Philadelphia ? Game 5 of the World Series became a farce the moment Jimmy Rollins – one of the finest defensive shortstops of his generation – dropped that zigging, zagging pop-up in the fifth inning.

This doesn’t happen to Rollins, an all-star and the reigning National League MVP, in playable baseball conditions.

In April or May, in June or July, in August or September, the umpires would have stopped play at that moment – if they hadn’t already. Pop-ups that drop toward unseeing eyes can seriously injure a player. It was pouring rain. Pools of water were forming in front of the infielders. Pitchers were cleaning their spikes after every pitch.

In October, the game went on. And Major League Baseball should be ashamed for allowing its most important game of the year to deteriorate into an embarrassing mess because of slavish obedience to its pimp, the Fox Television Network.

Simply put, Game 5 is hopelessly tainted by what transpired between the time the game should have been called and the middle of the sixth inning, when it was finally suspended.

Whatever happens when play resumes, whether the Phillies celebrate their first World Series championship or the Rays force a Game 6 in Florida, MLB can’t justify its decision or its decision-making process.

This night was different from Saturday, when a rain delay caused Game 3 to begin 91 minutes late, at about 10 p.m. That game ended at nearly 2 a.m., but it was played fairly and under perfectly acceptable conditions.

Those things are going to happen in outdoor ballparks in the Northeast in late October. It rained all day Saturday, and the best time to play the game was, in fact, when it was played.

The first problem here is TV’s insistence on scheduling these games for 8:30 p.m. or even later. There are plenty of lovely autumn afternoons – and Monday was one of them – that give way to cold and blustery evenings. When baseball, like other sports, sold its soul to the networks and their craven need for prime-time sports programming, it created a situation where young fans couldn’t stay up to watch the most important games of the year.

There is no mechanism for the baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, to look at the weather reports, discern that a night game is doomed, and shift the start time to late afternoon.

That would inconvenience fans, but so does suspending the game for a day. That would be tough on players, but so does suspending the game for a day.

If the fans and players were the priorities, Monday night’s game would have been stopped much sooner. They aren’t. Television is, and television won’t allow its prime-time program to be moved to 5 p.m.

Rollins, rain pouring into his face, dropped that pop-up in the top of the fifth. The play was rather nastily ruled an error, as if it had occurred in acceptable conditions. Hamels got out of that inning without allowing a run. The Phillies led, 2-1, in the middle of the fifth.

At that moment, a regular-season game would become official. A rainout would mean the game was over, with the Phillies winning.

The tie made suspending the game a lot easier and more convenient. It sure looks as if Major League Baseball let an unplayable game play on long enough to make things easier.

And that’s just shameful.