An old baseball phrase. It described the pitching staff of the old Boston Braves: their top two starting pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain were of hall-of-fame calibre, but their other starters often drew major-league paychecks under false pretenses - better to have their games rained out. Variations, if you're bored: "Sain, and pray for a hurricane", when Spahn was gone, or modern-day "Pete (Pedro Martinez) and Bret (Saberhagen), and pray for wet", for the Red Sox.

Text of a poem attributed to Gerald V. Hern, in the Boston Post of Sept. 14, 1948, on Boston Braves pitchers Warren Spahn and Jonny Sain:

First we'll use Spahn, then we'll use Sain
Then an off day followed by rain
Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain
And followed we hope by two days of rain.

This is from an Associated Press story sent out October 31, 2001. It was relevent because of the ongoing World Series of the Arizona Diamondbacks against the New York Yankees. The D-backs won the first two games on the strength of their best starters, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Then they dropped the third game. The Yankees trotted out Roger Clemens one more time and the D-backs pitched Brian Anderson. Anderson is a fine pitcher, but it wasn't enough. Schilling pitches the fourth game.