Before we get to the official Sports in a Can predictions, let’s try and answer the 12 most pressing questions about the upcoming playoffs:
1. Will a Cubs-White Sox or Cubs-Red Sox World Series have the same cachet as it might have pre-2004? No, unfortunately, it won’t. Nothing could have topped fan interest in a Red Sox-Cubs World Series if neither had won one since before the Great Depression. And no subway series could ever have topped the battle of Chicago with one team winning for the first time in almost a century and the other team facing another painful offseason. It would still be fun to see either match-up, but it just wouldn’t be the same.
2. What other World Series match-up would be lots of fun? How about Red Sox-Dodgers? Manny Ramirez and Derek Lowe against this year’s edition? Joe Torre matching wits with Terry Francona once more? The Boston-LA rivalry getting another boost following Celtics-Lakers earlier this year? Now that would be fun.
3. How big a factor will home field advantage be in this year’s postseason? Usually, home field advantage does not come into play during baseball’s postseason. Over the last four years, the home teams are 70-52 during the playoffs. That amounts to a .574 winning percentage, which is pretty good with a sample size of 122 games. But over the course of a five or seven game series, any effect of having the home field is diminished due to the small sample size. And taken league by league, the numbers are even less stellar. From 2004 to 2006, in the American League playoffs, the home teams went 6-8, 6-7, and 6-5. Only last year did the league post a gaudy 10-4 record. What’s interesting about that is that last season all four American League playoff teams won more than 50 home games—the only time that happened in the last four years. Once again the AL will send four teams with 50+ home wins to the postseason, so perhaps home field will again be a factor.
4. How impressive were Francisco Rodriguez’s 62 saves and will he be a difference maker in the playoffs? Rodriguez might have compiled one of the most unimpressive records in the history of sports. His record 62 saves were compiled over the course of just 68.1 innings with an ERA of 2.24. Not only did he have zero saves in which he had to pitch more than one inning, he did not pitch more than one inning in any outing this season! Everyone knows the playoffs are all about stretching out the ends of games, and even though the Angels have a very good bullpen, eventually Rodriguez will have to pitch more than one inning, won’t he?
5. How historic was what the Tampa Bay Rays did this season? It was one of the greatest one season turnarounds in the history of sports. Tampa Bay won 66 games last year, and in their 10-year history they’d never won more than 70. This year they won 97 games, and outdueled the Red Sox and Yankees—who have a combined $4 billion payroll (or close to that).
6. How do the Rays keep winning? Perhaps it’s the name change from Devil Rays to Rays this year. No Ray hit better than .295 for the season. They only have one player with more than 100 RBIs. Their top two pitchers went a combined 26-16 and no starter won more than 14 games. And yet they won 97 games and kept the Red Sox at bay to win the AL East. I’m not counting them out in the playoffs.
7. Why is TBS in charge of the Division Series games? Money? That can be the only reason. It’s certainly not TBS’ performance as the Braves’ main network. I mean it’s TBS. The home of House of Payne and Bill Engvall. And Frank TV. This is really the best we can do?
8. Why won’t Bud Selig heed all of your sage advice? I don’t know. As noted last week, Major League Baseball finally smartened up and scheduled two off days prior to the playoffs—and they needed both of them. A couple of my proposals that still need to be addressed are changing the season’s end to mid-week, adding a play-in game for the Wild Card (two games like tonight’s White Sox-Twins game every year!), and getting rid of the coin toss for determining one game playoffs. Come on, Uncle Bud! You don’t have to give me the credit—just make the changes.
9. What Division Series match-up is the most appealing on paper? Cubs-Dodgers. Joe Torre against Lou Piniella. Manny Ramirez back on the playoff stage. The loveable losers from Chicago against LA’s finest. That’s the premier match-up, hands down.
10. Which first round series has the best chance to go 5 games? My top choice is Phillies-Brewers. If Milwaukee can just grab Game 1, 3, or 4, they have CC Sabathia (11-2, 1.65 ERA since joining Milwaukee) who could win Games 2 and 5 by himself.
11. Is it finally the Cubs’ year? It has to be, doesn’t it? After the infamous collapse of 2003, they watched in horror as the Red Sox won in 2004 and 2007, and had to endure their cross-town rivals winning it all in 2005. (Not to mention seeing the NL Central-rival Cardinals win in 2006.) This is the Cubs’ time, right?
12. Who will this year’s postseason winners be?
Division Series
Rays 3, White Sox 0 The Rays just keep winning.
Red Sox 3, Angels 2 In the new millennium, Boston always beats LA, whether it’s Celtics over Lakers or Red Sox over Angels. Beckett might be hurt, but the Red Sox still have Lester and Matsuzaka.
Cubs 3, Dodgers 1 Unless Derek Lowe can be the Derek Lowe from 2004 and people can get on base in front of Ramirez, this series will be shorter than everyone thinks.
Brewers 3, Phillies 2 Milwaukee steals one and Sabathia wins twice more.
ALCS
Rays 4, Red Sox 2 Unbelievable but true. (To my fellow Red Sox fans: I didn’t pick them last year either.)
NLCS
Cubs 4, Brewers 1 Destiny calls.
World Series
Cubs 4, Rays 0 The Red Sox swept their World Series wins. The White Sox swept theirs. It’s the Cubs turn this year.
Every year about this time I marvel at baseball’s lack of preparation for something that will eventually happen. And I actively root for anarchy to reign. Once again, the potential exists for extra baseball games to be played starting on Monday, leaving the starting dates and opponents for multiple playoff series completely up in the air.
Here’s where we stand this year:
American League
It is almost a certainty that the Red Sox will be the Wild Card team and will face the Angels in the Division Series. Almost, because if the Rays lose their final three games and the Red Sox win their final three, then Boston would win the AL East and Tampa would be the Wild Card. That would pit the Rays against the Angels in Round 1 and the Red Sox against the AL Central winner. Simple. Neat. Tidy.
Not so fast—Tropical Storm Kyle (who could become a hurricane any moment now), along with another weather system, is bearing down on the northeast and is going to make playing baseball in Boston near impossible for the next two days. Let’s assume that the Rays lose tonight and tomorrow and the two Red Sox-Yankees games are rained out. Boston would be forced to schedule a doubleheader with the Yankees on Sunday. And if they won both—and the Rays lost again—they would have to play a makeup game with the Yankees on Monday.
As unlikely as that scenario is, the potential for the White Sox and Twins to cause upheaval is huge. After sweeping the White Sox this week, the Twins stand ½ game ahead of Chicago with three games to play this weekend. But that ½ game just leaps off the page, doesn’t it? Why is there ½ game difference between these two teams? Because the White Sox had a rainout against the Tigers on September 13 that was never made up.
If either the Twins or White Sox lead by ½ game at the end of play on Sunday, then Chicago would host Detroit for a makeup game on Monday. If the outcome of that game means that the Twins and White Sox are tied, then a one game playoff to decide the AL Central would be played Tuesday in Chicago. The winner would travel to either Tampa or Boston for the Division Series.
For more fun with possibilities, let’s check out the…
National League
The Cubs are the Central winners and the Dodgers won the West. Everything else is up in the air and the anarchy meter is on high alert. Picture this: The Phillies, Mets, and Brewers all finish tied with the same record. In the case of a three-way tie between two teams from one division and a team from another division, here’s what happens: First, the two division teams (the Mets and Phillies) play each other on Monday. Philadelphia won the coin toss (yes, that’s still how the location of one game playoffs is determined) and would host the Mets. The winner is crowned division champ and faces either the Brewers or Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs.
Next, the loser of Monday’s game would face the Brewers on Tuesday in a one game playoff that decides the Wild Card team. The Brewers lost both coin tosses for that game and would travel to play Monday’s loser. Tuesday’s winner would be the Wild Card team and Tuesday’s loser would go home. If the Brewers win the Wild Card, they would play Monday’s winner in the first round of the playoffs. If the team from the NL East is the Wild Card, they would take on the Cubs in the Division Series.
But wait—there’s one more scenario. I’ll let you read straight from a news story on Major League Baseball’s official site:
If Houston sweeps the Braves this weekend and the Mets get swept by Florida, and the Brewers are swept by the Cubs, the Astros and Cubs would then play a makeup of their Sept. 14 game that was postponed by Hurricane Ike on Monday at Minute Maid Park. If Houston won that game, the Brewers, Mets and Astros would be tied at 88-74 for the Wild Card lead.
In the case of a three-way tie for the Wild Card, two teams would play on Monday, with the winner facing the third team on Tuesday. But that can't happen on Monday, if the Astros are involved, because they would have to play the Cubs in the makeup game that day. Pushing back that tiebreaker scenario to Tuesday and Wednesday would encroach on the start of the NL playoffs, which are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
Major League Baseball hasn't announced plans for such a scenario, other than to acknowledge it could impact the scheduling of tiebreaker games.
Yes, my favorite line is that last one. This is year 14 of the Wild Card Experiment and still Bud Selig is leaving open the possibility that his entire playoff schedule could be blown to pieces before it even begins. In Part 1 of my three-part manifesto outlining ways to fix baseball (Click here for Part 2 and Part 3) I suggested altering the schedule so that several days—instead of just one—were available at the end of the season for make up games and one game playoffs. Surprisingly, Uncle Bud and company did just that this year, as the first three playoff series begin on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Kudos to Selig and company. But those pesky rainouts could still spoil everything. Especially if, say, the Phillies have a few rainouts this weekend.
And to keep ignoring the potential for multiple ties is just foolish. Uncle Bud just keeps putting his head in the sand hoping he doesn’t have to deal with issues like this. “Major League Baseball hasn't announced plans for such a scenario, other than to acknowledge it could impact the scheduling of tiebreaker games.” True leadership right there.
So I’m rooting for extra baseball and lots of it. A Red Sox-Yankees game on Monday with the AL east on the line for the Sox would be entertaining, but is probably not happening. And the Astros’ involvement in the fun seems like a stretch (but would be great theater) so I’ll just root for the following: White Sox-Tigers and Mets-Phillies on Monday, along with White Sox-Twins and Brewers-Mets/Phillies on Tuesday.
And if the Astros win tonight and the Mets and Brewers lose—look out. It might finally be time for Bud to plan for the worst case scenario. Let anarchy reign. Week 4 NFL Picks
Arizona (+1) over NY JETS CAROLINA (-7) over Atlanta Cleveland (+3½) over CINCINNATI Denver (-9½) over KANSAS CITY TAMPA BAY (-1) over Green Bay Houston (+7) over JACKSONVILLE TENNESSEE (-3) over Minnesota NEW ORLEANS (-5) over San Francisco Buffalo (-8) over ST. LOUIS San Diego (-7½) over OAKLAND DALLAS (-11) over Washington Philadelphia (-3) over CHICAGO PITTSBURGH (-5½) over Baltimore
Throwing Out More Thoughts on Sports, Life, and Whatnot
It’s been a while since I cleaned out the fridge, so let’s get right to it…
With all of the potentially intriguing World Series match-ups out there—Cubs-White Sox, Dodgers-Angels, Red Sox-Mets, Red Sox-Cubs, Angels-Mets, Red Sox-Dodgers—we’d all better prepare ourselves for the inevitable Tampa Bay-Milwaukee tilt.
Speaking of the Brewers—I cannot believe they fired manager Ned Yost last week. Yost has managed the Brewers for six years, turning a 68-win team in 2003 into a playoff contender. He’s the first manager to lead the Brewers to back-to-back winning seasons since Tom Trebelhorn in 1988. And yet he got fired with two weeks to go in a season in which his team has a chance to make the playoffs. I had no idea that George Steinbrenner had taken over the Brewers.
I loved watching the Olympics this year. Can we have the Olympics every summer? Would that be possible? Who can I talk to about this?
Great move by the NFL postponing the Ravens-Texans game (due to Hurricane Ike) and moving teams’ byes around to make it happen. But when the formal plan to move to an 18-game regular season schedule is finally announced, don’t be surprised if the league decides that every team will have two by weeks per season instead of one. The official reason will be to ensure that there’s an opportunity to reschedule games if need be, but the real reason (as always) will be money. The only good thing that will come of it (other than an extra week of football) is that the Super Bowl would then be played Presidents’ Day weekend, giving all Americans a needed day off after the big game.
In other rescheduling news, it was great that Milwaukee’s Miller Park was available for the Astros-Cubs game on Sunday, but does Bud Selig just sit around waiting for an opportunity to use his team’s place or what? This was not the first time a set of non-Brewer teams played there—last April, an Angels-Indians series was shifted to Milwaukee thanks to snowstorms in Cleveland. I’ve brought it up before, but Selig should really think about scheduling off days in the last few weeks for any potential make-up games that need to be played. Then the Houston Astros might not need to have a home game in Milwaukee against a team that lives 90 miles away.
I’d like to thank the TV executives for cramming most of the Sports in a Can-approved TV shows on Monday and Tuesday this year. The Missus and I have 11½ hours of shows to TiVo over the course of those two nights, but only 4 hours on the other nights. And yes, that includes Prison Break, which is back on the must-watch list now that the boys are no longer in that ridiculous Mexican prison, but does not include Monday Night Football, which consumes another 3+ hours of our Monday.
If you’re wondering why—as a Boston sports fan—I never mentioned the Celtics’ phenomenal run to the title even though I was on board as soon as they made the trade for Kevin Garnett, here’s why: I publicly gave up on the NBA a long time ago and it would have been the biggest leap onto the bandwagon since Rockies fans started showing up in droves last September.
The Magic Number for the first Yankee Elimination Party since 1993 is 2. Any combination of Red Sox wins and Yankees losses equaling two officially eliminates the $200 Million team from the postseason. Just thought you should know that.
With one of the most exciting presidential races in a long time well under way, I wanted to weigh in with my hope for the 2008 election: a tie. Yes, I’ve become a political anarchist it seems. But if the Electoral College vote ends in a 269-269 tie, guess what happens? The United States House of Representatives decides your next President. How much fun would it be watching the Congress debate—on live TV—who they want to elect the next President? It would be more fun than Governor Palin’s first speech. That’s what I’m rooting for. This is the Sports in a Can blog, and I approve this message.
ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning have a great contest going on. After making fun of last week’s USC-Ohio State game—which had been dubbed the “Collision at the Coliseum”—they decided to have listeners name an obscure college football match-up. Last week it was Maine vs. Stony Brook: “The Battle for the Butter.” This week it’s the Trine Thunder vs. the Defiance College Yellow Jackets, and the name of the game is “The Clash of Mother Nature’s Wrath.” The winning coach gets to come on and talk to the guys Monday morning. I love it.
Week 3 Picks
Arizona (+3) over WASHINGTON Carolina (+3½) over MINNESOTA NY GIANTS (-13) over Cincinnati TENNESSEE (-4½) over Houston ATLANTA (-5½) over Kansas City NEW ENGLAND (-12½)) over Miami BUFFALO (-9½) over Oakland CHICAGO (-3) over Tampa Bay SAN FRANCISCO (-4) over Detroit New Orleans (+5½) over DENVER SEATTLE (-9½) over St. Louis Cleveland (+2½) over BALTIMORE Jacksonville (+5) over INDIANAPOLIS PHILADELPHIA (-3½) over Pittsburgh GREEN BAY (+3) over Dallas NY Jets (+8½) over SAN DIEGO
The night sweats. The chills. The lack of sleep. It can only mean one thing: I’ve got Pennant Race Fever.
Four days remain in the 2007 Major League Baseball season and eight National League teams have a shot at four playoff spots. The Mets and Diamondbacks lead their divisions by 1 game, and the Cubs by 2. The Wild Card race has three teams separated by 1 game. We’ve never had this many races this close this late.
While the four American League playoff teams are merely fighting for positioning at this point, the NL teams are waging their own Royal Rumble. And if the stars align, we could have as many as five extra games over the course of three days to decide which teams make the playoffs.
Let’s check out the big board at The Sports in a Can Casino and handicap the chances each team has of making the playoffs this year.
Atlanta Braves Odds: 100-1 Remaining schedule: @Philadelphia (Thu); @Houston (Fri-Sun)
The Braves were one of the trading deadline winners when they landed first baseman Mark Teixeira from the Rangers. But after a 4-10 stretch at the end of August, they found themselves practically out of the playoff picture, trailing both the Phillies and Mets in the East.
If they can win tonight, they’ll still be mathematically alive, but they’re going to need a lot of help from the Marlins (who play the Mets) and Nationals (who play the Phillies), while winning their remaining four games.
Milwaukee Brewers Odds: 50-1 Remaining schedule: San Diego (Thu-Sun)
This was a heck of a run by the Brew Crew. They led the Central division by 7½ games back in June (and manager Ned Yost really should have represented the team at the All-Star Game instead of Mets manager Willie Randolph). They have a surprising MVP contender in young phenom Prince Fielder (the youngest player in major league history to hit 50 home runs), and their pitching was at times outstanding. But too many injuries kept this team from holding the lead over the Cubs.
Worse than all that is the fact that while the Cubs finish with the Marlins and Reds (a combined 139-177), the Brewers have four games with playoff-hungry San Diego. Milwaukee realistically needs to win three out of four (plus get help), and I just can’t see the Padres dropping that many with the pitching they have.
San Diego Padres Odds: 10-1 Remaining schedule: @Milwaukee (Thu-Sun)
That’s right, The Sports in a Can Casino has the Padres with tougher odds than the Rockies to make the playoffs. Why? While the Padres have to travel to Milwaukee, where they’ll surely lose at least one game, the Rockies have one more against the Dodgers (who they’ve won 7 of their last 8 against), are riding a 10-game winning streak, and they have their destiny in their own hands with 3 games at Arizona.
San Diego has to deal with the Milton Bradley episode and all the distractions that brings. Will they bring Jake Peavy back on three days’ rest on Sunday if they need the win?
The Miracle Rockies. That’s what they might be calling this team some day. The Rockies were 9 games under .500 earlier in the season. And that was before they lost 8 in a row. Since the end of August, the Rockies have gone 18-7 and have clawed not only into the Wild Card race, but the NL West race as well. Now fate has come a-calling. If they sweep the Diamondbacks, they’ll at worst be tied with Arizona and tied for the Wild Card.
They’ve won 10 in a row—can they possibly win 14 straight and make the playoffs?
Philadelphia Phillies Odds: 5-1 Remaining schedule: Atlanta (Thu); Washington (Fri-Sun)
Philadelphia has Washington this weekend, which certainly works in their favo (of course tell that to the Mets). Plus they have a shot at either the division or the Wild Card. They’ve certainly got the offense, but can their pitching hold up over the final weekend?
The Phillies have been an enigma all season. Just like many of the NL contenders, it’s been up and down. But with Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Jimmy Rollins in the middle of their lineup, they are as dangerous team as there is in the NL.
New York Mets Odds: 4-1 Remaining schedule: St. Louis (Thu); Florida (Fri-Sun)
Can the Mets hang on? They’ve blown back-to-back games and their division lead is down to 1 game. But they’ve got the pitching, and it might be enough to hold onto the division lead. Pedro goes today in a makeup game against the Cardinals, and then they have Perez, Maine, and Glavine lined up for their weekend series. If they can’t pull it off with their big four going, they don’t deserve to make the playoffs.
The Mets are ahead of the Phillies on the big board only because of their upcoming pitchers and their one-game lead. They’ve lost a lot of tough, close games in recent weeks, and it will be remarkable if that doesn’t take its toll on the players.
How are the D-Backs doing it? I went to one of their games back in April. There were about 400 people in the stands and Padres pitcher Jake Peavey had 16 strikeouts in 7 innings. Peavey got the hook and somehow the Diamondbacks came back to win the game. It’s been like that all year for them. People just can’t figure out how they’re winning.
And yet, here they are with the 3rd-best odds to make the NL playoffs. They don’t have an easy finish, to be sure. Colorado is hot, and hungry. But they realistically need only 2 wins to secure a playoff spot.
Chicago Cubs Odds: 2-1 Remaining schedule: @Florida (Thu); @Cincinnati (Fri-Sun)
Yes, the Cubs have the best odds on the board to make the playoffs. Strange words to read, I know. But all they realistically need to do is win two games in their final four days. At worst that would leave them in a 1st-place tie with the Brewers (if Milwaukee sweeps San Diego).
Lou Piniella’s first season in Chicago has been a bumpy, up and down performance. But he has his team on the verge of a postseason berth if they can just hold on to the Central division lead. With Zambrano going tomorrow and Lilly on Sunday (if necessary), the Cubs are almost sure bets.
A few more odds for you to mull over as we enter this fantastic weekend:
No one-game playoffs Odds: 2-1
One one-game playoff Odds: 5-1
Complete anarchy (3 one-game playoff games to decide the division races, with another set of games to decide the Wild Card, with the NL playoffs are delayed until Thursday) Odds: 100-1
I’m all in on the anarchy bet. Who’s with me? Week 4 NFL Picks
One. That’s how many games I correctly picked correctly last week. You almost have to try to be that bad, don’t you? By the time the 4:00 games started I was actively rooting against my picks. It was shocking how bad it was.
But you have to get right back on the horse. I thought about going with opposite picks this week, but we’ll save that for when I’m really desperate. No, I think this was an aberration. If not, it will surely be time to resort to either opposite picks, or flipping a coin.
Baltimore (-4½) over CLEVELAND Chicago (-3) over DETROIT MINNESOTA (+1½) over Green Bay Houston (-2½) over ATLANTA BUFFALO (+3½) over NY Jets Oakland (+4) over MIAMI DALLAS (-12½) over St. Louis CAROLINA (-3½) over Tampa Bay SAN FRANCISCO (+2) over Seattle Denver (+9½) over INDIANAPOLIS SAN DIEGO (-11½) over Kansas City ARIZONA (+6) over Pittsburgh Philadelphia (-3) over NY GIANTS New England (-7) over CINCINNATI
If I were the Czar of Sports (which, trust me, would not be a bad thing), things would run a lot differently in the sports world. The National Pastime’s problems are plentiful—but they can be fixed. So sayeth the Czar.
Institute real spending limits and revenue sharing
We might as well tackle the toughest one first. Everyone knows that the competitive balance is completely out of whack in baseball. In the last 7 years, 19 teams have made the playoffs. But 10 of them have made it 3 or more times (with the Yankees and Braves involved every year). They are the same teams over and over and, most of the time, they are the ones with the highest payrolls. Fixing this competitive imbalance is complicated. But let’s try.
First, there has to be a spending limit and a spending minimum. No more allowing the Royals to coast along with a payroll 1/6 the size of the Yankees’. But also, no more letting the Yankees spend whatever they feel like simply because they are the Yankees. It’s all well and good for George Steinbrenner to proclaim it’s his money and he made it, but come on. It’s the Yankees. They play in New York. Of course they’re going to bring in more money than the Milwaukee Brewers. And how do the Yankees make more money? Through television and radio contracts, as well as advertising sales. In the NFL, the league makes these contracts and divvies up the cash. But baseball’s a free-for-all, which aids the big market clubs and harms the smaller teams.
Sure, there’s already a “luxury tax” in baseball. But the problem with the current system is that whatever luxury tax the Yankees have to pay to the small market teams doesn’t have to go into payroll. The owners of these clubs can (and usually do) pocket the money.
Here’s how we’ll fix it. At the end of each season, let’s see what every team spent on payroll. The average of the 30 teams (adjusted with a slight increase) will be the maximum allowable without taxation. That means it won’t just be the Yankees forking over some cash.
Next, there will be a spending minimum, which we’ll say is whatever the 6th lowest payroll of the previous year was. At the end of the next season, if a team has not increased their payroll by more than the amount of revenue sharing, or if their payroll is under the minimum, there will be some kind of penalty, with the eventual end result of the team being contracted or taken over by Major League Baseball.
Drastic? Yes. But serious restructuring of payrolls and more free cash flow from the richest to the poorest clubs is absolutely necessary for a league to achieve competitive balance. The NFL is a perfect model for this. Over the last 6 years, 29 of the 32 teams have made the playoffs. Granted, there are 4 extra playoff spots. But of those 29 teams, 14 of them have made it just once or twice. Different teams in the playoffs leads to more national interest.
Shorten the game
There were 15 games played this year on America’s birthday. And what could be more American than baseball on the 4th of July? Well, only if you had 3+ hours (and about $300) to kill. The average time to complete these 15 games was 3 hours 1 minute.
To be fair, one game went into extra innings. But that 11 inning game lasted 3:50. I’m pretty sure it was a three-hour marathon after 9. And there were three complete games pitched that day, which is above average. Since those games are usually shorter (they lasted 2:10, 2:23, and 2:34), those games actually brought the average down. But unless you were lucky enough to watch one of those games, your hamburgers and hot dogs were cold by the time you got home. And Heaven forbid you went to the Yankees-Orioles game that took 4:12. That’s right—4 hours and 12 minutes. For a 9-inning game. Throw in traffic and you spent 6 hours watching a baseball game.
How can these games become shorter? Let’s start with getting hitters into the batter’s box and keeping them there. No more walking around for 10 minutes between pitches. Get in there and stay there. No stepping out once you’re in. No asking for time. And the pitchers get the same treatment—once the batter is in the box, make a move to a base or throw a pitch. There should be no other options. And let’s have some repercussions. If the batter doesn’t follow the rules, an automatic strike is given. For the pitchers, a ball is awarded. Drastic? Yes? Necessary? Sure seems like it.
How about we limit the number of throws to first a pitcher can have? I don’t know how many times an at-bat has taken 25 minutes simply because there’s a runner on first and the pitcher throws over 76 times. And we’re not talking Rickey Henderson on the basepaths either. Stolen bases are way down. Possibly because baserunners get bored and forget where they are.
Fewer commercials would be great. Asking for the world now, am I? Well consider this. When you tune into a game, there’s usually advertising behind the plate (often superimposed by FOX). Sometimes there’s an advertising logo on the screen with the scoreboard. There’s the Aflac Trivia Question and the Dodge Fan Cam and the Verizon Call to the Bullpen. How about you give me one fewer commercial per half inning and sell the naming rights to anything and everything you want? I’m fine with that.
Adjust the schedule
Move Opening Day so it falls on the Sunday or Thursday closest to April 1. As it is now, the season could start as late as April 6 because baseball insists on starting on a Sunday. Why? Who knows. But there’s very little competition in terms of other sports at that time, so whether it’s a Sunday or a Thursday really doesn’t matter.
Ending the season is a different matter entirely. The season ends on a Sunday, which in September (or October) is a ridiculous time to end the baseball season. Football gets all the attention on Sundays, so what happens to the final day of pennant race baseball? It ends up on ESPN2 and is lost in the shuffle of NFL games. And the day before the baseball season ends is filled with college football games. Baseball shouldn’t want this, and neither should the networks. The final day of the regular season should be the last Wednesday in September (unless it’s Sep. 30, in which case the season should end on Sep. 23). Wednesday, as you no doubt know, is ESPN’s normal night for a doubleheader anyway, and they can show 2 (or 4 if you include ESPN2) pennant race games, along with clips from other games, on a day in which they have no sports competition. They also have Sunday through Tuesday to show important games, along with FOX’s national broadcasts on Saturday. This gives baseball national exposure on the final 5 days of the regular season, with virtually no competition from other sports.
Under this scheduling, the regular season would last between 176 and 179 days. This season began on April 3 and ended on October 2. The Red Sox (just as an example) played 162 games in 183 days. They had 18 scheduled off days, in addition to the 3 days off around the All-Star Game. 21 days off? Way too many. Under our new system, teams would have 14-17 days off. Period. And if the union protests, we’ll just go to Congress. That’s the only way to get anything done nowadays.
Another proposed schedule improvement is to have one day in September in which there are no games played. This would give the league a chance to schedule a make-up game involving any pennant race teams (they could make this coin flip day for tiebreakers or some other made-for-TV event we can think of). Next…
Expand the first round of the playoffs to a best 4-out-of-7
Teams play 162 games only to face the prospect of getting eliminated in a mere 3 games. In football terms, picture playing a 16-game regular season and then getting knocked out of the playoffs after just one quarter. In a short series, one game can mean everything, and it’s really not fair to teams who have worked for more than 8 months to get to that point.
We could very easily make the division series best 4-out-of-7 without impacting the schedule too much. Since we now have the season ending on a Wednesday, the division series could begin on Saturday. This leaves Thursday and Friday for any makeup games/one game playoffs, rather than the usual one day. On Saturday, two series can start, with the game 2s on Sunday, along with the other two series starting. The schedule for each series would mimic the schedule for the ALCS and NLCS. This will unfortunately schedule four games to be played on a Wednesday and a Thursday, but how different is this from having the three midweek playoff games on one day that we have now?
The first round series would then end at the right time for the ALCS and NLCS to begin on Tuesday/Wednesday, and the World Series to begin on a Saturday. The last possible day for Game 7 of the World Series would be (depending on the year) between October 25 and 31. This keeps baseball within the April 1-October 31 confines that everyone wants, would allow for best of 7s in each round, and should keep the networks happy as well.
There are more where these brilliant ideas came from, but I’ll let you absorb these for now. Next week the Czar of Sports will throw a few more ideas your way…
Darren Kelly got tired of waiting for his ship to come in. A lifelong sports fan, he wants nothing more than for his full-time job to involve watching and writing about sports. To this end, he launched Sports in a Can. There's no money in it...yet. More of his fine writing is available on the Patriots Insider website: http://patrio ts.scout.com.
