with an army reservist who will be singing the National Anthem today, and a story on a father and son who are going to the game today after saving someone out of a raging river. Their ratings must be plummeting lower than the temperature. PLEASE JUST CANCEL THE GAME!

4:10 p.m. Please explain this. The Twins game in Chicago scheduled for tonight has been postponed because of a forecast that calls for cold temperature and high winds. In Cleveland, the game has merely been delayed, thereby pushing it closer to being played after the sun goes down when the temperature will be even lower and the snow will still be falling. Doesn't Chicago weather usually make it to Cleveland eventually?