It's up to the best weather man in Milwaukee

NEW YORK -- The good news is that there are no canoes or rowboats moving around in the outfield a mere four hours to alleged game time for the scheduled opener of the World Series.

There are puddles that appear deep enough to float a canoe on the rubberized warning track around the field at Yankee Stadium and it requires a great leap of faith, after a night of strong rain and an entire miserable day of dreary, nonstop drizzle with occasional pockets of serious shower, to believe the weather forecast that calls for the precipitation to magically disappear by the 7:57 p.m. first pitch.

But who knows, eh? Maybe they’re right. As someone here said, with a nod to blue-skies commissioner Bud Selig, “No doubt they have employed the best meteorologist in Milwaukee.’’

The word here, very unofficial, is that they feel the field will be playable at some point tonight, although not necessarily 7:57 p.m. So we will wait and see and try to craft something to hold space in the good old first edition of the newspaper, while preparing for the longest of days and nights.

Besides, what else is there to do, having paid the $30 for parking in the press lot? Perhaps head out to River Avenue and see what the T-shirts stands have come up with to insult the Phillies. (And they tend to be pretty clever. The one they sell about Bawston can’t be quoted verbatim here, but it is kind of funny.)

For what it is worth, betting on the first game seems to be leaning toward the Yankees and C.C. Sabathia, who now are up to minus-$168 (you wager $168 to win $100). The Phillies are plus-$153 (wager $100 to win $153). The starting numbers had been -$165 and plus-$150.

For the Series, New York still is a strong -$200 favourite, with the Phillies plus-$170.

I will check in later when it gets closer to something serious being decided.