Official 2008 MLB thread

[Spidey-Bat]

It still makes a difference.

 

[FaT_tONle]

It still makes a difference.

I agree that playoff games on Saturday/Sunday should start in the afternoon... but those games start at 4:00 ET anyway as long as there are two series going on... but even for a WS... let's say you are getting rain once every five years... then that rain has a 1 in 5 shot of falling on the weekend... basic probability... rain once every twenty five years in a WS game on a weekend... but let's b**** anyway even though this happened for the first time... despite the rain falling on a Monday instead of the weekend...

 

[Dark Donnie]

And that has nothing to do with rain so why people are putting the two together is ******ed.

I didn't say it did I said alot of people wanted day games or at least earlier start times so they didn't end so late.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

I agree that playoff games on Saturday/Sunday should start in the afternoon... but those games start at 4:00 ET anyway as long as there are two series going on... but even for a WS... let's say you are getting rain once every five years... then that rain has a 1 in 5 shot of falling on the weekend... basic probability... rain once every twenty five years in a WS game on a weekend... but let's b**** anyway even though this happened for the first time... despite the rain falling on a Monday instead of the weekend...

I did not know that the forces of Nature had established that probability.

Another thing you overlooked, skipping some offdays means they play earlier. The weather is a lot nicer earlier in October.

 

[FaT_tONle]

I did not know that the forces of Nature had established that probability.

Another thing you overlooked, skipping some offdays means they play earlier. The weather is a lot nicer earlier in October.

I don't remember the last time we got snow let alone rain in late October before it happened today... there may be a tropical thunder storm in early October for all we know... I am not pretending to be a meteorologist... but the last time we had rain in the WS was 2003 but that was Florida... five years ago. Just don't give me this bull crap that it won't rain early October in the future because we didn't get heavy rain earlier in the month this year... but I agree with one thing... I hate the off days. I was never arguing that with you so I never overlooked it.

I didn't say it did I said alot of people wanted day games or at least earlier start times so they didn't end so late.

And I never said I was talking about you...

 

[ih8nyy]

They should throw a few more double headers into the regular season schedule, cut out a few of off days they have already in the regular season and start the playoffs a week/week and 1/2 earlier. It isn't like making the trip from Boston to say Cleveland requires a travel day. For the love of God these teams travel on charters, it isn't like they wait around the airport that often. Leave the travel days for coast to coast trips and move up the start of the playoffs. Have the LDS take up the last week of Sept. and then the LCS and WS can take place the first 3 weeks in Oct. And if the LCS are both sweeps, move the WS start date up instead of sitting around because that was the original schedule.

 

[FaT_tONle]

Too many logistics involved to change the WS schedule... it has to be decided before the season... everything else can be flexible though.

 

[Bunker]

It should be a requirement for all new stadiums to have a retractable roof.

 

[Captain Planet!]

I think a roof looks ugly on a baseball stadium.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/10/28/game5.ratings.ap/index.html

This World Series's ratings are, so far, worse than 2006. So much for Philly being a big market.

 

[Dark Donnie]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/10/28/game5.ratings.ap/index.html

This World Series's ratings are, so far, worse than 2006. So much for Philly being a big market.

Or Tampa having any fans. Facts are facts, in a study Philly is top 6 in both TV market and baseball markets. There is no denying most of the games have been very good. The 10 o clock start time certainly didn't help the ratings.

Selig, MLB could've avoided this muddy mess
by Ken Rosenthal
Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005. He appears weekly on the FSN Baseball Report and MLB on FOX.

Updated: October 28, 2008, 2:32 PM EST 352 comments

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 p.m. 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 5 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, 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.

A little standing water? No problem. (Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)

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 p.m. ET and allow another to continue in a downpour?

Game 3 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 3 and by allowing Game 5 to disintegrate into a muddy mess.

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

Start acting like it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8726170/Selig,-MLB-could've-avoided-this-muddy-mess

 

[ih8nyy]

It should be a requirement for all new stadiums to have a retractable roof.

To Quote Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes..... it rains. Think about that."

 

[Spidey-Bat]

Obama's ad runs tonight which means the game won't start until 8:37.

http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6955

In an unprecedented move, Major League Baseball cancelled the 2008 World Series today, citing "overwhelming lack of interest."

This year's contest, featuring the Philadelphia Phillies and some other team, will be the first-ever World Series to be yanked before completion, but in the words of one baseball executive, "We're fairly sure no one will notice."

The decision to pull the plug on the Series came last night after the fifth game of the contest was rain-delayed and suspended with the score standing at something to something.

Some guys were on base and another guy was pitching when the rains came, but no one in the stadium showed a flicker of interest in the outcome.

"Enough already," said baseball commissioner Bud Selig. "Let's put this thing out of its misery."

At Fox Broadcasting, executives were reportedly "deliriously happy" about the cancellation of the low-rated Series and immediately announced plans to replace it with reruns of "Family Guy" and "House."

In Philadelphia, slugger Ryan Howard was philosophical about the decision to pull the Series: "I wasn't really following it - who was ahead, anyway?"

 

[Captain Planet!]

Yay, the BALTIMORE Orioles are changing their unifroms.

 

[Immortalfire]

Yay, the BALTIMORE Orioles are changing their unifroms.

What is a unifrom?

 

[Shemtov]

http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6955

not funny i gullibily beleived for a second and started to run around my screaming HOLY F**K! HOLY *****ING BAT*****! then i went on mlb. and it sAID THE SERIES WILL RESUME TOGO NIGHT. NOT FUNNY.
GO PHILLIES!

 

[Captain Planet!]

What is a unifrom?

It's when pieces of thread unite from the magic of a sewing machine to make new clothing.

 

[BlackLantern]

What is a unifrom?

Unicroms ******ed little brother....

 

[Immortalfire]

It's when pieces of thread unite from the magic of a sewing machine to make new clothing.

Ingenius!

 

[Immortalfire]

not funny i gullibily beleived for a second and started to run around my screaming HOLY F**K! HOLY *****ING BAT*****! then i went on mlb. and it sAID THE SERIES WILL RESUME TOGO NIGHT. NOT FUNNY.

Ooookay.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

not funny i gullibily beleived for a second and started to run around my screaming HOLY F**K! HOLY *****ING BAT*****! then i went on mlb. and it sAID THE SERIES WILL RESUME TOGO NIGHT. NOT FUNNY.

I found it funny. Especially Howard's "quote".

 

[BlackLantern]

I understand this incident might give steam to the viewpoint that the World Series should be held at a neutral site....but thats total ********...half the fun of a WS is the atmosphere of playing for a WS championship in your own house

 

[cyborg ninja 14]

Next year there needs to be only one september

Also, would it kill MLB (or Fox) to push the start time at least an hour back? a 7:37 first pitch wouldn't hurt anyone. If I lived on the east coast I would HATE 8:30 start times.

 

[Immortalfire]

8:30 start time is ridiculous.

 

[BlackLantern]

Quit yer whining you babies....I, in CT, am perfectly happy with an 8:30 start time...what is that too late for you....does someone need a baba and a diaper?