THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Does anyone know why the roof in Toronto may not be opened during a game, but that it’s allowed in other retractable-roof cities?

My guess--and it’s just a guess--is that it has something to do with how long it takes to open the roof. 

Toronto’s roof takes 20 minutes to open, while Safeco Field takes 10 minutes, Miller Park takes “less than 10 minutes.” I couldn’t find numbers for Arizona or Houston, but the ground rules seem to suggest that Arizona’s can be opened in 4 and a half minutes.

As a Torontonian, my guess is that 1. the Skydome takes a long, long time to open (about 20 min, I think) and 2. one of the pieces of the roof has to rotate to open, thus mucking up the backdrop on flyballs. 

The ‘dome is over-engineered in a pretty substantial fashion.  It’s also much taller than most of the domed/covered stadia in use: I believe the roof has never been struck with a batted ball.

Alt_n, Excalabur, thanks.  Those explanations make sense.

Disappointing. Being right next to a lake, Toronto gets some flash storms during the summer. It’s entirely possible to go from having a blue sky to a rain storm to a blue sky again in less time than it takes to play a baseball game. Closing a roof for rain, then opening it again for a sunny sky should be part of the awesomeness of having a retractable roof. Indeed, I demand this. After all, I paid for the damn thing.