why are there rain delays in certain sports, like baseball, but not football (American or non-American) unless, of course there’s lightning.
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For most places, it is to not damage the grass. Usually, gets destroyed if games are played during a heavy rain.
In some sports rain gives one side an unfair advantage, or makes play too dangerous so play is delayed in other sports it doesn’t.
Because football is less affected by torrential weather than baseball. While the passing and kicking game is *impacted* by heavy rain, you can still play a somewhat functional game of football no matter how heavy the rain is. Baseball, however, is simply not playable if rain is too heavy. For one, pitchers can’t grip the ball, and fly balls can’t carry at all. Puddles in the infield make grounders unplayable. There is really no way to adjust for these things.
Baseball is dangerous in the rain. Slippery bat’s, balls, gloves… Also sliding in wet shale is one of the most painful things I’ve experienced.
Football it’s abit less dangerous when wet, hits glance off, players slower, yada yada
We go to a lot of MLS soccer games in Orlando and central Florida has more lightening than anywhere in the United States, so a lot of Orlando’s games are delayed by lightening. A couple of weeks ago we had a game with an insane downpour but no lightening so they continued play. It got to the point where the ball couldn’t roll on the field and normal play broke down. That said, it was still a semi-function game. Fortunately, the rain let up and the field is well designed to handle crazy Florida rain and the 2nd half was a fairly normal game.
A wet baseball is not as easy to grip, and therefore more difficult to deliver to the plate with precision. Given that the pitcher is throwing a solid object at speeds of 90 mph+, it’s kind of important from a safety standpoint to know where it is going. If you doubt that, see the link below . . .
Same deal with cricket as with baseball. Here in Australia we play all versions of rugby and football in torrential rain, only stopping if there is a lot of lightning present (though it’s only happened once or twice before).
In rugby it transforms the game and makes it more a war of attrition, still quite entertaining and still tough as nails, but still playable without being too dangerous.
Weather is considered to be part of the football game. That’s why the old [Dallas Cowboys stadium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Stadium) had a roof over the crowd, but the players played under open sky.
The [Ice Bowl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0XChUkWgU) and the [Fog Bowl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6b3sneCxbM) are considered all time classic games because of the weather.
Gotta also mention the style of baseball versus football and soccer is a factor in this as well. Baseball has offence and defence alternating in a set order and the final play at offence goes to the home team and it’s inherently important for strategy and it factors into roster choices etc. Therefore officials must be sensitive to the fact that as it rains the field conditions deteriorate and if they don’t delay game-play early enough there’s a chance that the home team will lose the opportunity to use their ‘home field advantage.
There are rain delays in golf too for reasons that seem obvious to me, but may not be obvious to others. So, here goes….
-Lots of folks walking around wide open fields (fairways) where they are the tallest things around make great targets for lightning.
-Players walking around aforementioned open fields with graphite/metallic rods in their hands also make great targets for lightning.
-Nobody wants to be hit by lightning.
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