But if we did that system this year, only Wash makes it to the playoffs. Reds aren't even in the playoffs, despite winning 97 games.
Now maybe if only one team gets in, Baker rests the players less, burns up his pen or whatever, and the results change.. But Washington would likely pull out all the stops too.
Even though the Reds were eliminated in the first round, it was fun to make the playoffs. The thing I remember most about 1999 was losing 2-3 to Milwaukee, then not making the playoffs thanks to the tie breaking game. Under the current system, the 1999 Reds would've made the playoffs.. Wouldn't that have been fun, even if we didn't advance?
The wildcards kept a lot more teams interested this year. There were a lot less salary dump trades (like in the "good old days").. IMO, this is good for baseball.
Keep more fans interested in September. Lots of teams were within a few games of the WC in the last few weeks of the season.
[Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob
Nov. 13, 2007: One of the greatest days in Reds history: John Allen gets the boot!
Yes, I would go back to the pre-1969 system that worked so great for many decades when baseball was the most popular sport in the country.
Baseball's decline in popularity relative to other sports has coincided exactly with the dilution of the playoffs and diminished integrity of the World Series.
I don't think having the Wild Card race adds to the excitement of the regular season. It just transfers the excitement down from the top of the pack to the middle of the pack. The folks who are excited with this system are the fans of the mediocre teams rather than the fans of the best teams.
It is much more exciting to be fighting several teams in September for a berth in the World Series rather than fighting for the final berth in a big post-season tournament. You can't get all that excited over winning something that 1/3 of the whole league also got. What is so special about that?
The best teams in the National League all knew weeks in advance that they were going to the playoffs. There was no excitement there. But if the Reds, Nationals and Giants had all been competing in a winner-takes-all cage match for the league pennant and a place in the World Series it would have been tremendously exciting. The divisional structure and two Wild Cards cheated Reds fans out of what could have been a historic and memorable season.
Rather than address the true cause of competitive imbalance ( e.g. payroll inequity) by creating a system offering a level playing field where every franchise has an equal chance to build a great team based solely on their skill and aptitude, the league has opted to essentially distribute the championships randomly by creating a playoff structure that rewards mediocrity by giving run-of-the-mill teams who have already proven themselves second-rate to upset far better teams in short playoff series and claim a meaningless title.
Leave it up to Bud Selig to create a system where the 5th best team in each league makes it to the World Series.
Last edited by AtomicDumpling; 10-19-2012 at 03:42 PM.
For money purposes MLB will never go for this. To much money to be made with the playoffs.
Personally I don't want to see MLB end up like the NHL where about everyone makes the playoffs. However I have no problem with the system prior to this year. Having 2 WC's with a one game playoff is something I don't like.
"Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it." Cal Hubbard
Yes, obviously money is the reason they sold the integrity of the World Series. There is no question about that. They will no never go back to the days when the goal of a season was to find out which team was best and crown them as champion. Baseball is just a business now more than ever, competition doesn't have much to do with it anymore. It is all about the money.
They will eventually have a 32 team March Madness style single-elimination tournament because boy wouldn't that be exciting!
Perhaps they shouldn't have a regular season at all. It is too boring. They should just have a World Series Championship Tournament every 3 months. Imagine the TV ratings.
Last edited by AtomicDumpling; 10-19-2012 at 03:54 PM.
The more playoff teams that are added, the less the regular season means and the more random the playoffs become.
The fact baseball plays 162 games and then a 5 game first round is one of the dumbest things in sports. They all should at least be best of 7's. I wouldn't even mind if the World Series was best of 9.
So if the Cards win it all again, are they considered a dynasty
To me, that's ludicrous.
"Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."
Why don't we just award the trophy to the team with the most total WAR at the end of 162 games and be done with it?
Look, I'm no Cards fan either, but are we really debating that they aren't the champs if they win? If thats the case we should just stop the World Series altogether and just award it to the best regular season.
I love baseball, I love the playoffs. I have no issues with the extra wildcard, it works.
Baseball will likely never again be the top sport. It's just not that world anymore. People don't like lulls or 'boring'. They want things that go 10000 miles an hour and explode when you touch them.
Championships for MY teams in my lifetime:
Cincinnati Reds - 75, 76, 90
Chicago Blackhawks - 10, 13, 15
University of Kentucky - 78, 96, 98, 12
Chicago Bulls - 91, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98
“Everything that happens before Death is what counts.”
― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Maybe we should have a BCS-style computer rankings. Or maybe an NCAA-style commottee that looks at strength of schedule and records against power teams.
She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning
And I'd like to see a poll of Reds fans to see which you would rather win, the regular seaon championship or the World Series.
She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning
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