Paul Finebaum weighs in on controversial weather delays in Kentucky-LSU Super Regional

Paul Finebaum weighed in on the controversial weather delays during the Kentucky–LSU Super Regional over the weekend.

Amid seemingly clear skies and what seemed like a great day for baseball, Kentucky and LSU did not start at 3 p.m. ET. Instead, the game finally got going at 8:06 p.m. ET.

Finebaum joined McElroy and Cubelic to discuss the whacky decisions.

“Yeah, I mean, guys, I’ve had that with us when we’re on the road,” Finebaum said. “And I know you’ve dealt with it in games when all of a sudden they stop. They stop and tell you you have to move and I don’t understand it.

“I know there’s a protocol and there has to be one from a safety standpoint, but I heard you guys talking last week about the game in Alabama that when there was no weather in this game and can only imagine what happens. 

Finebaum also talked about how the long layoff can really affect teams.

“I think going back to the Tennessee game on Saturday night when, you know, by the time you’ve come back Sunday, or five hours later, whatever pitcher you had, I’m sure is long gone,” Finebaum said. “You can’t sit around for six hours and remain loose. It’s terribly unfair but it’s the nature of the south and during baseball season.”

Kentucky meteorologist and evident Wildcats partisan Chris Bailey chided the decision, quote-tweeting the announcement from LSU baseball.

“There isn’t a thunderstorm within 50 miles of you guys,” Bailey said. “If you’re using the ‘there’s a chance of storms’ excuse then you would never play a game since there’s almost a daily threat for storms in Louisiana this time of year.”

And it wasn’t solely Kentucky fans questioning whether the postponement made sense.

Jacques Doucet, a Louisiana-based sportscaster with WAFB9, noted the call to not play a game when the weather was completely fine for baseball was “unprecedented” as he shared a video showing what looked like ideal baseball weather about an hour after first pitch was scheduled.

The decision — again, made by the NCAA — was likely in efforts to have the game go off without any disruption. Forecasts from that day from the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicated the current cluster of storm cells would dissipate as the day cooled off.

Andrew Graham contributed to this report