Major League Baseball wants to enact a rule that playoff games can never be shortened because of bad weather. There has never been a rain-shortened game in the playoffs, and MLB commissioner Bud Selig said on Thursday they want to make sure there never will be. “All postseason games, All-Star games and that, will be full-length affairs, and the rule will be so written,” Selig said following an owners' meeting. Selig said the change also will apply to tiebreaker games that decide division titles and wild-card berths. “Any game that has significance for the postseason,” he said. “It will be very clear now. Everybody will know exactly.” Under MLB's rules, games are official as soon as the trailing team has made 15 outs. During World Series Game 5 between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia last month, Selig decided that it wouldn't be cut short because of pouring rain. Just after the Rays tied it in the top of the sixth, umpires halted play and the game was suspended for 46 hours. Selig said that if the Phillies still led 2-1 when play was stopped, the game would have gone into a rain delay until it could resume – even if that took several days. Management lawyers will discuss the contemplated change with the players' association. “I expect that we will be having discussions with the commissioner's office about that rule in the weeks to come,” union general counsel Michael Weiner said. “I don't want to prejudge it one way or the other.” Mussina retires New York Yankees starter Mike Mussina announced his retirement on Thursday, becoming the first pitcher to end his career after posting a 20-win season since Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1966. Five-times All-Star Mussina, 39, capped a career that argues for Hall of Fame consideration with a 20-9 season for the Yanks, his first 20-win campaign. In 18 major league seasons, the first 10 spent with the Baltimore Orioles, Mussina compiled a mark of 270-153. The slightly-built righthander, a master of control, walked 31 batters in 200 1/3 innings in 2008 and struck out 150 in registering an earned run average of 3.37.
