Playoffs are fun to watch. They suck at determining the champion of a season. I am firmly in favor of the system used by almost the whole world in soccer, where the season champion is the first place team at the end of the season. You want the drama of playoffs, have a “cup” tournament. 
It’s simpler than that - a team that’s good enough to win in the “post-season” (horrible name; *those *are the games that matter) is generally good enough to get there. A third of the teams make it no matter what.
This right here is an encapsulation of why I don’t like our current system. Why play the 162 other meaningless games?
I actually fully agree with DSYoungEsq that the soccer system is better.
In fact maybe I will start a thread on “if I was king of baseball”. I love the game, but I think it could be tweaked. I’m sure you would hate the things I would propose though.
They aren’t meaningless, entirely. They constitute the round-robin qualifiers for the playoffs. They do sort out the two-thirds of the teams that aren’t good enough even to get there. They’re a way for the other third to tune up. And they bring in lotsa revenue.
Do more people care who was at the top of the Bundesliga table last year, or who won the World Cup?
:smack: You’re right off course 1969 not 1973. I was thinking the DH I guess.
That example doesn’t actually make sense but I get your meaning. I would say they care roughly the same about league winners and league cups. With the Champions league holding slightly more prestige because it’s the only time champions from multiple leagues play.
That’s simply not true. The World Series was a hell of a lot more than “just a bonus” many years before the 1969 division system was created. Nobody who was a major leaguer in 1968 thought of the World Series as “just a bonus.”
There’s a reason it was a big deal in 1955 when Brooklyn finally won. They’d won lots of pennants but not a World Series, and that’s what the fans wanted. There’s a reason the Pirates are all dancing around Bill Mazeroski when he hits the home run that wins the 1960 World Series. There’s a reason you can look up the last pitch of various World Series and guys look VERY happy about it.
It’s true the World Series was something of a novelty event the first few times it was played, but it was taken very seriously long before 1969.
The post-season schedules are out. We’ve got one shot at November baseball, at least.
Wild Cards
AL - Oct. 3 (ESPN)
NL - Oct. 4 (TBS)
ALDS (all dates apply to both sets of games)
Game 1 - Oct. 5
Game 2 - Oct. 6
Game 3 - Oct. 8
Game 4 - Oct. 9
Game 5 - Oct. 11
NLDS (all dates apply to both sets of games)
Game 1 - Oct. 6
Game 2 - Oct. 7
Game 3 - Oct. 9
Game 4 - Oct. 10
Game 5 - Oct. 12
ALCS
Game 1 - Oct. 13
Game 2 - Oct. 14
Game 3 - Oct. 16
Game 4 - Oct. 17
Game 5 - Oct. 18
Game 6 - Oct. 20
Game 7 - Oct. 21
NLCS
Game 1 - Oct. 14
Game 2 - Oct. 15
Game 3 - Oct. 17
Game 4 - Oct. 18
Game 5 - Oct. 19
Game 6 - Oct. 21
Game 7 - Oct. 22
World Series
Game 1 - Oct. 24
Game 2 - Oct. 25
Game 3 - Oct. 27
Game 4 - Oct. 28
Game 5 - Oct. 29
Game 6 - Oct. 31
Game 7 - Nov. 1
Well, damn. I’ve been staying away from anything Dodger related, aside from watching games. That being said I’ve been harboring a hope that I’d get to con my wife into letting me get a ticket to a Dodger World Series home game. I’m out of town until Oct 31st at the soonest. Maybe an LA game 7???
Not that I could afford that.
November baseball should be avoided at all costs. I could just imagine a Colorado vs Minnesota World Series in November.
That is a problem the Twins would love to have this season.
Just for your daily break, another link someone posted earlier led me to this Youtube video collection of MLB “interesting plays.” It’s 21-minutes long, but it includes some of my all-time favorites, such as the Michael Morse phantom grand slam, and Nyjer Morgan’s meltdown leading to an inside-the-park homerun. A lot of good times on this reel, if you’re in the mood.
Holy cow. What a game between the Indians and Rockies!
Corey Kluber gave up a lead-off home run to Charlie Blackmon to start the game, then proceeded to pitch masterfully for 27 outs, but found himself still down 1-0 after nine brilliant innings.
And then, with the Indians down to their final out, Austin Jackson has a tremendous at-bat to squeeze out a game-tying single. And on the very next pitch, Yan Gomes sends a pitch into the stands to give the Indians a walk-off 4-1 victory. Kluber goes from being the hard-luck loser to the (very deserving) winner.
And, of course, I’m happy about the Rockies dropping a game regardless. Win-win for me!
Joe West is apparently getting a few days off.
Watched it with my heart sinking inning by inning. We did this to Kluber a few games ago. He pitched a whole 8-9 innings and lost 1-0(or something like that). Couldn’t support him
Kluber is the equal of Chris Sale. Cy Young coming unless he crumbles.
The Indians in the second half of last year came back more times than not. You didn’t dare turn the game off. Not so this year.
Are the Giants having problems selling tickets? Seems to be a lot of empty seats, against the defending World Series champions.
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Speaking of Chris Sale, he did pretty well last night, too.
Given that the temperature at game time was probably 62 degrees, with fog rolling in, I expect that a sell-out was unlikely. Now, they don’t play in Candlestick any more, so it’s not quite so bad, but I remember night games in July and August being miserable to watch in SF (for a while, the Cubs used to come to town on my birthday in July). Felt sorry for the one vendor wandering around yelling, “Get your malts here!” 
Joe West is a pompous ass but to suspend him over comments when they could have just as easily suspended him for some of his in-game bullying of players is absurd.
Used to live near the Bay Area and been to AT&T park. Some of the coldest months and games are in the middle of summer. Even when the sun is out, the wind coming off the water makes it hard to enjoy a cold one (not to mention the $9-10 charge per pop).