Okay. I have read and read and read and read and read about the the train wreck that was last night. It seems that there are two main problems with what happened.
First, here is the video of Bob DuPuy talking to Chris Myers right after they put the tarp on. If you watch that video, it is very obvious that DuPuy--speaking for Major League Baseball on national TV during their marquee event--had no idea what the plan was. He keeps emphasizing that because the game was tied, they'd be able to suspend it and start on Tuesday (or Wednesday, as it were). From Sheehan's piece:
Having discussed the situation Saturday and yesterday with both Rays president Matt Silverman and Phillies GM Pat Gillick, Selig correctly concluded that the World Series is a special case with special rules.So there were special rules in place. Silverman, Selig, and Gillick knew about them. But FOX obviously didn't. DuPuy very clearly didn't. The players didn't. The managers didn't. Everyone directly involved in a World Series game did not know the rules which were in place, and nobody in a position to alert the viewing audience in a timely fashion knew either. That is absurd.
Second, if they had this plan in place, why did they play the top of the sixth? That was not baseball. Hamels couldn't throw a curveball (Stark reported this on OTL, but check the Gameday; no curves in the 6th). Rollins couldn't field a ground ball. It's a wonder that Upton made it all the way around the bases without falling over. Burrell couldn't make a decent throw to the plate. Okay, maybe that last thing isn't so rare. But still, it is mind boggling that they played under those conditions with a clearly superior contingency plan in place.
Even worse, the Rays batted one more time in these conditions that the Phillies did. That was the whole point of the old rule (changed last year), where the score reverted back to the last full inning; if the weather is bad, both teams had to suffer equally. It's pretty obvious that the Rays benefited from this, allowing them to tie an elimination game in the World Series because baseball has an incompetent commissioner.
3 comments:
I usually like your stuff here, but this is pretty bad after-the-fact analysis.
If the Rays don't score that run, there is no way anybody complains about the Phillies being shafted. And "conventional wisdom" is that rain surpresses run scoring, because pitch recognition, hitting and baserunning all suffer. Conventional wisdom may of course be wrong, but I don't think you can accuse them of wanting to help the rays somehow. Until that point, the rays had also been pretty awesome and making outs that day.
Point in case: Joe Buck (as wrong as he often is) was harping about how unfair it was AGAINST THE RAYS, for having to play in these conditions, because it killed their running game... until Upton flew around the bases.
Secondly, it's pretty much the ideal time for the game to be suspended from the Phillies point of view. Hamels went 6 innings, with something like 75 pitches. He'd be available for possible relief duty in game 7. If he goes another 1-2 innings, maybe he woldn't be. And if the game gets called when it should have been, around the 4th, you loose innings from Hamels from that day.
Sorry for ranting.
"I don't think you can accuse them of wanting to help the rays somehow."
I didn't do this, nor did I mean for the last sentence of the post to be the focus.
It is indeed after the fact analysis. I'm not saying that Selig was trying to help the Rays, or anything like that. I am saying this his incompetence, in this particular case, helped them. I said nothing about his intention.
I think Selig let them play the top of the sixth, hoping the Rays would score. But I don't think he did this because he thought this would give the Rays an advantage; he did it to cover his own ass.
It drives me nuts when commentators say that letting the top of the sixth stand is perfectly fair, because after all, Carlos Pena fielded a bunch of balls perfectly well in that slop etc. If that's so, why not just suck it up and play the bottom of the sixth before delaying the game? What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
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