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Phillies In World Series, Zenith To Austere MLB Postseason
The Philadelphia Phillies will battle either the New York Yankees or the Anaheim Angels in the 2009 World Series—the zenith to a rather austere MLB postseason. Regardless of which team wins the ALCS, baseball fans should be rewarded with a splendiferous World Series.
At the risk of sounding churlish, it better be splendiferous because this year’s postseason has been an unmitigated bore (Game 5 of the ALCS notwithstanding). In fact, we’ve been observing that year after year the MLB postseason slowly loses more and more of its luster and exuberance.
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 in the NLCS.
When Bombastic Sports was a wee lad, the MLB postseason was so awe inspiring and wondrous. Each game, each at bat, each pitch was watched with mouth agape, eyes wide open, and the heart pounding. This year, the MLB postseason elicits nothing more than a shrug and sigh.
Of course that’s not the case for Phillies or Yankees or Angels fans. Indeed, if we were supporters of one of those clubs we would be standing in line for Yankees playoff tickets or playoff tickets for the Philadelphia Phillies and singing a much different tune.
However, we are not Yankees or Angels or Phillies fanatics. We are simply baseball fans. In perusing hardball’s final four teams (Yankees, Angels, Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers) with as much objectivity as we can, we came to this conclusion: the playoffs ain’t what they use to be.
Three of the final four teams have won World Series in the past 10 years. Three of the final four teams are classic MLB teams over a century old.
All four teams have managers that have won World Series. All four teams are from a major television market.
Each LCS featured the two best teams from their respective leagues.
Yet, even after all that, the league championship series are (were) just eh.
Not to long ago, you would clear your schedule to watch postseason baseball, now you’re lucky if you stop and watch more than a pitch as you’re surfing channels.
Obviously, some of the lost-luster is due to growing older. Your aunt and uncle’s farm was much bigger when you were a kid, your father was a strapping bull of a man when you were a boy, and the halls of your grade school were breathtakingly long and wide when you attended.
We understand that maturing removes some of the reverence we once felt for baseball’s postseason, but beyond that we believe there are five additional reasons why the MLB postseason is no longer as enthralling as it was in the days of yore.
Character
Taking steroids doesn’t make you evil and one can debate if it even makes you a cheater. However, it does erode your respectability.
Think of the greats from the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s and compare them to the greats from the past 20 years.
Jackie Robinson was a civil rights pioneer. Joe DiMaggio was an icon of dignity and grace (“where have you gone Joe DiMaggio“). Mickey Mantle was a modern day Paul Bunyan.
The three best players of the past two decades are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriquez. Need we say anything more?
It’s hard to get excited for post season baseball when you wouldn’t invite its biggest stars into your home for dinner.
Football
The following statement may make baseball purist cringe, but football is now America’s Pastime. If we really thought about it, MLB is no better than the nation’s third most popular sports league after the NFL and College Football.
However, even though Bombastic Sports would rather watch the NFL Combine instead of a regular season MLB game, we fully admit that a great baseball game has more drama and suspense than a great football game.
The problem is that in the fall, football and baseball go head-to-head with one another. Sure the games mean more in the MLB at that time of year, but we just can’t pull ourselves away from our football, especially with fantasy teams, office pools and road underdogs on the line.
Proliferation
Baseball on television used to be doled out with an eyedropper. Now just about every team has every one of their games televised. Hard to get excited about the Anaheim Angels in the playoffs if they’re on television every day.
It’s also hard to get excited about playoff baseball after a grueling 162 game season. The world doesn’t move as slow as it did throughout most of the 20th century. There’s just too much baseball for too long a period of time. By the time the post season arrives, we’ve grown weary of the game.
Scheduling
In every sense of the word the MLB postseason schedule is a disaster.
The playoffs start much too late in the year. The boys of summer are turned into the popsicles of winter. Pretty soon, we’ll be sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner and watching Game 6 of the Fall Classic.
The actual scheduling of the games are also askew. Whatever happened to playing every day except for travel days?
Now teams get a day off in between games held in the same city. Sometimes they play games during the day for no apparent reason. Sometimes there are several days off between series and sometimes there’s not.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the post season schedule.
We understand that the MLB needs to appease their TV partners but wouldn’t consistency attract more viewers? We’ve missed games just because we didn’t know they were on.
The World Series will commence Oct. 28. If necessary, Game 7 will be played Nov. 5.
Money
We mentioned to a friend that with Alex Rodriquez hitting like he has been in these playoffs the Yankees will be extremely difficult to defeat. Our friend replied, “they should be winning for as much as they spend on their payroll.”
Hard to get excited for a league that has the Yankees’ payroll ($201 million) at least doubling the payroll of 22 MLB teams and that includes the Los Angeles Dodgers ($100 million).
The Yankees have spent $66 million more on salary than the next closest team.
Nineteen MLB teams’ payroll is at least twice as much as least one other MLB team.
The final four teams in the MLB postseason are in the top nine of team salaries.
This disparity in the payroll of Major League Baseball teams creates the perception that postseason births are purchased. When it’s perceived that money buys championships it becomes hard for fans to get excited about the playoffs. Ultimately, the games seem to be less about pitching and hitting and more about monetization and profit margins.
Solution
Only one of the five problems we enumerated can be solved and that’s scheduling. The others are either signs-of-the-time or just too difficult to alter.
Perhaps the perception is cyclical and it will slowly fade away. Or perhaps the upcoming World Series will cleanse the palette.
Of course attending the games mitigate the playoffs’ swoon. When you’re actually at the game the problems we listed are not nearly as noticeable.
We desperately hope that the glory, exhilaration, and intrigue return to baseball’s post season. Unfortunately, as things stand now, it’s hard to get excited about baseball’s postseason enough to actually want to watch it.
