My preference is option 2. I've always thought a 7 game series would be better, with less days off in between. Personally, I think the entire pitching staff got you to the dance, you should have to pitch all of them, not just your top 2 over and over. I was highly opposed to the wild card when it was introduced. But somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000, I came around on it. It's definitely made for more exciting Fall baseball, IMO.
I like the system but would go to the 7 game series... I'm surprised MLB hasn't since it would bring in more revenue
From the article, it looks like because of television, it would end the World Series too far into November. As it stands right now, if the World Series goes 7 games, the final one would be on November 1.
I like the current system. The fact that so many wildcard teams have won it all just goes to show that, pre-wildcard, many very good teams were left out in the past. If it wasn't for the wildcard, there would be no Red Sox/Yankees playoff series.....no matter which side you're on, these have been legendary series. Utterly the best baseball has to offer. I do not favor adding ANY playoff games, unless you shorten the regular season. If you dropped the regular season to 152 games or so, then you could add a few playoff games, and I'd rather see playoff games.
I wish we would have seen those Bush comments 8 years ago and maybe he never would have gotten elected. I would like to see his arguement as to why it wouldn't work. I think you should leave it as, baseball has the best postseason and there is no reason to mess with it. It's great because unlike the NHL, NBA or NFL teams that don't deserve to be in the playoffs don't make the playoffs.
I would hate a 7 game series in the first round. I love the idea of adding a second wild card team and having them play 1 game to get into the playoffs, ideally in the home park of the team with the better record. Imagine having games like the one Monday night on a regular basis. Plus it's more fair to the teams with medium sized payrolss, and it helps lessen the impact of the unbalanced schedule.
I don't think you're ever going to see a contracted regular season. And contrary to the article, I don't think it's the big market teams that care. I think the smaller teams, the ones who never compete with their $18M payroll, are the ones who want the extra games to sell tickets to. I'm pretty sure the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels would be happy to hear they were going to play less games during the year. Those three teams are in it every year, and to get a chance to rest an arm or two for an extra start in the postseason, I have to believe they'd jump on it. And you're right about the Yankees/Sox thing. There's no question that series has been epic year after year. There was the GYC, the Aaron Boone game, stuff like that you just can't make up.
My choice is to contract, get rid of the garbage teams and go back to two divisions if not 1. (but that's not one of the choices)
Interestingly, when he was running, I was often heard saying: "How is this guy going to run a country? He can't lead a team of All-Stars to the World Series!" But that's a subject for the BS section. :wink:
I could deal with that. But first, I'd rather scrap this unbalanced schedule bullshit. Why does the sport pander to the tv stations? Do we really need to see 10 ESPN showings of the Yankees/Red Sox? Does enough of the country tune in to every one of them to make that worthwhile?
While I'd like to see some contraction, to eliminate some of this watered down pitching, it would hurt the league (since there'd be more quality pitching, therefore less runs scored, and that's boosting the sport's popularity). Even if they did contract, I'd never want to go back to 2 divisions. I love the 3 divisions plus a wild card. And at this point, can you imagine if you added Detroit back into the AL East? Then you'd have the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Detroit, all fighting for the division win. And that's if the other remaining teams don't take advantage of the deepened talent pool available to them at that point.
They also wont do it, because as that article points out, they are making too much money with the way it is but I loved 1978 when that one game playoff meant something. If it happened this year it would just mean who was the WC and who won the division. Of course it wouldn't have happened because they would have used a tiebreaker instead.
I wonder what you all feel about getting rid of the AL and NL and going geo with the divisions and conferences like the NBA and NHL. NFL is a different breed. Imagine this: Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies, and Toronto in one division Nationals, Marlins, Braves, Orioles, and Devil Rays in another division White Sox, Cubs, Detroit, Twins, Cardinals Brewers, Indians, Reds, Royals, Pittsburgh San Diego, Astros, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Rockies Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Oakland, Mariners
The unbalanced schedule is fine, I'd much rather see teams that I don't often see on ESPN Games but teams like the Pirates, Astros, and Rangers stink so why should they get rewarded with national games.
I think that might kill the sport outside of the big market geos. The East would be a tough division, if not the toughest, with the West being the close second. Then you'd have a middle tier of the Southeast, and Southwest. And then you'd have a pretty dismal Mideast and Midwest division. Sure, there'd be some decent (some might argue good) in the middle regions, but let's be honest, almost every year you'd see Detroit and Cleveland win the middle regions, the Braves win the Southeast, the Southwest might be competitive, but only really within the same division (like the AL Central now), and the two border divisions would beat the snot out of everyone else. If anything, how about disolving all the divisions, and only the 4 best teams from each league get to play in October? Then you get the best records fighting it out, with the winner take all. Then every single game of the season is as important as the postseason, and no one can really complain that they don't get a fair shot.
Have to disagree there. 5 hour plus games with 20+ runs scored don't qualify in my book as quality, riveting baseball. I can't stand Yanks-Sox series, playoffs or otherwise. And I bet a lot of people without a rooting interest in this rivalry agree with me.
I think its just important to note that baseball had to alter its rules in order for the Red Sox to break the curse:wink:
