Bud Selig Nearly Ruined the World Series

I am a baseball fan through and through. I watch other sports, and I enjoy them, but there's nothing I love more than baseball. I'll defend the strategy, the precision and the beauty of the sport to the end of the universe. Tonight, as a baseball fan, I was disgusted by what happened on the field in Philadelphia during Game 5 of the World Series.

Around the fourth inning, the rain started to fall on Citizens Bank Park. With the Phillies leading 2-1, I immediately thought to myself, "This game could end in a rain delay if they let the Rays bat in the top of the fifth and the Phillies could win the World Series in a 4 1/2 inning game." Of all of the embarrassing things that Bud Selig has done in his time as commissioner of Major League Baseball, ending the World Series in a shortened game would've been the trump card.

Controversies Under Bud Selig

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is under fire again for the way he handled the suspension of Game 5 of the World Series in Philadelphia. Click through the gallery to see some of Selig's most controversial moments at the top of baseball.

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Selig suspended Game 5 in the middle of the sixth innning with the Rays and Phillies tied at 2-all. The teams played several innings in a downpour with Philadelphia leading Tampa Bay 2-1. Though Selig claims he would not have allowed the Phillies to clinch the World Series in a rain-shortened game, he made the decision to halt play only when the game could be suspended under MLB rules. (Read MLB Rule)

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Under heavy pressure after a series of incorrect home run calls, Selig instituted instant replay this August on boundary plays -- those that involve home runs and the foul pole. Major League Baseball could be pressured to expand video replay further in the wake of a number of botched calls in this year's Fall Classic.

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Selig has also drawn criticism for turning a blind eye to the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in the game during the 1990s and early 2000s. The widespread use of steroids and other drugs helped rewrite many of baseball's most hallowed records and brought the nation's pastime into the halls of the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions.

Scott J. Ferrell, Congressional Quarterly / Getty Images

The suspension of Game 5 isn't the only controversial in-game call Selig has had to make as commissioner. He declared the 2002 All-Star Game, which took place in his hometown of Milwaukee, a tie after the managers ran out of pitchers.

Darren Hauck, AP

Two years after taking over as acting commissioner, Selig oversaw one of the darkest moments in baseball history -- the 1994 player strike which forced him to cancel the World Series that year.

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Selig also spearheaded a realignment movement and the addition of a wild-card spot in each league, which added two divisions and doubled the number of teams in the postseason each year. The Florida Marlins were the first wild-card team to win the World Series in 1997, pictured, and while it has increased interest in the sport, some purists dislike the fact that a team that didn't win its division can capture baseball's ultimate prize.

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In 1997, Selig helped introduce interleague play. While interleague matchups have likely helped drive some of the record attendance numbers in the last decade, it has also been received poorly by baseball purists.

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Of course, Selig now claims that if it came down to it, he could've acted to call an extended "rain delay" and resumed the game on Tuesday night, no matter what the score of the game or what the actual rulebook says. That would obviously be the right thing to do in a 2-1 game after five innings given the situation, so why, exactly, did these two teams play through a freezing downpour for an inning and a half, only to have the game almost immediately suspended at the first point that the rulebook allowed for it.

Sure, the Rays tied the game. But they only did it after B.J. Upton reached when Jimmy Rollins flubbed a very fieldable grounder, then ran around the basepaths to score the tying run while the Phillies attempted to throw him out with an incredibly slippery baseball. If Selig and the baseball officials had the power to suspend the game until tomorrow, even though the rules don't technically allow for it, and they were meaning to do it, why hadn't it been done at that point? With all due respect to the Rays, the tying run in this game was scored by the weather, not them.

When, exactly, were you planning on acting, Bud? After Evan Longoria shredded his ACL sliding in the mud? After Cole Hamels destroyed his arm trying to throw a slippery baseball in the freezing weather? After one team rallied for 12 runs because the field was such a disaster that playing defense was no longer tenable?

Selig can claim that he would've suspended the game no matter what the score, but all we have is the empirical evidence that he didn't. The game was officially suspended at the only point that it's allowed for in the MLB rulebook thanks to a rule change that was made prior to last season. Essentially, Selig's claim boils down this:

"I had the means to suspend the game until tomorrow and allow for Game 5 to be played to its completion, but instead I chose to let the Phillies and Rays muck around in the mud for an inning and a half for my own amusement while the entire country believed the game could be called and the Philles could've won the World Series in a rain-shortened debacle -- much to the embarrassment of my sport. Then when the Rays tied the game up and I no longer had to make any tough decisions or assert myself in any way, I chose to call the game as dictated by the rulebook. I am the biggest wuss in the history of life, the universe, and everything."

Maybe Selig really did discuss the options with the Rays and Phillies before the game. Maybe he really did have the power to go around the rules and suspend a game that wasn't tied. But the fact is he didn't, and he allowed the most important game of the season, to this point, to press on in conditions that were unfit for baseball.

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Bud Selig says:

"We'll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here."

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This is the exact kind of gutlessness that has marred Selig's term as commissioner, be it turning a blind eye to steroids or allowing the All-Star Game to end in a tie. The man is simply unable make a difficult decision.

He can say what he likes about what he would or wouldn't have done had the Rays not tied the game up, but it certainly seemed to me that the Rays scoring provided an easy out for him and prevented the debacle that he allowed to to take place in the first place from going on any longer.