Well, four-and-a-half, in this case, because the Phillies were ahead at that point. And I am not arguing that, anyway; I believe that suspending play was the right thing to do (although it should have been done waaaaaaaaaaay earlier in the night). Mostly I was annoyed by his constant repetition of the fact that “this game is now official” because pretty much everyone watching already knew that the game was not going to be stopped and the Phillies declared the winners until a “full” nine innings were played.
It’s like – look, I understand there are rules for this kind of thing, but nobody knows exactly what they are. I don’t even think Bud Selig knows all the rules; he’s the Commissioner and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he makes things up as he goes. But I am willing to bet money that a full nine innings of baseball would have been played if the Rays never tied the score.
Mostly, though, it was Joe Buck repeating “this game is now official” over and over again that bothered me, because it was like, “Hey! Look! I actually know something! I am not just blabbering and making shit up and trying to sound all fancypants!”
(Have I mentioned that I hate Joe Buck?)
Anybody who has a ticket stub can get in when the game restarts. Some people sold their stubs for quite a chunk of money.
Shibb hit my feelings for all thing Philly-sports-related right on the head in post #76 (Pssst! Hey Jimmy…if it were actually “nonsense”, then it wouldn’t be “self-perpetuating” – it’d be false). That said, I’m actually becoming ok with the idea of the Phillies winning it all. When the playoffs started, it became like last year to me: “I couldn’t care less what happens; I just don’t want Philly to have anything to celebrate”. After all, I’m not a fan of MLB – I just don’t care for the outrageously obnoxious local fans.
But this year, I dunno…things are a little different. I’m seeing a lot less of a “we’re going to win because everyone else sucks” attitude and more of a “man, I hope we can finally get a championship here” one. The shift towards humility is really refreshing.
I’d hate to think that having lived close to Philly for a couple of years now is starting to soften my stance, but I’m starting to think “ah, what the hell…everyone deserves a reason to celebrate now and then”. As long as it isn’t the Eagles winning a Super Bowl, what the heck.
As to the delay, hey, I think it’s great. There’s a lot of schoolkids who wouldn’t have been able to stay up and see the ending – they might just get to see a series win that they’d have otherwise missed.
Not being a huge baseball fan, I haven’t followed this Series as closely as I wanted to, since I did grow up a Phillies fan, and was much more into it while I was younger. I was only three when they won their last series, though, so I don’t remember. I do remember 1994, and I remember taking a lighter to a Mitch Williams baseball card and hanging the half-burned card on my bookbag before I went to school.
Aaaanyway, I was just reading an article about the Series, and I’m sure somebody has mentioned this before, and maybe even done so quite often, but I have to say that Grant Balfour is the funniest name for a pitcher ever!
It is worth nothing that Balfour, Walk and Mulcahy all pitched for the Phillies, which says a lot about the Phillies. Of course, Walk was on the only other Phillie team to win a World Series, so who know.
And right now I am sitting here at work, looking at several Phillies fans having their own mini-rally. Showing signs and getting people to honk their horns.
Did I mention my window looks out on the Hotel DuPont?
(That’s where the Rays are staying.)
It’s supposed to be a nice hotel. Must have been a bitch to find that many rooms on such short notice. An article here said they almost went to their standard place for road trips in Baltimore. That would have been a real drag.
Well, all of the games used to be in the daytime up until the '70s and until the '90s they always had at least one day game. I can’t see why moving the start to 4pm west coast time would be so horrible.
I suppose some folks would not be able to see the game, but delaying it as long as they have screws up the scheduling of the remaining two games in Tampa, if they have to be played. So this dogged insistence on playing the games past a normal working person’s bedtime might also screw up the plans of people who had tickets and travel plans to see those games.
The weather in Philly is apparently fine now. Why aren’t they getting read to play some ball this afternoon?
That isn’t the reason. The reason is that they announced the game would resume at 8:30, so that’s when the public expects it will resume. How would you enjoy driving home this evening with anticipation to watch the game and then hearing on the radio that the Phils won an hour before?
The reason it was ORIGINALLY scheduled for 8:30 was to meet Fox’s schedule. If they wanted to make sure that the game was played today, they would have scheduled it for two in the afternoon. Then if you have some delays, no biggie. Selig has tried to explain that the reason that they’re scheduling all games for 8:30 is that is what the public demands. IMO this is pure bull, since that means every game concludes midnight or later, especially with all of the extra commercials that they squeeze into the post season games.
I’m with you. What “public?” I’m part of the public, and I actually have a dog in this fight, and I think that there is no good reason why post-season games can’t start at 7:00 ET. Are they in cahoots with the Wheel of Fortune / Jeopardy! people? What?
