Could baseball have it any more wrong in the playoffs? It's as if Bud Selig were working for the NFL.
They play 2430 games during the regular season, almost all of them in pristine conditions. If it's freezing or raining, they postpone the game.
In the playoffs, when the World Championship is on the line, they play in rain and cold together. They play in insect infestations. What's next, slaying of the first born? Game One of the World Series this year, and Game Three last year, were both mockeries, with fans huddling and players squinting through the elements in their long sleeves. You think steroids corrupted the great history of baseball? How about outfielders running through ponds during the World Series?
In the regular season, teams play six days out of seven. They need at least a four starters, and often five. In the playoffs, when the mettle of the finest clubs are being tested, they alter the game. Scheduling contests every other day -- as if it were yoga class -- creates an advantage for teams with thin staffs. Scheduling four-five-six-day breaks between series simulates -- what? The All-Star break, perhaps. Think how many showers Manny could take.
The one change MLB should make to the playoffs -- schedule East Coast games at 7:00 p.m. -- is the one overlooked. The result is that only the unemployed -- admittedly a growing cohort -- can watch to the end. When fans can't see the conclusions of the most consequential contests of the season, they lose ownership and interest in the sport.
Maybe it's a coincidence that the last good World Series was eight years ago. Maybe it's not. But let's not argue about it in the freezing rain.
b
1 comment:
And the reshaping of the playoffs to maximize TV revenues is why the best team over 162 games has won the World Series only twice since the playoffs were expanded to eight teams in 1995 (the 1998 Yankees and 2007 Red Sox). It diminishes what we spend six months following.
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