Scott Miller

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Commissioner Bud Selig said before Game 2 of the World Series here Thursday that he is happy to step aside for Sen. Barack Obama.

The concept: The Obama campaign has purchased television time next Wednesday evening as the Democrat's run for the presidency enters its final days.

As a result, if the World Series extends to Game 6 -- something that last happened in 2003 -- first pitch will be delayed for eight minutes.

Though that request came through Fox television, according to Selig, the commissioner is cool with it.

"It's eight minutes," Selig said. "I'd do that for anybody. That's just a question of being a good citizen."

Meanwhile, as Wall Street continues to melt down, inflation rises and people worry about their jobs, Selig admitted that he doesn't have any definitive answers concerning how it all will affect his sport.

"I don't know," Selig said. "I just don't know. I watched (former Federal Reserve chairman) Alan Greenspan this morning and he talked like this is maybe a once in a century tsunami, and I think he's right.

"The more people I talk to, economists, they don't know. So it's very hard for me to determine. I don't know."

Selig said he met with the bankers with whom baseball does business earlier in the day Thursday, and he said he wound up talking more about their woes than baseball's.

He also reiterated how he publicly told owners a couple of weeks ago not to "get cocky" this winter with ticket prices and other economic decisions in selling the game to fans this winter.

"We have to be extremely sensitive," he said.

Major league baseball has no current plans, he said to lay off any employees. The NBA laid off 80 full-time staffers earlier this month.

"We're budgeting very cautiously," Selig said. "We made it through this year, and it's been a remarkable year. But people are concerned. No one is immune. The fact is, this is something that affects every one of us in different forms."

Other items of note during the discussion with Selig:

-- Predictably, after none of the previous four World Series has lasted longer than five games, the commissioner sure wouldn't mind a Fall Classic that extends to six or seven games -- both for television ratings and for the good of the game (which aren't mutually exclusive ideas).

"It's always important in any series," Selig said. "The first two or three games, you're just starting to feel each other out. It builds. If you can get to Monday, Wednesday and Thursday next week (Games 5, 6 and 7), it would be very important."

-- Selig thinks the Tampa Bay-Boston American League Championship Series helped fuel interest in this World Series because "the Rays got a lot of coverage playing the Red Sox. It isn't like people are being introduced to the team for the first time."

-- The commissioner would like to eliminate some of the off days in October so that teams aren't sitting around so much between games. Within that, the off day between Games 4 and 5 in the League Championship Series would be eliminated. They were just added last year when baseball tweaked its postseason schedule to the World Series would be played over only one weekend instead of two.

"I don't know yet," Selig said. "It's worth looking at."

-- And even though baseball changed the World Series format to play on only one Saturday because it's the lowest rated television night of the week, Selig talked like baseball won't consider moving the start time of the Saturday game into the afternoon, or even as early as 5 or 6 p.m. EDT.

"Look, I understand that," he said. "I've talked to both managers about the time of games. We had afternoon games in the LCS and the ratings were brutal.

"The ratings get better and better as the night goes on."