‘This one takes the cake’: White Sox grounds crew befuddled by tiny tarp

CHICAGO — A fast-moving storm that caused a delay during Sunday’s Angels-White Sox game created a headache for the grounds crew at Rate Field.

It began to pour when a storm rolled over the ballpark with the game tied at 2 in the bottom of the seventh inning. The crew rushed out to the tarp, but the workers weren’t able to pull it over the entire infield and the area around the first base line was exposed to the weather.

The crew used a patchwork of smaller tarps to cover as much of the area as it could. When the rain stopped, the crew began to work on the infield with bags of drying material.

“I’ve had some trying times in my career. Eight inches of snow before opening day, stuff like that,” head groundskeeper Roger Bossard said during an interview on Chicago Sports Network. “This one takes the cake. I don’t ever remember hail while I’m pulling the tarp, and I used close to 4 tons of drying compound.”

The game resumed after a delay of two hours, 48 minutes. The Angels went on to a 3-2 victory.

“I’m so proud of the crew, the great job they did,” said Bossard, who is in his 59th season with the White Sox. “We all hung together.”