Roof stalls as rain falls

Seattle's most frequent forecast finally caught up with America's favorite pastime yesterday when Safeco Field's $13 million retractable roof stalled open right in the middle of a summer afternoon downpour.

At 2:02 p.m., Seattle baseball history was made when third-base Umpire Charlie Williams called for a rain delay - the first in the history of the Mariners, who of course played in the dry confines of the Kingdome before Safeco Field was built.

Fans frantically ran for cover, and the M's and the Texas Rangers took shelter in their dugouts. Meanwhile, employees in Safeco Field's operations department scrambled to explain why the 9-acre covering chose to be obstinate right when it was needed.

Initial talk was of a blown fuse. But the real culprit for all those boxes of soggy popcorn lay in a computer malfunction.

"There was a computer communications failure between the touch screen used to activate the roof and the actual roof moving mechanism - the program that controls the roof function," said Tim Hevly, a Mariners spokesman.

The roof can be opened and closed manually, but that only works once a "fault message" on the screen is cleared. Even after the fault message was cleared, the roof would still not operate, Hevly said, so the system had to be rebooted. The whole process took 20 minutes.

Hevly wouldn't say what the scene was like during those 1,200 very long seconds. But according to security officers at Safeco Field, it was anything but a walk in the park.

Meanwhile, groundskeepers covered the infield with a silver tarp - which they keep just in case something like this happens, and to keep the infield dry when they water the grass. Fans congregated under Safeco's eaves.

Patrick Zohn, who designs ballparks and was visiting from Cleveland, was one of those people. He estimates that he was one-third soaked, but he said he took it in stride.

"I wasn't angered. I was bemused," Zohn said.

Technicians got the computer back up and at 2:22, the mechanical sky finally began to close. Fans started filing back to their seats. Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" played over the PA system. The crowd roared. Finally, at 2:56 - after a delay of 54 minutes - play resumed, and the M's went on to win, 13-5.

There is a four-year warranty on the roof, which was built by Ederer Inc. of Seattle, which sent a representative to the stadium when the roof wouldn't close. Randy Adamack, another Mariner spokesman, said, "I don't believe the warranty enters into this situation."

Yesterday's delay wasn't the first time play was suspended during a Mariner home game due to forces of nature. On May 2, 1996, a seventh-inning earthquake prompted officials to delay a game against Cleveland. On July 19, 1994, a soggy tile fell from the Kingdome's cupola three hours before an M's game. It prompted an emergency renovation project that cost $70 million - $3 million more than the stadium originally cost.

There also have been other problems with the Safeco roof. On Nov. 11, 1999, operations personnel tried to open the roof to give the field a little sunlight. But it wouldn't budge. A technician for Ederer Inc., said two cards in the roof-control mechanism had been removed from their slots.

And for the fans of baseball trivia, another delay in a professional baseball game in Seattle came during the Nixon administration. On Sept. 12, 1969, in the third inning of the second game of a doubleheader in Sicks' Stadium between the Seattle Pilots and the Los Angeles Angels, the game was suspended.

Stadium officials plan to investigate the cause of the problem further today, before the M's take on the Rangers again at 1:35 p.m. They also tested the roof again after yesterday's game.

"It's working fine," Hevly said, with relief in his voice. "It's working the way it should."