Phils have had historic rain delays

The Phillies sure have been involved in some remarkable rain delays.

Yesterday's hiatus of 2 hours and 50 minutes seems to have been the longest ever at Citizens Bank Park.

But that makes it just the latest, not the greatest in a rich history of Phillies rain delays.

No official records are kept, but here's what our research has revealed, based on various sources, including Inquirer stories and www.sabr.org, the website of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Longest single rain delay, Phillies game
Longest single rain delay, National League East
4 hrs., 27 mins. Sept. 28, 2006. A game that dampened the Phillies wild-card hopes. After rain delayed the start of the game till 11:32 p.m., Phils lost 3-1 to Nationals in Washington. Then the flight to Florida was delayed, so the team didn't check into the hotel until 8:15 a.m. By the way, the night before the franchise-record rain delay, the Phils played 14 innings - and won.

Longest single rain delay, middle of a game
Longest single rain delay, Phillies home game
3 hours, 32 minutes. June 9, 1980. A few other games had longer rain delays (the record 7 hrs. 23 mins. for Rangers at White Sox, 8/12/1990; 5 hrs. 45 mins., Reds at Brewers, 10/3/1999; and Phils at Nationals, above) but those were before the game began. This long bottom-of-the-fourth-inning delay, by the way, wasn't the only one during the inning. (See below.) The Giants won, 3-1.

Longest combined rain delays, one innning
Longest combined rain delays, one-half inning
5 hrs. June 9, 1980. (Same game as above.) Steve Carlton held the Giants hitless through four innings. Then during the Phils' at-bat came rain delay No. 1: 1:28. Then rain delay No. 2: 3:32 (see above). Carlton started the fifth inning about 1:30 a.m., and the second batter doubled. The Giants won, 3-1, at 3:11 a.m.

Longest combined rain delays, Phillies game
Longest combined rain delays, double-header
5 hrs., 54 mins. July 2, 1993. First game of a famous all-nighter double-header, whose second game was won by a Mitch Williams hit at 4:41 a.m. Game had three delays: 1:10 at the start, 1:56 in the bottom of the fourth, 2:48 in the top of the sixth. Padres won, 5-2, at 1:03 a.m. If you dismiss the 1990 Rangers-White Sox record, because the game was eventually canceled, this might be the major-league total-rain-delays record.

Most memorable and perhaps life-saving performance during a rain delay by millionaire athletes
The Great Coors Field Cover Caper July 8, 2007. Several Colorado grounds crew members got buried under blowing tarp, so Phillies players stormed out of the visitors dugout to help, forever endearing themselves to fans who groan about spoiled athletes. This was serious stuff, wrote the Inquirer's Todd Zolecki: "The tarp dragged head groundskeeper Mark Razum, who was holding a corner near third base, like a cowboy being tossed around by a bucking bronco." The Phillies won the game, 8-4, and their good karma may have helped them win the National League East (even if didn't help them win beat the Rockies in the playoffs).

Longest combined rain delays for a double-header in which both games had delays
4 hrs., 56 mins. Aug. 10, 1977. First game against Expos at Veterans Stadium had two delays - 1:03 in first, 2:27 in third - and second game had one of 1:26 in its second inning. Phillies won both games 6-1, the whole shebang ending at 3:23 a.m.

Longest combined rain delays, one at-bat (two or more delays)?
1 hr., 52 mins. July 22, 1994. Actually this case is in dispute. SABR tells it this way: Mickey Morandini took a pitch at 9:12 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Then came a 38-minute rain delay. He took another pitch. Then came a 1-hour, 14-minute rain delay. The Padres sent out a new pitcher, and Morandini doubled - at 11:05 p.m. A report in the Daily News, however, said Pete Incaviglia grounded out after the first rain delay, before Morandini came to the plate. Padres won, 7-4. A third rain delay of 42 minutes helped prolong the game, the second of a double-header, till 1:56 a.m.