What Bothers Me About Suspending The World Series

by Cory Williams on Oct 28, 2008 9:37 AM MST in General News

I'm sure most of you are well aware of what happened last night in Philadelphia. The Phillies, up 2-1, sent their ace Cole Hamels out to the mound for the top of the 6th inning.

The weather, of course, was horrendous, and puddles of water were well-formed in the infield, with the deluge coming from all directions. The fans sat in agony as the game dragged on well past its normal conclusion. Cole Hamels toed a mound that could not have possibly maintained its integrity, and had to pitch a baseball in essentially a monsoon.

At the same time, Tampa Bay's BJ Upton got on base and had to deal with the critically compromised basepaths, and on Carlos Peña's game-tying single, it was evident that Upton nearly stopped when rounding third in order to avoid slipping. Pat Burrell was almost able to gun him down at the plate beecause of this.

These conditions were UNPLAYABLE and a mess to watch. No one could have enjoyed this. The rules indicated that if the Phillies were leading (after 5 innings) and a rain delay was called and eventually the game was "called off", then the Phillies are World Series champions.

Obviously, the MLB Executives wanted no part of this, as it would have been the worst way to end a season in any sport's history. If you thought the All Star Game fiasco was bad, this would have been armageddon.

But that's not the point; after the game Selig was very defensive, saying if the Phillies were still winning 2-1 after the top of the 6th, they would have put the game on "indefinite rain delay," thus ignoring the very rules in the rule book.

I would have preferred, then, if this "indefinite rain delay" was always planned, to have called the game in the top of the 6th. The Phillies winning, 2-1, the game continued today, with the Rays up. This would have been the fairest thing to do, and no one would complain. But go check out The Good Phight, SB Nation's excellent Phillies blog, to see what exactly the big deal is.

On the other side of the coin, DRaysBay is focusing on the seemingly unfair strike zones last night, especially the two phantom strikes to Pat Burrell that went oddly as balls. It seems like bitching is the norm for us bloggers when a World Series game is suspended... What are the odds of that?

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the whole thing was kind of sour. Really you’d think MLB wouldv discussed this before, come to some conclusions about it, and stick to it. But instead, because this was an elimination game that would send philly to the title with a one run lead, rulebooks are thrown up into the air. If the series was tied 2-2, or if philly was down, that game probably ends before the rays tie it. And thats what bothers me most about the whole thing.

The world series is now over, and since the phillies won the mass media wont talk so much about the complete mess that is: the first 5 1/2 innings of game 5. But i hope somebody talks about it, and that mlb creates an official response to this kind of thing.

by spinz on Oct 29, 2008 10:52 PM MST reply actions

and..

imagine for a second that this doesnt get addressed by MLB. What happens in next years playoffs if anything similar happens? Selig is setting the precedent of “uhhh il think of somthing when it happens” Just terrible.