Weather will certainly be a factor when the Indians return to Progressive Field Friday for their 2018 home opener. The latest WKYC forecast calls for a high of just 46 degrees with a possible mix of rain and snow in the morning before wind in the afternoon.
In spite of the weather, head Progressive Field groundskeeper Brandon Koehnke says the playing surface is ready to go, and he's still hoping his crew will not have to pull out the tarp for that first game.
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"I'm confident in what we have out there," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I'm happy with what we have. [Let's] just keep our fingers crossed we have a somewhat decent day to play baseball."
Cold and rainy/snowy home openers are nothing new for Cleveland fans, and many still have memories of those damp April days on the lakeshore at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. While conditions have certainly improved since the move to Jacobs (now Progressive) Field in 1994, the Northeast Ohio climate has still given the Tribe its fair share of Opening Day headaches.
Just two years ago, the Indians' season opener against the Red Sox was postponed by one day due to inclement weather in the area, even though no snow actually fell on the field. It was a slight repeat of 1996, when an April Fools Day snowstorm also canceled the team's first game against the New York Yankees.
Of course, nothing can compare to 2007, when thousands of brave fans packed The Jake to see the Indians take on the Seattle Mariners in a virtual blizzard. The game was delayed several times and crew members even had to use leaf blowers to get the snow off the field.
With the Tribe up 4-0 and Paul Byrd one strike away from making the game official (four and a half innings), umpires delayed action once again at the request of Mariners (and former Indians) manager Mike Hargrove. The two teams never resumed, and the weather would prevent the Tribe from playing a a single game in Cleveland for another week.
Despite the spectacle of that year, Koehnke actually believes this year has proved to be more difficult, as the lack of warm days in March often prevented groundskeepers from preparing the field.
"'07, in the month of March, was actually kind of nice," he said. "This has been, without a doubt, the most difficult month of March in [the] 25 years I've been here."
First pitch for Friday's game against the Kansas City Royals is set for 4:10 p.m. The Indians don't have the customary after-opener off-day this year, so should the game be postponed, it is unknown when the two clubs would try to make it up.