It wasn't supposed to happen this way.
I always write the columns that are posted for Wednesday on Tuesday evening. This was an off day on the schedule. The Phillies had taken a three-games-to-one lead in the seven-game series, so I thought that this entry would be about a World Series championship or a tough flight to St. Petersburg, Fla. The team would then have to win one of two games against the Tampa Bay Rays to clinch the title.
There wasn't supposed to be a suspended game. The only reason that I could write this column on Tuesday is because the game has been tentatively rescheduled for Wednesday. (In Philadelphia, it snowed on Tuesday.) By the time some of you read this column, the suspended game might have been completed. Who knows what will happen?
Like nearly 46,000 others, I went to Citizens Bank Park on Monday hoping to see the Phillies close out with a win and a World Series crown. There's no point in rehashing what everyone already knows. Let's just say that I'm just as disappointed and outraged at the turn of events. Everybody has a story, and this is mine.
As a youngster, I was in the 700 level in left field at Veterans Stadium during the "Black Friday" Game 3 of the 1977 playoffs with the Los Angeles Dodgers, which the Phillies lost (6-5) on a blown call in the ninth inning by first base umpire Bruce Froeming. I was in the same section during Game 4 the next night when Dodgers' pitcher Tommy John ended the Phillies' World Series hopes that season with a 4-1 decision over Steve Carlton in a steady rain. With that win, LA clinched the series, three games to one.
There was no wild card in those days. Each league had East and West divisions at the time, and the champions of each division played in a best-of-five-games league championship series to determine which team advanced to the World Series.
Getting back to Oct. 8, 1977, then-National League President Chub Feeney had deemed that it was not raining hard enough at the scheduled starting time to postpone that playoff game. He had an umbrella. I wasn't as smart.
At that age, I thought that they didn't play baseball games in the rain — particularly important ones with the World Series at stake. I got soaked on that night, and there were a number of colleagues in the press corps Monday night recalling similar experiences.
Obvious comparisons to those games are the missed calls and the bad weather during two of the three World Series games in Philadelphia in 2008. No matter how it turns out, this series will be remembered for the bad weather just as much as for the outcome.
Saturday's 5-4 victory was memorable for its bizarre ending and for the gutsy performance of 45-year-old hurler Jamie Moyer, who had to wait until after 10 p.m. to make the first World Series start of his career. He also had to pitch the first couple of innings in the rain. Moyer deserved better, but the pitcher held the lead and left the playing field to a well-deserved ovation in the seventh inning. It didn't start out very well for him, though.
"When I was told to warm up, they said that the rain was going to stop," said Moyer after the game. "At the time, I thought, 'It didn't look to me like it was going to stop.' "
On Monday, the decision to play through the rain was based on forecasts that the precipitation would end by 9:30 p.m. It didn't turn out that way. Conditions became worse as the game progressed.
As much as I thought that I had detected a hint of sincerity when Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said about the sloppy field conditions, "I didn't want a World Series game to end like this," this game should not have started.
As much as Monday's experience was wet for everyone, we'll have to deal with much colder temperatures if the game is resumed on Wednesday evening. Those of you who were in the stadium on Monday know how cold it was. The game-time temperature was 47 degrees at 8:30 p.m., and it had dropped to 40 degrees by 10 p.m. Fans who were also getting the strong wind know how cold it really was at the Park.
Temperatures for Wednesday night are predicted to be in the 30s, which brings back another memory.
I don't recall the year, the city or the opponents, but I do remember watching another National League playoff game on television a few years ago during which the temperature hovered around the freezing mark (32 degrees).
Was it Feeney or then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn who sat through the entire game without an overcoat just to prove that it wasn't too cold to play baseball?
Drop me a line if you can fill me in on the details of that game.
Meanwhile, if the suspended game hasn't been completed by the time you read this, I'm with you. Go Phillies!
Next post: Nov. 5.
© 2008 www.Bill-McFarland.com
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