MONDAY’S Diamondbacks-Pirates game provided the perfect micro-study of how money now supersedes common decency.

Scheduled for a 7:05 start on ESPN2, the game’s start was delayed more than two hours by rain. Thus, on a Monday night in May, the first pitch was thrown at 9:12 p.m.

The announced paid attendance was 14,500, but Pittsburgh papers reported that no more than 5,000 were in the house. And only a handful remained until the final out, a few minutes before midnight.

A generation and more ago this game would’ve been postponed by 5 p.m. – in time to let people know that they shouldn’t even attempt to travel to the ballpark in rotten weather. But common sense and common decency no longer count for much. Today, beyond the escalating cost, purchasing a ticket to a ballgame is an invite to play the fool.

Along similar lines, dads now might want to think twice before taking their daughters to Met games. The Mets, in a cost-cutting move, have this season eliminated matrons from Shea Stadium’s women’s rest rooms.

These matrons not only kept the bathrooms supplied, they served as security guards, from tossing the unruly to ensuring that the floors stayed dry, thus preventing falls.

The matrons were paid $13.50 an hour. A spokesperson for their union said that they cost the Mets about $100,000 per season. The Mets’ player payroll this season is $102 million.

The Yanks were way ahead on this. They never did employ matrons in their Yankee Stadium women’s rooms.