Bud's wild-card plan not so brilliant after all

Baseball's postseason future is guaranteed to possess lots of rain, lots of delays, re-runs of The Sarah Conner Chronicles and maybe even a little snow.

Selig said it can rain anytime and presumably he means it could rain if there were no wild-card games and the World Series began earlier. Still, we're talking odds. The later in the year it becomes, the worse the weather gets. Duh.

Selig's wild-card plan, while also successful in some ways, is also greatly risky. He refuses to acknowledge this but it's true.

I like Selig. He's a good person who loves his sport and tries his best. Yet he's not taking responsibility for the odorous aspects of the wild-card system.

Let's travel back to 1975, when that World Series was delayed because of a major rainstorm. Game 5 was scheduled for Oct. 16 and Game 7 was played on Oct. 22. At that point, the latest a game had been played was Oct. 26 in 1911.

If Game 5 is played on Tuesday, that'll be Oct. 28. It's likely rain will force another suspension, which means Game 5 could be played Oct. 29.

Next year, World Series games will go into November.

"I know that many second guess," said Selig, "and I understand that. I've seen some of it. But the thing that's been so difficult is that the weather, it just keeps changing."

The weather changing ... who would ever think that could happen?

If the games are going to be played later in the year without dome protection (that phrase sounds naughty for some reason) these types of momentum changing suspensions are not just inevitable, they're guaranteed.

I also understand Selig was in a tough position on Monday night. Had they not played the game, there would've been 45,000 angry Phillies fans. You don't want to make Phillies fans angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.

Yet look at where we are now. The day was a waste, fans stayed out in the rain for hours and the Phillies might've wasted their ace.

Is it too much to ask Doppler Bud to just stand up and admit that these wild-card games have a dark side?

A rain-soaked, weather-delayed dark side?