I wouldn't doubt it and it would be a smart idea.

If they can get through the bottom of the 6th tied, I think they might call it at that point...

SI

I can only guess he meant that he wants a delay to work on the field/wait for better weather.

But ya, he ain't doing that.

So if they call this game, does it end in a tie, and we go back Tampa with the series at 3-1-1?

Wouldn't they just pick up tomorrow from where they left off?

Has a World Series game ever been called after six or seven innings because of weather? Although it is permissible by rule to end the game early I would think they'd rather wait a few hours and try to play a nine inning game tonight even if it takes until two or three in the morning just because it's the World Series.

Yeah, suspended game

SI

No, no. They follow the Bettman route and have a home-run hitting contest to decide it.

With Fred Flinstone bats.

We'd be sitting around at 2am waiting for them to pick up and the Phils would bitch because they had to wait so long or the Rays and baseball would bitch because the World Series game was decided on a crap field in 6 innings.

SI

This sucks.

What are Buck and McCarver talking about? Everyone know the only reason they stopped it now is because it was tied. They would not have stopped it yet if it were not tied.

Here's what NOAA has to say that they keep glossing over:

Tuesday: Rain, mainly before 2pm. High near 46. Windy, with a west wind between 20 and 28 mph, with gusts as high as 46 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Tuesday Night: A chance of showers, mainly before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38. Breezy, with a west wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Sure, it's going to suck tomorrow night but a chance of precipitation of 30% and rain likely ending by 2pm but for sure by 1am... well, they can get it in but it will be in the 30s and bitterly cold.

SI

This makes me yearn to listen to Chris Wheeler and he's a handful in himself.

Fuck mlb. The fix is.on. Its not like the field was any better going into the 6th. Assfucks

No-win situation.

You really think they should have called the game and award it to the Phillies?

What could be worse is that MLB uses this as a reason to go neutral site for the WS. That would be a lousy move. The greatest thing that the WS has going for it is having local fans in local venues.

I call "Milwaukee" in the "what neutral field site" pool. You all lose, suckers ;)

SI

Screw that...they should play in PNC. It would be the only time the park would see good baseball.

I'm wondering what happens if the weather is bad enough that they can't resume tomorrow. Do they play the rest of Game 5 on Wed. in Tampa?

Nope, this game has to finish in Philly first.

Does it? I would think MLB would have some discretion to play it somewhere else, if not Tampa, as much a disaster as that would be.

Reminds me of the '88 Stanley Cup finals. Game 4 in Boston was postponed by power outage. So they moved that game to end of the series, to be played if necessary, and moved right on to Game 5 in Edmonton. Horribly unfair, but that was before everybody whined about everything.

Ummm, aren't those the rules? If you start a game with a set of rules you have to apply them.

Yes it does, the game is suspended to be resumed when the weather lets up. They're not going to move the game. The only way that happens is if Citizen's Bank Park is blown up.

Official Rules | MLB.com: Official info

I don't care who wins, but I'm glad the Rays tied that game up. What a joke playing in that shitty weather.

Right now Sportsnet (the Canadian network that carries the series) is showing Game Three, picking it up at 2-1 in the 6th with Moyer pitching.

That is going to seriously screw with some people's heads.

There's no rule about when an umpire has to call a game. Thus, if they call the game they're awarding the World Series to Philadelphia based on the discretion regarding weather rules. You don't see why MLB might want to avoid that?

As a Rays homer I know if the phils don't swing they would never get called out!;)

The last 2 innings really shouldn't have been played but they had no choice they don't want to call the game after 4 1/2. I really expected every pitch to be called a strike to try and move the game through.

I will say that buck was an idiot saying that Maddon should ask for a rain delay after the game was official with the Rays trailing!

Yeah, really... that'd be a far bigger fiasco than the tied All Star Game.

I'd have taken the walk-off weather win after 5, fuck it, I'm 33 and can't really remember the phils winning it when I was 5. 28 fucking years of futility...I'd have taken it.

Slap a big fuckin asterisk or whatever you gotta go.

Fuck Selig and this horrible ref crew.

Like the Commish said, they'll wait until the next available day of decent weather in Philly. (Tues. or Wed.)

It would be an unfair advantage against Philly playing as a "home team" in Tampa.

Plus, it would also deprive the home fans in Philly of witnessing the Phillies clinch at CBP.

Stupid question. If the suspended game is made up tomorrow night and the Rays somehow win, does that mean game 6 would be Wednesday or Thursday?

SI

Phillies will pull off one of those patented rallies,
and win it for the people of Philly, in CBP.

Probably Thursday, given 1 day for travel.

This will not be needed though as the Phillies will win it in 5. :)

This reminds me of some little league bullshit when I was 12. We were in the quarter finals of the county tourney, something like 19-0. We were up by a few runs early, there was a major rain storm. Big delay, but it got back underway. My one friend, our best pitcher, couldn't get that critical last out and it got called cause of darkness tied.

The next day, we couldn't use our good pitchers again, and lost 13-12.

*sigh*

What a nightmare this is for MLB

I don't believe there will be a travel day. Originally, when they were talking about raining out Saturday, they were going to play Tuesday and then continue on Wednesday. They certainly could take a different approach now but I believe they'll do it as they intended.

Maybe they could play indoors, where the Sixers play. :D

I would hate the concept of having a neutral field WS, but I suppose I could deal if they built a state of the art retractable roof facility in Cooperstown.

Or maybe erect a big-like tent for CBP. :D

I'm not a fan of that. The beauty of baseball is each field is different and teams are familiar with the quirks of their ballpark. It is a true homefield advantage.

Not to mention teams in the east ( NY, Boston, Philly) would constitute 85% of the fans in the stadium, so in a series like this it would be like 7 home games for the Phils from a crowd support standpoint.

Is the Nationals park a viable location?
No far from Philly.

Move it to Indy then, and play it at Lucas Oil or something. I mean, realistically the thing could have been snowed out, I don't think anyone wants that.

I think that wold absolutly destroy the atmosphere of the games. It's not like the superbowl which is a single game event over a weekend. Fans of the teams playing wouldn't be able to travel to a nuetral site location for a wednesday night game.

Selig says (I think, if this context of this article is correct), says he wasn't going to let the series end via shortened rain-out game, that it would have simply been a "rain delay" of several days, if necessary:

In a first, World Series game suspended | MLB.com: News

"Even if the Rays hadn't tied the game in the sixth, the game wasn't going to be called, which would've resulted in the World Series championship being awarded to the Phillies.

"I was not going to allow that to happen," said Selig, who said the rain delay could have lasted two or three days, if necessary.

With rain forecast for Philadelphia on both Tuesday and Wednesday, Selig said he will not move the remainder of the Fall Classic to the domed confines of Tropicana Field.

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

So I guess the game is now technically "suspended", whereas if it wasn't a tie, it'd merely be a "delay".

I dunno. Like I said- since it was tied, it's not so bad. No one really got cheated unless you're looking through really hardcore Phillies glasses. They're going to have their chance to win tomorrow night.

And it sure as hell is better than giving a team a win in barely 5 innings during a game where they shouldn't have really been playing at all with the conditions the way they were.

All in all, MLB was bailed out tonight and this gives a little more story to this series.

SI

Absolutely need to write this into the rules so that if a similar situation comes up, this doesn't give MLB a huge black eye on its biggest stage. Hell, every World Series game must go 9 innings (or 8.5 if the home team is winning at that point).

SI

Yeah, they should've ended it well before it got to that point. Would've been more fair to end it before it was an official game to give them a do-over. But oh well...

You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to put that in the rules (and contingencies for All-Star games).

Sure, it's a first, but really not impossible to predict. Put a bunch of baseball guys in a meeting room for a weekend and they can come up with these scenarios and plan for them.

Once again, this just proves how beholden sports has become to the almighty TV dollar. I guarantee you Fox executives had some part in trying to push the game on last night.

"We can't have it interfere with House & Fringe... play the game Bud!". :banghead: