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MLB, Commissioner Turn World Series Into A Farce

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2008

Updated: 10/28/2008 01:46 am

PHILADELPHIA - Whenever you doubt the capacity of baseball to embarrass itself at the worst possible time, remember nights like Monday. Only baseball could take its showcase event, the World Series, and turn it into a farce.

But there we were, watching players from the Rays and Phillies hydroplane all over Citizens Bank Park while they tried to pick flying baseballs out of a driving rain. And I do mean driving. We watched fans huddle under stadium overhangs, trying to stay reasonably dry and out of the buffeting winds that swirled on this miserable, awful night.

It was the worst possible conditions in which to play any game - let alone one that could have decided baseball's sacred championship.

We can't do anything about the weather.

But Commissioner Bud Selig never should have allowed the game to proceed like this. This one's on him.

He says he got bad information from three weather services, each of which told him that Mother Nature would bring an annoying drizzle but nothing more. Even if that's true - local Philly television stations were reporting much more dire forecasts at least 90 minutes before the game - that's still no excuse for letting at least three innings of such a vital game to be played in slop.

Players could have ripped hamstrings trying to navigate the muck and mire. They could have gotten hit in the face with baseballs that were increasingly hard for fielders and pitchers to control. It was just plain wrong.

They'll resume the game eventually and it will be tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth. The forecast isn't promising, though, and Rays owner Stu Sternberg quickly answered "no" when asked if he believes the game can be completed tonight. The Rays already had checked out of their hotel, anticipating a flight home after the game. They wound up scrambling to find rooms about 45 minutes away in Delaware, where they'll now wait until who knows when.

"We'll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here," Selig said.

Sure, say that now.

But where was that same attitude earlier in this turkey, during those innings in which players were in jeopardy and fans were miserable? The commissioner talked bravely about integrity and all that stuff afterward, but where was the integrity of potentially allowing the World Series to be decided on a night like this?

This game already has been compromised. When the game eventually resumes, it will be a 3 1/2 inning chase for the championship, which will make for great television (imagine that!) but is a lousy way to conduct business.

"This is one of those situations in life where it's easy to second guess," Selig said, but even a second-grader knows when to come out of the rain. Selig can't stop the rain, but he has the power to stop the game when it gets like this.

He should have used it long before he finally did.

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