Doing the anti-rain dance...

▪▪ In his piece detailing the havoc that rainouts will wreak upon this World Series (70% chance of rain tonight, by the way - and Friday isn't looking so good, either), ESPN.com's Jayson Stark includes this gem of a quote from Jim Leyland.

When asked how he spent the three hours of waiting while MLB decided whether or not Game 3 would be played, Leyland responded: "I smoked about a carton. It was probably one of the worst days of the year -- for my lungs."

▪▪ Also at ESPN.com, Jerry Crasnick asks several Tigers and Cardinals a question I've heard from several casual-to-non-baseball fans over the past week: Should the World Series be played at a neutral (warmer) site each year? (You can probably imagine what most of the answers were.)

▪▪ Why would the media even bring up such a subject? Well, they hate the Busch Stadium press box, which is exposed to the elements. The Baseball Writers' Association of America hates it so much, in fact, that they're asking MLB not to award the 2009 All-Star Game to St. Louis until those facilities are improved.

▪▪ Did the Cardinals dial down the Busch Stadium radar gun to mess with Joel Zumaya's head? MLB.com's Jason Beck explores yet another conspiracy theory surrounding this series. (So does that explain Zumaya trying to throw to third on Tuesday night? Maybe he was trying to loosen up his arm some more?)

▪▪ I don't have any feeling for this, but Slate's Larry Borowsky seems to think that America is annoyed that the Cardinals are in the World Series (and two wins away from a championship). No rooting for the underdog, apparently.

▪▪ And here's a guy who seems annoyed that the Tigers are in the World Series. Former major league pitcher Mark Knudson now writes for Mile High Sports and holds Jim Leyland in rather low regard for the job he did in Colorado. Knudson also doesn't care much for Kenny Rogers - and he felt that way before the recent "pine tar" controversy in Game 2.

[Edited at 11 a.m.]