Play ball? This time, not a good idea

The ball was so slippery in the fifth inning, Phil Hughes said, "I just threw a fastball and hoped it ended up somewhere near the plate."

The Yankees' fastest player, Brett Gardner, acknowledged the leftfield warning track was "pretty wet," and that he played mindful of the potential peril there.

Joe Girardi said, "You're always a little bit concerned when the conditions are like this. Someone could slip, pull something. But you've got to play."

These were relatively coherent thoughts, given that they were spoken at about 2:30 Wednesday morning, after the Yankees outlasted the Orioles in a rain-delayed, rain-soaked, 5-3 victory at Yankee Stadium. Yet we were left with one prevailing sentiment:

They didn't have to play.

They didn't have to risk their personal safety and entertain a minuscule crowd replete with pneumonia-risking masochists.

They didn't have to challenge the endurance of their television audience with the ridiculous first pitch time of 11:08 Tuesday night.

Major League Baseball's heart is in the right place. At some point, however, the head has to trump the heart. This contest should've been postponed at about 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon.

Central baseball controlled the fate of this game because this is Baltimore's final visit of the season to the Bronx. Bud Selig pushes very hard to get every team to play 162 games. As well he should. No club wants to lose the revenue from a home game, and for statistical integrity, you like every scheduled game to become a reality.

On this night, though? The baseball powers pushed too hard.

"I saw the window [of good weather]," Girardi said. "I thought it was going to be around 10:30, 11:00. I guess baseball wanted us to wait. I felt we were going to play. It was just a matter of time."

The alternative was to play a doubleheader Wednesday, and that wasn't very palatable because, in addition to teams generally dislike twin-bills, Wednesday's forecast doesn't look much better. Neither does the Baltimore outlook for Thursday, when these two teams are supposed to make up a game postponed late last month by Hurricane Irene.

So that's why they waited out the heaviest downpour and started the game in an uncomfortable, sideways rain. It grew particularly bad in the top of the fifth, as the Yankees worked hard to pick up the three outs necessary to make their 1-0 lead an official contest.

It wasn't worth it. The Yankees could've tried to complete the three remaining games Wednesday and Thursday; if needed, the Yankees could have served as the home team in a Thursday game at Camden Yards. If continuing rain bagged that plan, then the Yankees and Orioles could've made up that game on Thursday, Sept. 29, if it was necessary to determine the Yankees' playoff seed.

Baseball may not be tennis in its need for flawless weather conditions, but it isn't football, either. There's a level of precision required that isn't meant for the sort of slop that hosted the Yankees and Orioles here.

Girardi said he was "shocked" that the game's infielders made as many plays as they did, given how slippery the baseball was. Fans should be more shocked that MLB actually would mandate the game's completion, and they shouldn't be silenced by a free-ticket offer from the Yankees.

The conditions for this one were unacceptable. As was the decision to play it.