Those earlier delays were on the minds of fans and players last night at the South Philadelphia ballpark as a sporadic rain held up the start of Game 3 for 80 minutes.

They especially recalled last year, when the conditions surrounding Game 3 - in Philadelphia, on a Saturday night, with rain falling - were nearly identical to last night's.

In 2008, after splitting the opening two games in sunny St. Petersburg, Fla., - where curiously enough there is a dome - the Phillies returned to rainy Philadelphia on Friday.

A heavy downpour on a gray and gloomy Saturday threatened the game, but with no other off-day scheduled here, baseball officials decided to wait. And wait.

They waited 1 hour, 31 minutes before beginning play in a light rain and brisk temperatures. The 10:06 p.m. start - nearly past 46-year-old starting pitcher Jamie Moyer's bedtime - made it the latest beginning to a game in World Series history. That game eventually ended at 1:57 a.m. on Carlos Ruiz's walk-off, 45-foot single.

The previous record for a late start?

Well, not surprisingly, that was Game 3 of the Phillies-Blue Jays Series at the Vet in 1993, which, following a 72-minute delay, didn't get under way until 9:34 p.m.

And remember Game 4 in 1993, that 15-14 debacle that likely cost the Phillies any chance at a title? There were no rain delays that night, but big chunks of that 4-hour, 14-minute beauty were played in light rain.

The worst weather-related woes, however, occurred last year in Game 5, a chilly, sodden contest whose final three innings occurred two nights after its first six.

With the Phils holding a three-games-to-one Series edge and their fans dreaming about the city's first championship in a quarter-century, Game 5 began in an icy drizzle.

It got colder and wetter as the game progressed.

At 11:10 p.m., not long after Jimmy Rollins, his feet unstable in the muddy dirt, his eyes pelted by a heavy rain, dropped an easy pop-up, the game was suspended with the score tied at 2-2.

"The infield was basically unplayable," said Chase Utley.

Commissioner Bud Selig came up with an unprecedented solution. The game would be completed from the point it was stopped - another first for the Series - whenever the weather permitted.

"Whether it's one day or two or three or whatever," Selig said. ""We'll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here."

Weather had caused numerous delays and postponements in Series history (notable postponements beforehand coming in 1911, 1962, 1975, 1986, 1996 and 2006), but never before any suspended games.

The rain and cold the following day, Tuesday, made resumption impossible. Finally, on Wednesday, the rain stopped, but temperatures were expected to dip into the low 40s or even lower at night.

Selig, who had been relentlessly criticized - for not stopping Game 5 earlier, for not resuming it during the day, and for playing the Series in late October - said the game would be finished. And it was.

The Phils jumped ahead, were tied by the Rays, and then took the lead for good. Soon the glow of an impending championship, after such a long and well-publicized drought, warmed the fans if not the players.

Later, Selig's interpretation became codified, as baseball approved a rule change:

"Postseason games and games added to the regular season to determine qualifiers for the postseason," the new rule states, would be suspended if they are called before nine innings are played, regardless of whether the game would otherwise qualify as an official game, or the score at the time the game is called. The game is resumed when conditions permit at the same location from the point of suspension.

A dome would be a lot simpler, wouldn't it?