Image credit: © Aaron Doster-Imagn Images
Welcome to Box Score Banter, your daily dose of the previous day’s games, with a preview of what’s to come. All season stats mentioned are entering yesterday’s games. BSB is free to read with a Basic login, which you can sign up for here—or upgrade to a paid subscription to support BP’s work.
A Chance Of Meatballs
Reds 9, Phillies 4
AB
R
H
HR
RBI
BB
Stewart, S
5
3
4
1
2
0
When I tuned into the Phillies-Reds game, in the top of the third, there was a third man in the booth. He was not a baseball man even though he had a Phillies uniform on. After some contextual clues to his specialty, such as Phillies PBP man Tom McCarthy asking him a question relayed to him: “What is your favorite cloud?” The third man answered, without a beat, cumulonimbus. This man knew ball.
And it made sense why: his job is clouds. Bill Henley was the local weatherman for the local NBC affiliate. It was “Citizens Weather Education Day” at the ballpark, and the team didn’t even trade for Mike Trout. Henley stayed in the booth while McCarthy and John Kruk peppered him with questions about calculating snowfall, how angry regulars get with him when the forecast is wrong (or just plain gross), and if the graduation party Tom was going to this weekend was going to be interrupted by rain. This all happened while a baseball game took place in front of them. The Reds had a 3-1 lead and were threatening to extend it.





















