'No crying' as Cougars delayed
By KEVIN DRULEY – kdruley@kcchronicle.com
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| Elfstrom Stadium was too wet to play host to the Cougars' home opener on Monday afternoon. (Rob Winner – rwinner@kcchronicle.com ) |
GENEVA – Steve Lelli freed his left arm from beneath his White Sox poncho and brought his fingers to his eyelids. "There's no...," he said to his son, the beginning of a prompt.
Ten-year-old Anthony Lelli of South Elgin had to pause for a moment before finding the words to play along.
"Crying in baseball," he said.
Moments before, Steve Lelli tested his 6-year-old daughter, Angela, on the end lyrics to "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." She nailed them. She was ready.
Too bad the seventh-inning stretch wasn't.
Steady rain Monday postponed the Cougars' home opener at Elfstrom Stadium against the Burlington Bees. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader beginning at noon Wednesday.
"We were all ready to go," Kane County first baseman Steve Kleen said. "You've been here all day, you might as well play a game. We wish we could have given the fans something to watch, but the weather will clear up. We'll get out there and make up the game."
A few hundred fans waited through a 49-minute delay added to the original 3 p.m. first pitch time. It proved to be a drier endeavor than years past, as a covered concourse highlighted a $10.5 million offseason Elfstrom Stadium renovation project.
"Much improved, much improved," said Nasario Acevedo Jr. of Elgin, who has attended Cougars games since the club's inception in 1991. "I've been spending most of the time walking around and looking at what they've done. It's very, very fan-friendly."
A tarp remained on the infield Monday, but only the Bees made a cameo. A few Burlington players tossed a football around outside their third base dugout, giving credence to an earlier observation from Cougars assistant general manager and sales director Curtis Haug.
"Are the Bears and Packers playing today?"
Not quite, but the Cubs were, as the Worobey family from Downers Grove could attest. The clan, which includes son Clark Addison Worobey, sat together in the first base bleachers listening to the broadcast on WGN 720 AM.
Like other spectators, they dressed warm.
"Winter jackets, hats, gloves," Steve Lelli said. "They're all good."
The Cougars worked out earlier Monday in the "Cougardome" – their nickname for the nearby Strikers Fox Valley indoor soccer facility – and hoped it wouldn't be for naught.
Kane County (2-1) won its season-opening series at Peoria behind a strong bullpen that allowed just one unearned run in 13 2/3 innings. The starters weren't too shabby, either, with right-hander Shawn Haviland leading the way. He spaced two runs in 5 1/3 innings Friday and did not reach a three-ball count against any Chiefs batter.
"We're going to throw strikes this year," Haviland said. "We have a pretty deep staff now. Anyone that comes out of the bullpen, I feel confident in them coming in behind me, and the other four guys that are starting are great pitchers, too."
Fans hope to see them once the rain moves out, but on Monday, some weren't sweating it.
"I got Ozzie's autograph," Angela Lelli said of the Cougars' mascot.
Her brother told you there was no crying in baseball.
