Sinkhole ballpark! Rangers-Indians game survives sinkhole discovery next to pitcher’s mound

A sinkhole formed Tuesday next to the pitcher's mound at Rangers Ballpark when the pipe that's used to water the infield burst. The game went on as planned, but pre-game batting practice was canceled while the grounds crew fixed the pipe and the hole.

The whole ordeal was pretty ho-hum when all was said and done — but had the sinkhole not been discovered before the game, things could have gotten quite interesting. Imagine a game being played with a sinkhole on the field. We imagined it all right.

Here are a few things we might have seen, for better or worse:

• Nick Swisher falls down the sinkhole, gets covered in mutating slime and emerges as Michaelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Jason Giambi, of course, would be Master Splinter)

• Nelson Cruz falls down the hole. Bud Selig climbs out with a handcuffed Cruz, and tells us about his new plan to punish players with ties to Biogenesis.

• Lance Berkman drops the rest of his .154 June batting average down the hole, never to be found again until July.

• Upon realizing its too easy to strike batters out from the mound, Yu Darvish decides to pitch from inside the sinkhole.

• An ump blows a call and immediately goes shooting down the sinkhole, warping to Triple-A.

Alas, none of those things happened. The Indians beat the Rangers 5-2 in a pretty standard baseball game. Though, the Indians did halt their eight-game losing streak. Cowabunga!

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