BAH!
If it hasn't come up in anything you've read of mine before, I'm an exclusionary playoff person. I consider the playoffs to be a legitimate attempt to find the best team in the league that given year and it bothers me more that a clearly "not best" team makes it into the playoffs, than it would that a "possibly best" team gets left out. The addition of more teams is terrible for a person like me.
But it'll happen. Forget about them "thinking about it". It WILL happen. It's what the people want. They want a regular season that is just an overly extended method of figuring seeding, followed by the most exciting playoff possible. It's what the league wants. They want as many teams as they can squeeze into the playoffs because it creates more interesting games at the end of the season and simply more games in the post-season (or $$$ for short). That isn't in itself terrible. What makes it terrible is the insistence on treating the winner of said playoff as if they were the best team that year. It's not about that. It's about fun for fans and money for the league. They should get the Fun&Money Trophy.
bah
I'm sure I'm repeating myself, but the real truth is that the perfect playoff system to figure out the best team in the league in a given season will never exist because the perfect playoff system would change from year to year based on the play of teams. This is true for all sports. Some years a 10 team tournament may be reasonable. Other years one team may show itself to be clearly the best during the regular season and there doesn't need to be any playoffs. I could live with a season where there is no playoffs. (Of course as Nats fans, so can you)
10 teams... bah
Never thought about having a different number of teams each year. That'd be awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I completely agree with you. At first, adding a second wild card looks enticing cause it means the wild card will be worth less than winning a division. But that's misleading, as it'll mean even more undeserving teams will make it in the playoffs.
Much better would be to go back to 4 divisions and 4 playoff teams. Or have 4 different leagues and have the winners of each league meet in the playoffs. That's closer to the way it was always done (1 playoff team per 8 teams) than how it is today.
I wasn't for the wild card at first, but became a convert. I actaully like the possibility of more than one team in a division making the playoffs, since one division is so often much better than the others. If only one team in each of 4 divisions made it, I think there would be more of a chance of unworthies making it than there is now.
ReplyDeleteWhat, you don't want to play baseball in December? Think how cool it would be to see a snowman play second base in Fenway.
ReplyDeleteActually, I blame Fox television. It's been destroying the institution of baseball for years in the pursuit of every extra advertising dollar. And as it destroys the fan's connection to the game, driving down ratings, it has to come up with yet another new gimmick to attract viewers -- which drives away more fans.
I swear I haven't seen the end of a World Series game since 1996 ...
Sorry. Ranting.
Fox pretty much destroys everything it touches--a reverse Midas touch if you will. Fox NFL broadcasts have become virtually unwatchable with their utterly innane announcers and all distracting crap they throw on the screen to attract casual viewers who apparently have the attention span of gnat.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I watched a baseball playoff game on Fox they insisted on showing about five fan reaction shots after every pitch. Enough already. If I wanted to see those ugly mugs I'd actually go the game.
The season is too long because the owners won't allow doubleheaders any more. It is about money, but not just TV revenues.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I don't mind the long season. Better watching snow baseball than NBA games.
100% agree here. Unfortunately, I'm at least 500 million dollars away from having Bud Selig give a rat's rear about my opinion.
ReplyDelete