The Wildcard Sucks

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by oykib

You're missing the whole point. The wildcard makes for more excitement in the last week or so of the season, sometimes. But it does so at the expense of excitement during the summer, almost all of the time.

Summer series lose their import because if a team is six down now and plays a three-game set with the team ahead of them in August, that used to be a big series. The team went in trying to sweep, because they knew they had to have those games. Managers would change their pitching rotations to make sure to get the right matchups.

They don't do that anymore. The second place team now has a security blanket. When you hype an August series now, that's all it is-- hype. Nobody really gets excited about it.

Baseball is about watching the standing all summer. It's about key series in July and August. It's not about elimination series at the end of the season. Those series are just nice happenstances. Most races are decided by the middle of September.

But in the old days you were pretty much guarunteed some decent races from the middle of July all the way to the middle of September. I'd rather have two months of that than a week and half. And I'd rather have it between the best teams, not the also-rans.

You're overstating it. August series are no less important now than they were then. Very few teams "know" they've got the division/WC locked up in July and August, so those series are still important. At that point, they're still fighting for the division, because that's the only guarantee of a playoff spot.

Getting to a basic point, I don't find sports exciting only when the games "matter." I can't tell you how many Tigers, Indians, and Phillies games I watched this year, and none of those teams were really in it beyond July (maybe Philly, but they never made a serious run). I'll still be watching football games in December between two teams eliminated from the playoffs in September. Because I enjoy the games of basenall and football, and because, within the games themselves, they can still be exciting.

If all you care about is "games that matter," then simply don't watch until the playoffs start.

[oykib]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

oykib: There IS excitement for the last couple months (Astros for example). We've tried to say that. But you just don't want to listen.

You did the same thing last year. WE GET IT. YOU DON'T LIKE THE WILD CARD.

And I admitted there was some excitement from the wildcard. It's just not adding any excitement. It's moving the excitement from one place to another.

You can't have a good wildcard race and a good divisional race at the same time.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by oykib

You can't have a good wildcard race and a good divisional race at the same time.

By and large, teams are still fighting to win the division. Why? Because they're only fighting against 4 or 5 other teams for the division, but against 12-14 other teams for the wild card. It does add excitement.

And more importantly, especially in light of the economic issues that everyone harps on, it adds excitement in cities that might be completely shut out of the playoff race altogether. It increases the number of teams with a chance to make the playoffs, regardless of how they get there, and that adds excitement.

Case in point was Florida last year. Without the wild card, that team probably folds/moves or looks like a AA team this year.