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Breaking news: South Philly shocker!!! Game stopped with 2-2 tie, bizarre resumption scenarios under discussion

    by Will Bunch | Columnist
    Published 
UPDATE: Game called for tonight, with a likely resumption in prime time tomorrow for three and a half remarkable innings in South Philadelphia.
Baseball-wise, it's a whole new ballgame. In theory, the Phillies could send out their Game 6 starter Brett Myers, but I don't think that's going to happen. My totally uninformed guess is that Madson and Lidge would be the main pitchers, with a possible cameo from J.C. Romero. The Rays, on the other hand, may counter with starter James "Big Game" Shields, who beat the Phillies in Game 2.
Fan-wise, I guess the tickets stubs for tonight are worth big bucks -- lots of money will change hands.

If you live long enough, you see everything.

Eight years ago, I watched a presidential election night end with no winner, running into the newsroom at 3:30 to stop the press run as Al Gore unconceded.

Minutes ago, I watched the most anticipated baseball game in Philadelphia in 28 years suddenly stopped -- with a 2-2 tie in the 6th inning, after seeming just an hour or so away from the city's first title in a quarter-century. The driving rain was making a mockery of the game -- another weirdly cruel whack with the flyswatter of Philly fans from the gods who kill us for their sport.

I don't believe it's been officially suspended -- but everyone's assuming that it's over for the night.

Here's where it gets really weird. Under the old rules, the final Rays' run in the 6th would have been undone, and -- believe it or not -- the Phillies would have won the game 2-1, won the World Series and won the city's first championship since 1983.

But the rule was changed in 2007. Now, the game is suspended and will be resumed where it left off. But when? And how? And where? The biggest problem is that it's supposed to rain tomorrow, too -- and get even colder. And what are the logistics. Do they play three innings tomorrow at Citizens Bank Park? When. 4? 7? 8:29? Do they wait until Wednesday? Is there any chance they would play in Tampa, which would be horrible.

Well...you wanted a moment to remember. Will you ever forget this, or the three-and-a-half innings that are going to come, whenever they come. Either one of two things will happen.

Either the Phillies win a world championship...one of these days.

Or we just took the Curse of Billy Penn to whole 'nother level.