Oct. 28 -- MANUEL SPEAKS

BY SCOTT LAUBER

So, with some time to digest what happened last night (and, presumably, to calm himself down, too), Charlie Manuel just answered a few questions. Mostly, he said that he agreed with Bud Selig's decision to postpone the game and that he was briefed before the game that the teams would play nine innings, regardless of whether the game was official when the postponement occurred.

"I was down in the room after the top of the sixth when we met with the Commissioner and the umpires, the GMs, the managers of each team, and I came up and watched the [press conference] with the commissioner on TV. I totally agree with what he said. There were some things that went on during the course of the game that I didn't like, like [losing] my pitcher. But I definitely agreed with everything that happened. I agreed that the game needed to be stopped. The conditions were unplayable. ... There comes a time when there had to be a decision made on when to stop it. I'm a manager, so I can voice an opinion. There's a lot of opinions going on there. They could've stopped when the field started showing water on it. Of course, the conditions were unbearable to play. Jimmy Rollins, more than likely, he'll get to that ball [hit by B.J. Upton in the sixth]. He makes that play quite a bit. I felt like they did what they had to do. I go along with that. That doesn't mean some of the thing that happened, that I had to like them.

"We agreed on starting the game because the weather report was it would be a light drizzle, similar to what was going on. It was supposed to be very light. There was a good chance that we definitely could get the whole game in. We understood what was going on. We also knew that once the game started it was going to be a nine-inning game. Everybody's got an opinion. From a manager's standpoint, I'm biased because I want the best that's going to happen for my team. I wasn't the one to make the decision. I'm sure Joe Maddon is going to feel the same way. I do feel like the conditions of the field were where they had to stop the game.

"I know we're going to be ready to play. When we come to the ballpark, we're concentrating on winning tomorrow's game. We've got 3-1/2 innings of baseball. We get to bat four times. They get to bat three. We got 12 outs, they've got 9. We're coming with that mindset. I'll go around and talk to all of our players and get a feel for what they're thinking. I don't think there's going to be any problem at all."

More later.