Bud Selig got lucky, SO lucky, that the game was tied when they called it in the middle of the 6th inning last night. But he created that luck, in part, on the fly. It’s the Bud Selig way.

Let’s talk rules first. If the game - which had turned into a legitimate, regulation game after the 5th inning - had been played by the old rules (and we mean old, as in pre-2007), the Phillies would have won. The old rules call for the game to revert back to the score at the end of the last completed inning if the game is called for weather. The new rule adds that the score will still revert back to the pre-inning score, EXCEPT in the case of a tie. How convenient. Look it up - rule 4.12(a)(6).

But none of this really matters, because Selig says he was determined to go 9 innings no matter what the scenario.

The Girls understand why the game had to be called, but is anyone questioning why the Rays got to bat into the top of the 6th without allowing Phillies’ offense to expose the Ray’s D on the ‘unplayable field’ at the bottom of the inning? One can only guess at what might have happened to the Rays’ crack fielding in that scenario - we saw what it did to the Phils’.

Please, spare me the concern for the health and safety of the players. If that was a deciding factor, the game would have been called well before the 5th even started, maybe even postponed before the start. Or perhaps the game would have been started earlier.

Hmmm….earlier. Had Selig consulted normal weather outlets (instead of 3 super-accurate weather gurus sources he refuses to mention), or perhaps looked outside his window, he would have seen beautiful Fall sunshine over the Delaware Valley at about 3pm. And he would have known that storm clouds, not light drizzle, were gathering on the horizon. Again, why can’t we start these things earlier? Oh right - TV.

Back to an earlier point, Selig was apparently determined to play out all 9 innings rain, shine or nuclear war. He claims he told the teams, but both clubhouses seemed clueless to this supposed advance warning. And if this was truly the case, why even start the game when the weather was so bad? And why in the world let the game go so deep into a driving storm that could have injured players?

Hamels claims “Those were the worst conditions imaginable that you could possibly pitch in.” Too bad for Hamels, who will not get his 5-0 post-season record protected unless the first Phillie at-bat produces a run. Too bad for fans and too bad for baseball.

The Rays will now have to get back into their prep-school uniforms and head to Delaware, having been kicked out of their Philadelphia hotel Monday afternoon. But don’t cry for them, they’re at the Hotel du Pont. And they’ll be there ’till Wednesday, at least.

And to all of you bettors who took the Phils in Vegas - you already won! See, the house rules in Vegas follow the previous rain policy which takes score from the last completed inning as the final. Congratulations.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.