Major League Baseball's Postseason Blues
Disinterest in Professional Baseball Linked to Schedule and Playoffs
Oct 16, 2009
There’s nothing like the fall if you’re a professional sports fan. The NFL is in full swing, the NHL has hit the ice, and the NBA has tipped off its regular season. All are perfect winter weather sports, watching Green Bay pound the pigskin on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, LeBron James sink a three pointer from half court inside the Q, and Sidney Crosby go top shelf on Chris Osgood at the Mellon.
But why is major league baseball, the official sport of summer, just now entering the playoffs in October? And playing into November? As the Rockies series against the Phillies gets postponed due to cold weather and snow, it's clear that there's something terribly amiss with baseball.
MLB Regular Season Too Long
For starters, the regular season is way too long and inconsequential. In professional baseball, teams play 162 games from April to October. Games are played during the weekdays, weekends, holidays, afternoons, evenings, and very rarely do they mean anything. Who cares if Boston loses 3 straight in June? Or the Pirates sneak above .500 after a winning streak in July? With that many games, very little is at stake. And rivalries, in the grand scheme of things, are minimized to friendly bragging rights.
Not Enough Playoff Spots in Baseball
Even worse than an over abundance of regular season games is the scarce number of playoff spots. To make post season play, teams have to win their division outright. Period. Sure, baseball introduced the wild card in 1994, but the sport still churns out more losers than winners each season. Florida, San Francisco, Texas, and Atlanta all had winning records this season, but saw their hopes dashed in the wild card race.
And let’s not forget the fans in Detroit, who got to see their season finish in a tiebreaker against Minnesota. An entire season reduced to one game! The Twins went on to play the Yankees in the American League Division Series while the Tigers got to work on their golf game. A reward to the players and fans of Detroit after a hard fought, winning season?
Comparisons of Major-League Sport Seasons
While no playoff system is perfect, major league baseball’s playoffs are oversimplified and unexciting. After sifting through a laborious season, only 8 of 30 teams make it to postseason play. A paltry 26.7% chance that after the last out is made, a fan's team will have a shot to make a World Series run.
The only professional sports that come close to baseball in terms of number of games played in a season are the NBA and NHL, with 82 games each. But for these organizations, 16 of 30 teams make post season play for a shot at the NBA Championship or Stanley Cup. And that means, as a fan, there’s more than a 50% chance that your team will make the playoffs each year – something that easily sustains excitement all season long. Even major league soccer, a professional sport in its infancy, allows 8 of its 14 teams to make post season play after 30 games for a whopping 57.1% playoff opportunity.
Does baseball need to go to that extreme? No, but perhaps they can take a lesson from the NFL, currently America’s number one professional sport. With 6 teams in each conference going to the playoffs, 4 division winners and 2 wild cards each, the NFL maintains a perfect playoff balance, giving fans hope that their teams may be in the running for a Super Bowl Championship, even when time is running out and there’s only one game left in the season.
Restoring MLB as America's Sport
Everyone knows there’s nothing like major league baseball. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the smell of ballpark franks and ice cold beer, and the seventh inning stretch. It’s a fun sport to watch, but with extremely limited opportunities for postseason play, it’s become a tiresome and fruitless pursuit for fans of the game.
By limiting the number of regular season games and expanding the number of playoff opportunities, baseball can give cities a better opportunity to cheer for their teams all the way through the end of the season and beyond. Ultimately, helping baseball regain its popularity as America’s sport. Right back up there with apple pie!
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