Apparently, Major League Baseball is considering expanding the playoffs, either by making the divisional series a best of seven or by adding a wild card play-in round or both. I have a very simple response:
No.
No. No. No.
Today is November 1st and we still have at least one more game to go in the World Series. Did not MLB see that Game 3 of the Series had the second lowest televison viewership ever? I suspect that's because the World Series has become anti-climactic. The playoffs have been going on for a month, now and as teams drop out, so do the fans because the games are 1) over-produced and 2) start too late and go on too long.
Already over 25% of baseball teams make the playoffs (8/30 teams). If a 162 game schedule doesn't sort out who the best teams are, then the season is too short; and we all know that the season is NOT too short. In fact, a 162 game schedule should tell you who the best 4 teams are; that's still more than 10% of the total number of teams.
The World Series is the end of a summer romance. Let's just kiss and say good-bye.
Amem Brother! I'll take it a few steps further.
1. Reduce the regular season to 154 games.
2. Bring back real doubleheaders including the twilight games in the summer.
3. NO PLAYOFFS. At the end of the 154 game scheule you have an American and National League champion. (After 154 games and 6 months of baseball you should know who the best team is in each respective league.
4. World Series first week of October - end of story - end of season.
5. BTW - we also eliminate this stupid interleague nonsense during the regular season.
Posted by: al Smith | November 02, 2010 at 08:08 AM