CHICAGO — A blanket of fog brought Saturday night’s baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs to a temporary halt at Wrigley Field, with play suspended for 15 minutes after the sixth inning.
When the delay was called, St. Louis held a 2-0 lead. The Cardinals went on to finish the game with a 3-0 victory.
With nearly 38,872 fans in attendance, the crowd turned the unplanned break into an impromptu sing-along, belting out John Denver’s classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” The song has gained renewed popularity during the World Cup soccer tournament, where U.S. players and tens of thousands of supporters have been singing it together at the conclusion of matches.
The evening had already gotten off to a rocky start — the rare Saturday night contest at the historic North Side ballpark was pushed back an hour because of rain. Fog then began creeping in from the north as early as the second inning, growing steadily thicker as the game progressed. While outfielders appeared to have difficulty tracking fly balls through the haze, no fielding errors resulted from the conditions.
Before the delay was officially called, the umpiring crew met on the field with Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and Cubs skipper Craig Counsell. The scoreboard eventually displayed a message citing “weather in the area” as the reason for the stoppage.
