No one can pretend the current playoff systems will result in the best team being the World Series champion. Some years the champion really will be the best team from the regular season, but most years that won't be true. Too much randomness in baseball. That's part of the sacrifice MLB made when expanding the number of teams in the postseason - more teams have something to play for at the end of the season, but less chance that the champion will really be the best team.
I find it rather frustrating when they do but people pretend that the world series proves who the best is all the time. from reddit to MLB on Fox this is an extremely popular idea
Yeah, I guess because people like the tidiness of being able to claim one team was the best?
But I view it like the NCAA Tournament in basketball. The team that wins the tournament sometimes really was the best team all along. But most years, it's the team that just happens to play well for 6 games in a row.
Also, despite most "outsiders" (non-Japanese) calling the one-game advantage in the Climax Final Stage "stupid" I am all for it. You grind for a whole season, you deserve better odds of reaching the finals! There are still enough "underdogs" that win the Japan Series (6 in just over 20 years) to make the playoffs meaningful and interesting.
I agree wholeheartedly, but sometimes I do think about human tendency towards narrative, and meaning making, and I wonder if a manager or GM was willing to go "it was a short series of short series and nothing that happens really means anything" that would do more harm than good. there are children listening, you know
Somehow I missed this post, and then wrote a post that was of my own that was related.
Here's the thing, what the playoffs teach us is what life teaches us. "Man plans. G-d laughs." For better and sometimes for worse, life does what it does. All we get to choose is how we react.
Having the best record at the end of the season is good enough for pretty much everywhere else in the world, and I wish it were the same here. I get that playoffs are an extra revenue stream for everyone involved (except the fans), but I'd love to see America move to that model. I'd even be okay keeping a *handful* of college football bowl games like we used to have back in the day.
I watch the English Premier League soccer and the best team over the season wins the league , simple and satisfying. We have knock out competitions separate for the big final thrill , often the best team wins both , but mostly not , one off games throw up strange yet exciting results,but strange to me that American sports base the whole season on these weird play offs !?
In old baseball, the “pennant” was what was chased. Winning the Division. That was the prize that mattered. Now, the regular season is the grind to set up for the postseason. Who has the fortitude to keep going, despite injuries, setbacks and all the things life throws in. Yeah, the postseason doesn’t necessarily reward “the best team” but it does reward the team that never gives up. The season, the postseason, each game is about momentum and attitude. Who can survive the beating and keep getting up for more? Of course MLB has designed the postseason for max income, it’s a business; but as consumers, we do get to watch an entertaining product that has the chance to turn regular season scrappy try-hards into World Series champions….and after all, isn’t that what we all want out of life?
Sorry, but let’s go Blue Jays!!
My prediction was Brewers vs Blue Jays in the World Series!
I‘m fine with that. But first, let us enjoy the WC games despite all the randomness.
The Dodgers weren't even the best team in the N.L. when they beat the A's in the 1988 WS, but that's what makes baseball great. ⚾
Game 1 was of 1988 lives in my heart! And you are correct I always think of them as being the best that year :)
The randomness and sudden death of postseason seem like yet another baseball metaphor for life.
I love that you continue to remind me of this. :)
No one can pretend the current playoff systems will result in the best team being the World Series champion. Some years the champion really will be the best team from the regular season, but most years that won't be true. Too much randomness in baseball. That's part of the sacrifice MLB made when expanding the number of teams in the postseason - more teams have something to play for at the end of the season, but less chance that the champion will really be the best team.
I find it rather frustrating when they do but people pretend that the world series proves who the best is all the time. from reddit to MLB on Fox this is an extremely popular idea
Yeah, I guess because people like the tidiness of being able to claim one team was the best?
But I view it like the NCAA Tournament in basketball. The team that wins the tournament sometimes really was the best team all along. But most years, it's the team that just happens to play well for 6 games in a row.
I appreciate that in Japan, the pennant winners are the teams that finish with the best record in each league.
Also, despite most "outsiders" (non-Japanese) calling the one-game advantage in the Climax Final Stage "stupid" I am all for it. You grind for a whole season, you deserve better odds of reaching the finals! There are still enough "underdogs" that win the Japan Series (6 in just over 20 years) to make the playoffs meaningful and interesting.
I agree wholeheartedly, but sometimes I do think about human tendency towards narrative, and meaning making, and I wonder if a manager or GM was willing to go "it was a short series of short series and nothing that happens really means anything" that would do more harm than good. there are children listening, you know
Somehow I missed this post, and then wrote a post that was of my own that was related.
Here's the thing, what the playoffs teach us is what life teaches us. "Man plans. G-d laughs." For better and sometimes for worse, life does what it does. All we get to choose is how we react.
Having the best record at the end of the season is good enough for pretty much everywhere else in the world, and I wish it were the same here. I get that playoffs are an extra revenue stream for everyone involved (except the fans), but I'd love to see America move to that model. I'd even be okay keeping a *handful* of college football bowl games like we used to have back in the day.
I watch the English Premier League soccer and the best team over the season wins the league , simple and satisfying. We have knock out competitions separate for the big final thrill , often the best team wins both , but mostly not , one off games throw up strange yet exciting results,but strange to me that American sports base the whole season on these weird play offs !?
In old baseball, the “pennant” was what was chased. Winning the Division. That was the prize that mattered. Now, the regular season is the grind to set up for the postseason. Who has the fortitude to keep going, despite injuries, setbacks and all the things life throws in. Yeah, the postseason doesn’t necessarily reward “the best team” but it does reward the team that never gives up. The season, the postseason, each game is about momentum and attitude. Who can survive the beating and keep getting up for more? Of course MLB has designed the postseason for max income, it’s a business; but as consumers, we do get to watch an entertaining product that has the chance to turn regular season scrappy try-hards into World Series champions….and after all, isn’t that what we all want out of life?