Bud Selig may be commissioner of baseball, but after this week, it’s pretty clear he answers to a higher power. That’s right — FOX.
The decision to even start Game 5 of the World Series was a bad one, but it’s perfectly clear that it was out of Selig’s hands. With many forecasters putting the chance of rain at 90 percent, cueing up the anthem was a crapshoot. We now know that the commissioner met with skippers Charlie Manuel and Joe Maddon beforehand and assured them that a full nine innings would be played.
I strongly suspect if the game had been scoreless after two or three innings, it would have been bagged then. Once the Phils scored a pair in the first inning, however, Bud had to hope that the Rays would get back into it quickly, since the fans in Philadelphia would implode if they lost their number one starter, Cole Hamels, to a rainout. That it took until the top of the sixth to tie it turned the infield to mud and the game into a joke.
This is the World Series, Bud. This should be baseball’s time to shine. Yet you continue to allow television to dictate when and even whether the games should be played. It wasn’t always that way. In 1962, the Yankees and Giants endured 3 days of rain in San Francisco after a travel day between Games 5 and 6. Nobody died. Those of us old enough remember game 7 that year rather vividly. The 1989 World Series, also in San Francisco, had a 10-day break following an earthquake before game 3. The long layoff only increased interest in the outcome.
Philadelphia fans certainly remember Game 4 of the 1977 NLCS against the Dodgers. A steady rain fell throughout the entire game, but then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn let it continue. Los Angeles won the game and the series, but Kuhn heard about it for years afterward. Does a wet baseball impact a pitcher’s control? You better believe it.
While we’re at it, Game 3 this year should’ve been postponed as well. When you can’t begin until roughly 10 p.m., it’s time to tell everyone to come back the next day. That game had no ratings to speak of, and it’s not hard to understand why.
Hey, I love baseball. You’ve probably figured that out. It’s why I hate to see what’s happened to its premiere event. All night games in the World Series? Terrible idea. Postseason baseball in late October-early November? Terrible idea. TV running the show? Unacceptable.
I certainly understand that the TV revenues are paramount to the profitability of the sport. But you’ll never convince me that the game isn’t losing generations of fans by making the World Series inaccessible to kids. When I was going to Belvedere Elementary in Fairfax County, I remember distinctly our principal, Agnes Yeager, putting the World Series radio play-by-play on the school PA system, circa 1959-1961. It was considered a news event, and no one complained about it.
Try looking at the big picture, Bud. Tighten up the schedule. Bring back World Series day games – a couple will do. Don’t let this sport lose any more traction during your tenure as commissioner.
Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
