that I have in the past been very critical of Bud Selig and MLB. When you have a monopoly you can get away with a lot. This is the 21st century, the century of transparency. Bud Selig doesnt get it. He thinks we still live in the old days with minimal television coverage and no internet. All MLB had to do was say before had “the games will be played in entirity”. Period! Then the umps dont need to worry about waiting for the game to be tied to stop. This reminds me of the botched Astros series. If Bud/MLB had stood up early and been decisive then it wouldnt have gotten so ugly. The weather (the ultimate uncontrollable) exposes flaws. It exposed flaws in our countries crisis response to Katrina, flaws in the dams in NO etc. So far this year it has exposed major flaws in MLB.

For once, I sorta give Bud and the MLB the benefit of the doubt. Should they have called the game earlier? Maybe. But when they didn’t, they weren’t really left with any other choice. Would you really have wanted the world series end bc of rain? Now that would have been a disaster.

… to provide that any game that is rain delayed past a possible time of completion, automatically gets suspended. Many people don’t know this — perhaps including you.

To me, the mistake they made was starting the game in the first place. They knew heavy rain was coming and should have simply postponed it and played today.

In fact, with the forecast of rain all day and evening today, they should probably just wait till tomorrow.

So perhaps if they played at 7pm instead of 8pm and cut out all the histrionics before the first pitch, the game could start before 8:20 or whatever it was, sure its only an hour, but it couldve made a difference, and us east coasters wouldnt have to stay up all night.

Bud Selig avoided a major disaster. He did. You may criticize him for what he did but it is only a fraction of the criticism that he and MLB would be getting had the game ended in any other way possible. Basically two things could have happened. Option a.) would be for them to call a rain delay after 4.5 innings, wait 2 hours with the Phillies leading 2-1 and then ultimately call the game. A World Series ending because or a rain delay with the winning team clinging to a one run lead? That would have been one of the biggest disasters in the sport in the last 30 years. Option b.) would be the teams waiting out a rain delay until all hours and Selig suspending the rules. Selig could not have allowed the game to be called after 4.5 and thus the Phillies awarded the clinching game of the World Series.

Look, the rules are stupid (not the suspended game rules which are fairly well known). The rule that the game is official after 4.5 or 5 innings is totally stupid. Regular season its stupid. Post season its absolutely horrific. MLB needs to get in there and change these rules and say that no post season game can ever be ended by a rain delay and must be completed, no matter what the score. But that wasn’t an option. Selig lucked out that the game was tied after 5 innings but make no mistake, MLB avoided a major disaster.

Cole Hamels. The kid was rolling.

I understand that the baseball owner’s love Selig. It’s a very tight fraternity with extreme rules of inclusion (sorry Mark Cuban) and protection fo self-interest. But if this World Series has shown anything it is that the major league baseball season has become insanely too long. Every spring we start the season living in fear of 30 degree temperatures and snow wiping out or making miserable games in a dozen cities. Every fall the season extends longer and longer to the point where the World Series doesn’t wrap up until around November 1st. That’s INSANE ! Shorten the damned regular season, play more twi-light doubleheaders to shave a few more days off the baseball calendar. And for the love of God stop reworking the rules of baseball in midstream to accomodate your TV rankings.

MLB on XM just came through with the news.

“I can’t tell you tonight when we’ll resume,” Selig said Monday night when the suspension was announced. “We’ll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here.”

Noone has suggested moving the game to Milwaukee. After all, that’s what Bud usually does!

It was an absolute farce that it did, then was allowed to go on until the 6th inning. It should have been suspended at least 2 innings earlier. Phillies fans have been screwed by Bud & MLB. There was absolutely no precedent that would allow the game to continue until there was a tie. Either the game should have never been started, or it should have been suspended after 4 innings, or it should have been called on account of the weather, as soon as it got through the bottom of the 5th, (thereby making it a complete game technically). The last option would suck for the Rays, but those are the rules – (there isn’t a rule that states that WS games have to be full 9 innings) – it’s the same as regular season, if it gets through 5 complete- it’s in the books.

This all goes back to Bud kowtowing to the almighty dollar, and squeezing every last dime out of the ML product & brand. Bud Selig has set the league back with his questionable decisions, all seemingly predicated on the money that MLB rakes in, or conversely, doesn’t bring in. Save baseball now, fire Bud Selig.

After all, he isn’t responsible for the weather. The real mistake he made was in allowing Fox to push the series so late in October — but that happened months ago.

IMO, they should have stopped the game after 4 innings, which would have nullified the game entirely. The reason that they didn’t was because of tonight’s forecast. They thought they had a better chance of finishing last night than they did of playing tonight. It turns out that they were correct about not playing tonight.

I am happy about three things:
1. He did not intend to have the Phils “clinch” while sitting in the clubhouse.
2. He did call the game before someone got hurt.
3. He didn’t decide to move game 5 to Miller Park.

That King Selig might try out a few new rules. The game tonight might be played with 4 outs per inning rather than three. Should be interesting to see what he comes up with tonight!!

To see some baseball over here. College level or higher. As long as theres a proper diamond, a seventh inning stretch, peanuts, hot dogs, and beer.