The fifth game of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays was suspended tonight because of rain.
Pretty simple idea, right? Well, apparently the people who watch ESPN are either too dense to understand something so straightforward or have forgotten that baseball is indeed just a game because the sports network played FIVE minutes of a press conference discussing why the game was suspended.
Now, admittedly, I don't enjoy baseball. It's too slow and I'd rather not watch grown men re-arrange themselves while spitting nasty brown stuff on the ground. So, I probably don't have a proper appreciation for the fact that this could have been the deciding game of the World Series.
I only caught this press conference because I didn't bother to change the channel after the Colts mixed performance in their loss against the Tennessee Titans. Sigh...
I was happily checking my e-mail when my attention was drawn to the somber proceedings playing out in front of me on the TV. By the tone of the speaker's voice, I thought that someone had died or had at least been indicted for steroid use. But no...all the hushed discussion was about precipitation.
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig spoke about being "nervous" in the 4th inning and about making decisions with "trepidation."
C'mon Bud. It's only baseball. It's not like you were trying to decide whether to put your ailing dog to sleep or how you were going to tell your wife that you forgot to get her a birthday present.
As if Bud didn't communicate it clearly enough, he passed the mike over to one of the umpires who spent too much time to say, essentially, "it was raining buckets." Pseudo-meteorologist #2 then handed the mike to yet a third person who at least seemed to have an understanding of how un-hard the situation was to grasp.
"That pretty much covers it," he said, going on to say that they stopped the game when the slipperiness of the ball threatened to make the game "comical."
Which is exactly what this press conference was.
Monday, October 27, 2008
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6 comments:
To be fair, what I heard on the news this morning was something about games being called due to rain after the 6th inning and if it is called that late, whoever is ahead at that point wins. But the decision was made to not handle this World Series game by those typical season rules. Or something. So on one hand, the game could have been over and won when it was called. What I loved was the news guy sounding kinda annoyed and saying "They knew the rain was coming so why not just adjust the time and play in the afternoon?" Because that would have made sense! Because that would have focused on the sport and not the ratings!
Oh- and I don't watch baseball. But the 2 minutes of news I did get to watch while dressing this morning was about the game.
Oh, the World Series is going on?
We don't do baseball unless we're at a ballpark with beer in our hands. Otherwise what's the point?
@Liz -- thanks for the explanation. That makes more sense now. But I still don't like baseball.
Selig was nervous because the rays were down in the 5th. If the Phillies would have been handed the game, they would have also been handed the entire world series becasue they were leading 3-1 in a best of seven series.
As a sports fan that would have sucked to have the Phillies win the world series on a rain delay. I think even some Phillies fans would agree that it would be no way to win. To me it would be kind of like winning a Nascar race on a yellow flag except the stakes here are much higher.
The Rays took the pressure off Selig because they scored in the sixth and tied the game.
With the game tied you HAVE to play later since no one is winning.
Statistically very few games are delayed by rain but its common enough. It is rare, though to have rain playing a part in a world series and EXTRAORDINARILY rare in a potentially decisive game.
The game will be played tomorrow from the 6th inning.
@Mike -- Thanks dear. This is what I heard, though... "blah, blah, blah, rain!"
I'm not a baseball person either. I share my enthuisiasm with whoever said "baseball is 12 minutes of excitement crammed into 3 hours". LOL
BTW, I do rag quilts. There are a few in my Etsy shop under Sold Items. I hope to get a few up for sale before winter really kicks in, although I'm always up for a custom order! :)
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