Violent storm disrupts Phillies game

Wicked winds, swirling rain, dangerous lightning and damaging hail ripped through Citizens Bank Park with two outs in the eighth inning Thursday, making life miserable for Mike Boekholder and his grounds crew.

After umpire crew chief Gerry Davis signaled for play between the Cleveland Indians and Phillies to stop, Boekholder and the rest of the Phillies' grounds crew rushed onto the field as fans scrambled for the safety of the ballpark corridors. Boekholder said he had prepared for the worst by calling in extra help.

"They were telling us to expect [winds] up to 70 miles per hour and they probably weren't too far off the mark," the Phillies' head groundskeeper said. "We were watching it on the radar, so we knew what was coming. It wasn't like it caught us by surprise. We were well aware."

That still wasn't enough to keep Mother Nature from wreaking havoc. With visibility almost at zero and giant hail falling from the sky, the heavy tarp the crew uses to cover the entire infield came flying off despite the fact it was being held down by a John Deere utility vehicle.

"It wasn't a lot of fun," Boekholder said. "You just hope you can get [the tarp] down and keep it down. We had it on. That's the first time I ever saw a vehicle get pulled across the tarp."

Mike DiMuzio, the Phillies' director of ballpark operations and former head groundskeeper, was among the people called in for extra help.

"That's the worst I've been involved in and I've been around here for 40 years," DiMuzio said. "I'm obviously not a groundskeeper now, but I got called down to help because they knew it was coming. That was the most ferocious I've ever seen one come in. I don't ever recall that."

At one point, DiMuzio said he and four other workers were caught beneath the tarp as it blew across the infield toward the visiting dugout.

"You just wonder if you're going to get out before it absolutely collapses on you," DiMuzio said. "You just keep your hands up above you and run like hell. Back when I was on the grounds crew at the Vet, we had a guy who held on to the tarp and it took him up in the air and when he landed he broke his wrist. One thing all these guys know is that when the wind comes, you just let the tarp go. It's not worth anybody getting hurt."

Boekholder said nobody was hurt.

"Any time you're dealing with that kind of wind and a tarp that size, it's very easy for something to go wrong and for somebody to get hurt," he said. "Not to mention you're standing in the middle of a wide-open space with lightning flashing all over you. Unfortunately, I guess you just have to look at it like it comes with the job. I can't say enough good things about my guys and the ladies on my crew. They went above and beyond today."

At one point during the delay, the water on the warning track in right field and just beyond the right side of the infield appeared to be at least three inches. The power in the left-field scoreboard was also knocked out by the electrical storm. To the credit of the grounds crew, however, play resumed after 97 minutes and the Phillies completed a 12-3 victory that gave them a three-game sweep over the Indians.

Several players, including right fielder Jayson Werth and center fielder Shane Victorino, stopped temporarily to observe the gusting wind as the delay started. There was, however, no repeat performance from 2007 when Phillies players came to the rescue of the grounds crew at Coors Field in Denver after several Colarado Rockies employees were trapped under the tarp. Werth shook the hand of one of the Phillies' grounds crew members just before play resumed. He described the hail as "big enough to hurt."

"I shook his hand and said, 'Way to go for taking all those hail pellets,'" Werth said. "We were sitting in the dugout and we were getting hit by hail, so I figured they were getting worn out. I said, 'Congratulations for making it through.' It reminded me of back home [in Illinois] when a tornado hit."