More Stupidity from Major League Baseball

Where to begin. . .

First, the weather report was horrid and portended exactly what happened. Which meant, of course, that there was now way MLB was going to get this game in last night. So what did they do? Get all the fans down there, compel them to sit in awful weather, and watch only one good product -- the stuff they used to dry the dirt on the infield. The baseball -- including the home plate umpiring that didn't do justice to Scott Kazmir -- was not very good at all.

Second, MLB compelled the nonsense by playing the top of the 6th inning. Cole Hamels actually had water dripping from his hair, you could actually see the drops. Puddles were everywhere, and even diehard Philadelphia fans headed for cover. Yes, I know that this would have meant that the Phillies would have led 2-1 at the time of the suspension, but Commissioner Selig wouldn't have let the Series end on a rainout (even if, in 1994, they let the season end with no Series). So far, Bud let the steroids era go untrammeled, made a mockery of the All-Star game, and now he's dishonored the Philadelphia fans twice in three home games. The Philadelphia fans deserve better than a 10 p.m. start on a Saturday night and sitting in a cold shower last night (yes, arguably, the nitwits who assault Tampa Bay fans deserve to be put in cages, at least for some period of time, but most Philadelphia fans are not like that).

So, MLB whiffs again. They dishonored the Philadelphia fans, all in the name of the Fox TV contract and the ad revenues that go with it. Not that, of course, most fans around the country feel compelled to watch a Philadelphia-Tampa Bay Series (even if the ratings might be better in Hawaii and Seattle because of warm feelings for Shane Victorino, the first Hawaiian to play in the Majors in over 80 years, and Jamie Moyer, who pitched well in Seattle for many seasons).

Yes, I know that Philadelphia fans are on edge because they see this rainout and today's frosty weather (it was snowing on my way in to work today) as an omen of doom, and part of the collective angst is because of the memories of 1977, when Tommy John and the Dodgers beat Steve Carlton and the Phillies in a driving rainstorm to clinch the NLCS (I was there with my father, and it was a brutal night). Still, all fans deserve better from Major League Baseball.

Including, and especially, those in Philadelphia.

Baseball only prevails because it has a monopoly. If any of us treated our customers the way MLB has treated the Philadelphia fans, we'd go out of business.