Phillies vs. Reds: Changes in the wind?
Winds favor pitchers tonight, but will they turn against baseball?
Once again a fairly healthy breeze should be blowing in from left field tonight at Citizens Bank Park, and that's not going to hurt Roy Oswalt or Bronson Arroyo.
Otherwise, the atmosphere should be more than kind to the fans at the onset of one of the most magnificent weekends of the fall.
But should the Phillies survive in the playoffs, don't expect the good run of weather to persist. It almost certainly will get chillier, and the serious coastal-storm season could get under way at almost anytime.
Jim Eberwine, the former National Weather Service marine specialitst in Mount Holly and a lifelong baseball fan, thinks the likelihood of a good coastal storm affecting Philadelphia during the World Series is as high as 35 percent.
The chances of wintry temperatures occurring during game time in that period, say 35 to 40 degrees, is even higher -- as much as 60 percent.
And you might have noticed that the Yankees are leading their series, 2-0. While New York is also in the nor'easter crosshairs, the Yankees might be doing Major League Baseball a huge favor by knocking out the Twins.
In Minneapolis, the temperature has been known to go below zero in early November; Game 7 of the World Series is scheduled for Nov. 4. Dan Luna, the meteorologist in charge of the local weather service office, fondly recalls last Columbus Day, Oct. 12. The kids were home from school, so he helped them build a 6-foot snowman. So what if it was full of grass and leaves.