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Reds' grounds crew members fight off 'tarp monster' during Cincinnati rain delay

Dave Clark, Cincinnati Enquirer
·2 min read
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Cincinnati Reds Vice President of Ballpark Operations Sean Brown joined the Great American Ball Park grounds crew in preventing serious tarp trouble by lying on the field and hanging on for dear life at the start of a rain delay with the score tied at 2 in the top of the 8th inning during Monday night's series-opener against the San Francisco Giants, which was suspended and is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

It happened exactly two years after a member of the crew briefly was swallowed by baseball's infamous "tarp monster" as he and others covered the GABP infield at the start of a weather delay during the 7th inning of a 7-4, 11-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

"And now, oh, the wind is catching the tarp!" Bally Sports Ohio play-by-play announcer John Sadak said during Monday's broadcast. "They don't have it staked down yet. One of the grounds crew members nearly got lifted up into the air! He just did a 'stop, drop and roll' to try to stake that to the ground with his body!"

A member of the grounds crew falls underneath the tarp during a weather delay during the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
A member of the grounds crew falls underneath the tarp during a weather delay during the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

"That was a save right there!" color analyst Barry Larkin said. "Fans appreciate it."

"And a heads-up job by his teammates to help him out," Sadak added. "That man right there saved the tarp from getting unfurled and folded over. And if these winds pick up the way the radar indicates it might, they might've had trouble getting it back on. That is Sean Brown clinging to life. And legitimately, that can be really scary. If you've ever pulled a tarp, those things are heavy. They are massive. And when the wind whips and curls underneath, it can be a frightening scene. Thankfully he wears a smile, and he serves as a human stake as they try to get this tarp locked down. There you go. Looks like it's a prospector in the Old West claiming his land. 'Right here, this is my area of the tarp. I did my job.'"

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In addition, @NBCSGiants shared this video of the same tarp being, well, a monster:

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds grounds crew members fight off 'tarp monster' during rain delay