After five months of incredible boredom, baseball has given us a week's worth of remarkable drama, as the Bosox and Braves blew enormous leads and lost the Wild Cards to Tampa Bay and St. Louis, respectfully. Here are the final standings (division winners in italics):
NATIONAL LEAGUE:
1. Philadelphia: 102-60 (0 games behind)
2. Milwaukee: 96-66 (6)
3. Arizona: 94-68 (8)
4. St. Louis: 90-72 (12)
5. Atlanta: 89-73 (13)
6. San Francisco: 86-76 (16)
7. Los Angeles: 82-79 (19.5)
8. Washington: 80-81 (21.5)
9. Cincinnati: 79-83 (23)
10. New York: 77-85 (25)
11. Colorado: 73-89 (29)
T12. Florida: 72-90 (30)
T12. Pittsburgh: 72-90 (30)
T14. San Diego: 71-91 (31)
T14. Chicago: 71-91 (31)
16. Houston: 56-106 (46)
AMERICAN LEAGUE:
1. New York: 97-65 (0)
2. Texas: 96-66 (1)
3. Detroit: 95-67 (2)
4. Tampa Bay: 91-71 (6)
5. Boston: 90-72 (7)
6. Los Angeles: 86-76 (11)
7. Toronto: 81-81 (16)
8. Cleveland: 80-82 (17)
9. Chicago: 79-83 (18)
10. Oakland: 74-88 (23)
11. Kansas City: 71-91 (26)
12. Baltimore: 69-93 (28)
13. Seattle: 67-95 (31)
14. Minnesota: 63-99 (32)
Believe it or not, Minnesota won their division in 2010, while the 2010 Diamondbacks went 65-97. Other franchises are more consistent. The Yankees, Rangers, Devil Rays, and Phillies -- who all went to the playoffs last year -- are back. The Royals, Orioles, Nats, and Pirates -- who are all working on very long consecutive losing season streaks -- all finished with losing seasons yet again (although the Nats made it interesting, and the O's at least had the joy of hurting Boston at the end of the year).
Now we go on to the playoffs. Unlike the other sports, which build up to and peak in the playoffs, MLB treats the whole thing as an afterthought. Their view seems to be that the whole point of baseball season is to go out on a nice summer evening, have some hot dogs, talk to your friends, and listen to loud music between innings. But they feel like they have to eventually decide a champion. Plainly, the fairest way to decide the champion would be to have all the teams in each league play the same schedule, and then have the two league champions meet for the title. MLB doesn't do this, presumably because it feels it would hurt attendance down the stretch. So MLB simply lets a bunch of teams in the playoffs, and then plays the games at really odd times and on networks that most sports fans rarely watch. And besides, given the nature of baseball and the probability of upsets in a short series, the winner isn't likely to be the best team anyway. The result of which is that only junkies like me pay much attention to the baseball playoffs -- most folks just move on to football.
But while they are not fair, the MLB playoffs always manage to produce their own type of drama. This year, the Phillies (the 2008 Champs) and the Yankees (the 2009 Champs) are the best teams, and in a just world they would meet in the World Series. As it is, they will now go through the most random playoff system in big-time sports, and we will see if they can survive.
Assuming you consider the NHL a big time sport I would say it is more random.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there are teams/players/coaches in hockey who consciously prepare themselves to squeak into the playoffs and then be ready to go then. Kind of like drafting in cycling.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely think that there are hockey teams who coast in the regular season and only play hard in the playoffs. I also think that the officiating in the playoffs is noticeably different in the regular season. And that's why I don't think the results in the NHL playoffs are as random as they appear.
ReplyDeleteWith baseball, on the other hand, the results are pretty much random. There is no way the Giants were better than the Phillies last year, but the ball bounced their way.