Selig, MLB Could've Avoided This Muddy Mess

PHILADELPHIA - I can't believe I'm writing this, but Major League Baseball needs a reminder and maybe even a kick to the head.

This is the World Series, ladies and gentlemen.

World Series games should feature the best umpires.

World Series games should not start anywhere near 10 PM ET.

And most of all, World Series games should never, ever be played in conditions that compromise the integrity of the competition.

That's what happened Monday night, no matter how commissioner Bud Selig wants to spin it. Selig again was in something of a no-win position because of inaccurate weather forecasts. But he should have halted Game Five much sooner.

Instead, the game was not suspended until after the top of the sixth inning, an inning in which the Rays tied the score, 2-2, with standing water in the infield.

I can't read the mind of Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, but I'm willing to bet that he didn't speak to the media afterward because he believes his team still should be leading, 2-1.

With two outs, the Rays' B.J. Upton hit a two-hopper to Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins. The ball appeared to skip cleanly off the infield dirt, but as Rollins ranged to his left, his footing might not have been secure. The ball bounced off the heel of his glove for an infield single; the Rays suddenly had life.

Upton proceeded to steal second, raising the question of whether he can walk on water. Carlos Pena followed with an opposite-field RBI single, tying the score on a night when the Rays were facing elimination and trailing 2-0 in the first inning.

We can debate whether Rollins would have fielded Upton's ball under better conditions and whether the wind and rain adversely affected Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels. But frankly, the discussion should not even be taking place. The game should have been stopped the moment the rain intensified, which was long before the sixth inning.

Selig himself said he went downstairs to investigate in the fourth inning and returned again in the fifth. He said that the Phillies' groundskeeper, Mike Boekholder, kept telling him, "The field's OK. The field's OK." Tim Welke, the crew chief for the six-umpire team, concurred, saying the pitcher's mound and batter's box were never compromised.

Such arguments might have, ahem, held water if applied to a regular-season game in April. The outcome of a World Series game, however, should be determined only by the competing teams, not bad weather and not poor umpiring. What was Selig waiting for? The conditions got progressively worse on Monday night, and the weather is not expected to be any better on Tuesday.

It wasn't all bad for Bud—he made the right call beforehand when he decided that the game would be completed, regardless of the score or inning. Yes, Selig said that he would have broken his sport's own rules, which allow an official game to be suspended only if the score is tied.

Really, though, that one was easy—the uproar over a rain-shortened World Series clincher would have dwarfed the outcry over the All-Star Game tie in 2002. Selig takes pride in such common-sense decisions, and in fairness many of his calls are not as simple as they seem.

Still, the basic question remains: Why start one World Series game at 10:06 PM ET and allow another to continue in a downpour?

Game Three was played without interruption once it began after a 91-minute delay, and it turned into a mini-classic. The problem was, it drew the lowest television rating of any game in World Series history. Yes, I work for FOX, but someone please tell me: How exactly was the late start good for the game?

Granted, some fans could not have returned the next day if there had been a postponement, and the weather for the off-day that would have been lost—Tuesday—looked threatening. Well, one step at a time.

Selig said, Monday night, that, "we will stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here." That should have been his approach from the start.

The umpires are less under Selig's control; their collective-bargaining agreement restricts the use of the best umps in the playoffs and World Series. That's right, umpires cannot work in back-to-back postseason series in a single year or in back-to-back World Series.

The latter provision is plainly ridiculous; if the best players can teams can qualify for the World Series two years in a row, why can't the best umpires? When the umpires' CBA expires after next season, Selig should demand a change.

When it comes to the World Series, baseball needs to think bigger, in every way. With each decision, Selig need only ask himself: How does baseball's showcase event deserve to be treated? That question produced the correct answer Monday night when Selig refused to allow a rain-shortened game.

But he blew it by failing to postpone Game Three and by allowing Game Five to disintegrate into a muddy mess.

It's the World Series, for crying out loud.

Start acting like it.

This article originally published on FOXSports.com.

Read more of Ken's columns here.