The St. Louis Cardinals landed late in Boston on Wednesday morning after the team plane suffered from mechanical issues. The Cardinals were heading to Boston in advance of Game 6 of the World Series.
The mechanical problems forced team manager Mike Matheny to hold his scheduled news conference with reporters at Fenway via phone as he sat on the team plane.
“Yeah, we’ve been sitting on the runway for a while,” he said. “But everybody seems to be doing all right. We’re fortunate that our club allows our families to travel with us. We have some younger kids. But I’m impressed with how everybody has handled it. Fortunately we have plenty of food, snacks for the kids, lots of entertainment with on-board movies, and everybody travels with all their high-tech stuff. Most of these kids are pretty happy that they’re not in school right now, and it’s a great way to spend a day, and no complaints so far.”
Matheny doesn’t expect the delay to have a big effect on his teams performance as the St. Louis Cardinals were not expected to workout at Fenway.
A second plane was eventually brought in after two of the planes three computer navigation systems failed.
The St. Louis Cardinals eventually took off at 9:09PM ET, approximately 7 hours and 9 minutes after its estimated time of departure. The plane landed in Boston at approximately 11PM.
Cardinals players were probably more worried about their performance than the delay. After dropping their last two games at home the team is on the brink of elimination. Trying to save the team will be starter Michael Wacha who faces off against Boston’s John Lackey.
Talking about the delay Wacha told reporters “Everyone is just watching movies… They’ve got dinner on here for us and stuff. Everyone is just walking around. Nobody is in a bad mood or anything like that. The attitude is pretty good.”
Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was less worried about a delay and more concerned for everyone’s safety. “When I have a delay on a flight, I don’t get mad. We don’t play around with that. Hopefully they get here safe,” he said.
Will you be rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals or the Box Red Sox during Wednesday’s game?
