Can This Series Get Any Worse?

PHILADELPHIA - There always is a chance further calamity will strike this World Series, so I'll choose my next words carefully. It really can get worse, even though that seems pretty hard to believe right now.

We've had umpiring that was basically inept throughout the Series.

For Game 3 we had the latest start time in Series history, which meant nobody saw the dramatic finish because it happened at 1:47 a.m., when most people are asleep.

We had rain, blustery wind, and plunging temperatures for Game 5, creating conditions better suited to the Iditarod than a game where men propel baseballs in the general direction of other men's heads.

This leads us to the brain-dead decision to actually play three innings of that game in that slop. You think Cubs fans hate Steve Bartman? If the Phillies lose this Series, Commissioner Bud Selig will be the most despised man in this city of brotherly love.

Indeed, weirdly enough, the decision to play benefited the Rays because the Phillies used up ace Cole Hamels in a game you can argue never should have started. Hamels said conditions made it impossible for him to grip a curveball, so in essence the Phillies didn't get full use of him even when he was on the mound.

Now they face a 2-2 tie with 31/2 innings to go when we, theoretically, resume tonight at Citizens Bank Ballpark.

Is there basically anyone who hasn't felt shortchanged in this Series? It's a mess on so many levels.

Fans paid $250 a ticket or more to sit shivering and soaked on a miserable night. Both teams have been jobbed by admittedly blown calls that high school umpires wouldn't miss. And while we would normally jump on Scott Kazmir for walking six hitters in Game 5, it sure looked like the strike zone was jumping around a lot.

"There were some pitches that were close," Rays manager Joe Maddon said charitably.

Deep breath.

Why does stuff like this keep happening in baseball?

All major sports leagues bow to their, ahem, broadcast "partners," but it's hard to imagine anyone who has allowed their premier event to be manipulated the way baseball has.

Fox wants to start the games so late that no one in the East can stay up to see them, and Selig goes along. Would Game 5 have continued in those dangerous conditions without regard to the unblinking eye of baseball's broadcast "partner?" Of course not.

It's just one more black mark against a Series that appears destined to some historical infamy. Normally we'd say the worst has passed, but given the way things are going we probably should get back to you on that one.