I'm watching national analysts tear apart Selig -- it seems like one supports Selig for every five that second guess him -- and it's occurred to me: why is this such a huge issue?

First off, more baseball is never a bad thing, and that's a fact -- the weather was bad in Philadelphia, and that forces the first suspended game in the history of the World Series (due to rain). That's way cool. Now we have an historical opportunity to watch the final 3 innings on a separate night, and the game will be finished.

Secondly, for all the trouble Selig is getting for allowing the game to go into the sixth inning, why isn't he getting more credit for an absolutely correct judgment: that no World Series game will end this way, that he would not have officially called the game after 4.5, even with the Phillies leading, and that "this is no way to end a World Series."

Say what you will about other Selig blunders, even the decision to let the game go later, but I think Selig actually upheld the integrity of the game by "skirting" the rules -- that is, I believe he got the spirit of the game correct, even if he didn't completely go by the letter.

Third, there are all sorts of issues with the type of information that Selig was being fed, and he himself noted that he was working with the ground crew during the 4th and after, and there's an extent to which he can only go by the info he has. Couple that with the fact that the front offices, umpires, and grounds crew all met with Selig before the game and decided that the game would be played, and you have some context to explain why the game went forward.

I think that people enjoy second guessing Selig, and he's an easy target because a lot of people believe that baseball is no longer the national pasttime, that baseball is a flawed sport since the steroids disaster, etc. But I think people need to separate their previous (and legitimate) criticisms of Selig from this event...

...and frankly, do people even watch baseball anymore? If we really tried, we could think of handfuls of games that we've seen in the last few years that were continued in even worse weather conditions than the conditions last night, and anyone that watches baseball regularly will admit that they often see games being rushed along through bad weather a couple of innings after there was a logical stopping point. This is always something that happens in baseball with bad weather, and I frankly think it is really stupid to criticize Selig for this particular game.

And what really escapes me is that all of this criticism and second guessing occurs without one mention of how great the quality of play has been in this series. We've seen late game comebacks, runners stranded and late game comeback attempts stopped, and we've only had one blow-out thus far through 4+ games.

We're in the midst of an incredibly exciting elimination game, and I don't understand why no one is promoting the young stars, or patting baseball on the back for their post-steroids brand of play, which seems to be faster, including more young stars who combine power and speed, and some nice young pitchers with excellent approaches and pretty good stuff.

I thoroughly disagree with anyone that suggests that this weather debacle is just another chapter in the demise of baseball -- I think this is clearly the most exciting World Series since '03, and I think the national media is more annoyed that their beloved Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston teams are not in the Series than anything else...

Frankly, with these young stars, I think the game is in better hands than it has been in a very long time, and I am more excited to be a baseball fan than ever before.