Another MLB Embarrassment

Bud Selig continues to prove he's incapable of making decisions for the good of the sport, rather than for the good of today's finances. We've already belabored the topic of a whole generation of children who are getting no joy from baseball's postseason. They are off to bed when the drama happens, and wake up just to read a headline. Wow, pretty exciting.

Under Bud, the All Star Game has continually been evolving from a true spectacle of a game, to nothing but a spectacle. All aspects of it being an actual competitive game, rather than a circus show to parade baseball's heroes around, had disappeared steadily until 2002 when both teams basically ran out of pitchers and the game had to be stopped in a tie in extra innings. Desperate to breathe life back into the All Star Game, Selig pushed for the new rule that the All Star Game would determine home field advantage in the World Series. A creative solution, that should never have been necessary.

Now, rather than look at what every rational person knew was inevitable and simply postpone last night's Game 5, Selig was worried about the television implications with Fox rescheduling. Look, Selig, grow some stones would ya? Baseball is a hot commodity right now. Look at the weather forecast and think about how this will play out. How will this affect the glory of the game for fans to huddle in the rain, while players risk injury? There are no other baseball obligation to worry about. This is the last series of the year. He said it himself (after the fact), that they can wait until Thanksgiving if they have to.

So, DO IT! Look at the weather forecast and say, "the weather is miserable. This is not the stage for the glory of baseball to end this year on. We will wait a day or two until the clouds pass and resume action". If FOX TV has a problem with that, tell them, "Too Bad!". Tell them, "we are playing baseball in two nights. Deal with it!".

The end result is that MLB has screwed with history. The Phillies do not have a deep starting rotation. They had their only ace, Cole Hammels, on the mound in the series clinching game, which they fought for and deserved. Cole may have gone 7 or 8 innings and thrilled the world with a clutch game to secure a championship for his team. Now, he will be unable to continue as the starter in this game, and has to hand the torch to someone else, with a full 3 innings remaining in a tie ballgame.

MLB has essentially given the Rays a new chance. This is similar to stopping a boxing match in the middle of a round when one fighter is in trouble, toweling him off, giving him a swig of water, and resuming the round from neutral territory. The rhythm of the fighters is lost, the dance starts all over again.

This is just ridiculous and embarrassing. If you aren't outraged yet, imagine if this had been the Red Sox in the Phillies' position, with the only pitcher we felt fully confident in was Jon Lester, and the game got stopped and we had to resume with perhaps Tim Wakefield as the fill-in. Does that sound fun?