The day after, still plenty of storm stories

You couldn't blame the Cubs if they were hearing a siren song in their heads Tuesday morning.

Or maybe that was just the test of the emergency sirens, which went off at 10 o'clock on the morning after the night before.

Even as they wiped the sleep from their eyes, Cubs players and staff members were still a jumble of thoughts and emotion after living through Monday night's show of water, wind, lightning and sound effects.

The Cubs lost a 2-0 decision to the Houston Astros in a game that was delayed once by sheets of rain and finally called near midnight, after lightning bolts struck a little too close for comfort.

Astros first baseman Lance Berkman led the charge off the field, and nobody on the other side could blame him.

"Absolutely; that's survival," said Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa. "Baseball goes out the window. A lot of guys were probably trying to take their (neck) chains off. Good thing we play with wood and not aluminum. That thing would have been called a long time ago."

The first rain delay, at the start of the sixth inning, brought strong winds and rain so heavy it swept across the field like sea spray. Fierce lightning preceded the second rain, which came in the eighth.

"You're on the field and you hear it getting closer and closer and it's lighting up the sky," DeRosa said. "The fans who stayed, hats off the them. They're crazier than I would be. A lot of people were trapped and couldn't leave.

"You've been through storms. I've never seen anything like the lightning like that, that bad and that close. You could see it actually getting closer as you're on the field. You're like, 'We've got about five minutes here. This thing is going to be right on top of us.' That lightning bolt hit. It's scary, but you look back on it. We watched the replay and laughed at the reaction of some of the players."

Cubs reliever Jeff Samardzija played in all kinds of conditions as a football star for Notre Dame, but nothing quite like Monday's storm.

"It was pretty interesting," Samardzija said. "I sat out there for a while and watched it. It was unfortunate we weren't able to finish the game, but it was pretty entertaining."

Samardzija was asked about the worst conditions he faced in football.

"Probably snowstorms, but nothing like that," he said of Monday's electric show. "We were usually off the field pretty quickly if it's lightning."

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry again praised groundskeeper Roger Baird and his crew for their work on the new playing field, which features an advanced drainage system.

Hendry also reiterated his support for umpire crew chief Wally Bell, who allowed the Cubs a chance to play again after trailing 2-0 when the first delay hit. He also said Bell handled the situation properly when the Cubs and Astros took the field again while lightning criss-crossed the sky.

"Absolutely," Hendry said. "Wally Bell did a terrific job. Two hours and 45 minutes he hung in there on a game that was already a legal, finished game. It speaks well of how the umpires do their business in a contending situation. It's an important game for people. I think he went well beyond the call of duty, giving it a fair shot.

"As loud and as bright as some of the lightning was originally, he was given assurances that it was not close. I don't think anyone who was on top of it felt anything was real close until the last jolt. Then it was definitely time to shut 'er down."