MLB moves up opening day

[Rooftop Shots]

I watched Sox baseball since the early 70's and one of the "romances" of the game for me (and I'm sure many others on this site) was the Sunday doubleheader,

 

The Saturday night "Twi-night" double headers also used to be fun a s well.

[Balta1701]

Can't wait to see entire weeks of baseball snowed out in MSP, DET, CLE, etc.

Yeah...in a normal world, this would make that ballpark in Minny even more fun.

 

Of course...one could also say that this is simply Bud Selig preparing MLB for the climate of the next 20-30 years, where it's probably gonna snow a lot less in April.

[witesoxfan]

What sucks about the baseball postseason is that it is a total crapshoot. In football, the least you have to win is 3 games to win a Super Bowl, which is the equivalent of 18.75% of the regular season games. In the NBA, you have to win 16 games, and more are always played - unless, of course, some team gets ridiculously hot and somehow manages to beat the other best teams in the NBA in 16 straight games, which doesn't happen - which makes up 19.5%. Hockey is the same thing as the NBA. However, baseball has the longest season by far (which is good, because it absolutely determines who the best and worst teams are, unlike football, where a team can struggle for 6 games and be pretty much eliminated from postseason competition), but you can win the entire thing in 11 games, and two teams - the Sox and Sawks - have won it in 12. That represents 7.4% of regular season games. Now, can you honestly tell me that you can crown a champion of a major sport by playing 7.4% of the regular season games?

 

I agree that you shouldn't add more teams to the playoffs (although the one circumstance I can see is adding a wild card team and having a wild card play-in round, two best non-division winners play like a 3-game series or something along those lines). What I would like to see is a drastic shift to a 7-9-9 format. You get more postseason baseball, which generally equates to more money, you get more games to help determine a winner much better (rather than seeing a hot streak by an otherwise mediocre team), and it really doesn't take that much longer (at the very most, 6 extra games, which means it would probably be a little over a week extra). It's still a rather meager percentage of games compared to the regular season (8.6% at the least, 15.4% at the very most), but I think it's a little more telling then 5-7-7.

[BearSox]

If it was up to me, I'd get rid of the playoffs and bring back the good old system where the best team in each league wins the pennant and go directly to the world series. When you play 162 regular season games, I really don't see the need for a playoff where 4 teams from each league make it.

 

But because of the money it brings in, this will never happen.

[knightni]

Mar 28, 29, 30, 31

 

CLE@LAA

BAL@OAK

MIN@SEA

BOS@TOR

DET@TBR

CWS@TEX

NYY@KCR

 

CHC@HOU

NYM@MIL

WAS@ATL

PHI@FLA

PIT@ARZ

CIN@LAD

COL@SFG

STL@SDP

 

 

APR 1, 2, 3, 4

 

BAL@LAA

MIN@OAK

CLE@SEA

DET@TOR

BOS@TBR

NYY@TEX

CWS@KCR

 

NYM@HOU

CHC@MIL

PHI@ATL

WAS@FLA

STL@ARZ

PIT@LAD

CIN@SFG

COL@SDP

 

 

It could work.

[Buehrlesque]

So many good ideas in this thread. I'd like to shorten the season to 150 games, maybe throw in some scheduled weekend doubleheaders, expand the first round to 7 games, and then I'm even semi-interested in going best of 9 for the LCS and WS.

 

I hate to be so cynical, but I don't think the powers that be in baseball care AT ALL about these kinds competitive changes to MLB. 0%. They only consider things about money- making more of it, or not losing what they already have. Thus the 7-game first round playoffs is a possibility, but anything that would mean "shrinking the pie" for better baseball is a non-starter. Such a shame that it is the ONLY driving force in baseball.

[whitesoxfan101]

What sucks about the baseball postseason is that it is a total crapshoot. In football, the least you have to win is 3 games to win a Super Bowl, which is the equivalent of 18.75% of the regular season games. In the NBA, you have to win 16 games, and more are always played - unless, of course, some team gets ridiculously hot and somehow manages to beat the other best teams in the NBA in 16 straight games, which doesn't happen - which makes up 19.5%. Hockey is the same thing as the NBA. However, baseball has the longest season by far (which is good, because it absolutely determines who the best and worst teams are, unlike football, where a team can struggle for 6 games and be pretty much eliminated from postseason competition), but you can win the entire thing in 11 games, and two teams - the Sox and Sawks - have won it in 12. That represents 7.4% of regular season games. Now, can you honestly tell me that you can crown a champion of a major sport by playing 7.4% of the regular season games?

 

I agree that you shouldn't add more teams to the playoffs (although the one circumstance I can see is adding a wild card team and having a wild card play-in round, two best non-division winners play like a 3-game series or something along those lines). What I would like to see is a drastic shift to a 7-9-9 format. You get more postseason baseball, which generally equates to more money, you get more games to help determine a winner much better (rather than seeing a hot streak by an otherwise mediocre team), and it really doesn't take that much longer (at the very most, 6 extra games, which means it would probably be a little over a week extra). It's still a rather meager percentage of games compared to the regular season (8.6% at the least, 15.4% at the very most), but I think it's a little more telling then 5-7-7.

 

I'm glad somebody else has this idea besides me. I actually think the playoffs should be a 9-9-9 format, but your idea works too. The 5-7-7 is ridiculous, they should AT LEAST make the first round a best of 7 as well.

Edited July 29, 2010 by whitesoxfan101