When Will Rays and Phillies Finish Game 5?

I'm sure that's the question being asked by every other person in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay right about now. The answer? Weather permitting, Tuesday night, 8 PM ET.

Trouble is, the forecast doesn't call for the weather to let up, so there's a very good chance that the start of the game (or, to be technically correct, the start of the bottom of the sixth) will be delayed even further. This is Bud Selig's worst nightmare, right? Perhaps ... but perhaps not.

First and foremost, Selig and his cronies have to be thrilled about the idea of another night of baseball -- it's like finding $20 in your coat from the year before, except instead of $20, it's millions of dollars of ad revenue from another night of commercials.

Second of all, as my colleague Mullet pointed out over email, if the game does resume on time tomorrow, there's a chance that the Phillies will win the World Series in primetime, not in the wee hours of the night when casual fans without a horse in the race have turned off the TV and gone to bed. Crowning a champ in front of that many fans would be a coup for baseball. And if the Rays stave off elimination and win in primetime? Well, that works in MLB's favor, too, generating that much more interest for Game 6 on Wednesday.

The worst-case scenario, though, would be if the game is either a) postponed so late that it's not decided until after the majority of East Coast TV viewers have gone to bed; or b) delayed another day, forcing the rest of the schedule to be pushed back, as well. If the Rays manage to win Game 5, whenever it is completed, they'll head back to the climate-controlled-confines of Tropicana Field for the final two games of the series.