With 3 divisions & a wild card, winning 3 series to become champions, is being div. champ not exciting anymore?
Yanks were the best team in the AL, lost first round to the wild card. STL was the worst playoff team- won it all.
BOS, FLA, LAA- all wild card WS Champs.
I was glad to see the White Sox win it all in '05, they played hard during the season & passed through the postseason, but every WS since '02 has had a wild card play & last year, it was the wild card, who was a great team nonetheless, lose to the div. champ in a slumping division.
As a fan, it just seems like the teams just have a goal of making it to the post season, you don't have to do your best during the season, and then play real ball in Oct.
What's the point of busting your hump and getting tired when you could just be the wild card?
Not to say that its nothing to do something 26 other teams couldn't, but I sort of miss the days when you had to be the absolute best of the div/league during the regular season.
2007-06-29 19:13:28 · 10 answers · asked by Joey Joe, yo 5 in Sports ➔ Baseball
5 Games over .500 won last year.
They beat the NL's best.
The NL wild card (LAD) deserved to be more, at least they shared the same record as the NL West champs.
Philadelphia had two wins over St. Louis. What'd they get?
To watch the post season from their homes.
2007-06-29 19:23:55 · update #1
Ishi,
you do not need to be the best in the league.
You need to be the best in one of three divisions or the best team not to win the division.
You could be #1 of a division that failed to even make it to .500, like San Diego in 2005, 2 games over .500, yet 5 games ahead of anyone.
Almost the entire NL east did better than San Diego and got nothing.
Last year, both New York teams busted their humps in Sept. to clinch. The Yankees barely had a day off in the late season and after a rough start to the season, they managed the AL's best record, which now means absolutely nothing.
I watch the regular season of MLB baseball. The teams trying to make it to that 8. As a Yankee fan, I don't keep up with the wild card as much. All I care about is 11 GB, not 8 GB. And so should every baseball fan, in my opinion.
"There's always the wild card!"
It shouldn't be the goal of a team and its fans to win.
Though it does give the excitement of NYY-BOS ALCS games, which never happened before.
2007-06-29 19:37:29 · update #2
At least make it 2 divisions with the division winners going and the top 2 other teams, regardless of which division. I'd rather have a wild card that the team that got 1st place in a slumping division make it to the big game.
I know MLB enjoys the idea of bring more playoff games to different areas, but make them good games.
Better yet, one division and the best four teams make it. Then you could have better seeding.
Nothing like having the #1 team play the #3 team and #2 play #4 because they don't want a intradivisonal divisional series.
i thought it was a division series...
2007-06-29 19:44:36 · update #3
I agree with you. I think they should just take the four teams currently qualify for the postseason, kick off the one with the worst record and give the one with the best record a LDS bye. #2 and #3 play their own LDS and play #1 in the ALCS.
Then maybe being the best in the league can actually mean something.
2007-06-29 19:49:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
Good point but teams in MLB still have the toughest road to make the playoffs. Where as in the NBA & NHL one can be under .500 and still make the playoffs, in MLB one could theoretically win 100 games and still miss the playoffs. 26.6% of MLB teams make the playoffs where 37.5% of NFL teams make the playoffs and an astounding 53.3% of NBA & NHL teams make the playoffs. I don't think any team looks at being the wildcard in April but as the season wears on into August and September, the wildcard is the best some teams can do. As a fan I like the fact that, should the division races be runaways, there is one more playoff spot up for grabs for a good team to take. And some years the WS winner has the best record in baseball and some years they have the poorest record of the 8 playoff teams. As the old saying goes, anything can happen in a 5 or 7 game series and the best team does not necessarily win.
2007-06-30 10:06:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's what makes the game so excited. The best team will not always win. You want to see surprises and upsets because it's something you don't expect. Usually people root for the underdog team. To get to the playoffs you have to be at least the 4th best in your league which is still really good. You shouldn't take anything away from wild card teams who have won the world series like the marlins, red sox, and angels. These teams were good and it took extra hard work to beat the best teams like the yankees and cardinals. I actually kind of thought 2005 had a dull postseason because all you saw were the White Sox beating everyone and it got too predictable. None of the games were interesting enough to watch. If you look at the TV ratings over the past years, 2005 was one of the worst years for baseball ratings.
2007-06-30 02:23:18 · answer #3 · answered by ishi93 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Being a Braves fan, I know what it's like for a team to win the division and fizzle in the playoffs. I think in many ways the Wild Card has a distinct advantage in the playoffs because of the fact that the Wild Card winner likely has a great deal of momentum coming into the playoffs. The Braves in years past have dominated the division, put it in cruise control in September and then fizzled in the playoffs against a team with momentum from having to fight their way in to the playoffs late. It's especially tough for a team to turn on the intensity for a short 5-game series. I think that the Division Series needs to be 7 games. Make the Wild Card team win in 7, rather than riding momentum for 3 quick wins.
2007-06-30 02:25:32 · answer #4 · answered by Jason 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
the best team in the NL was the mets last year. but if you remember the end of last year, their pitching got injured and they lost a 7 game series. w/o those injuries you don't have the wild card cards in the world series.
2007-06-30 06:14:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The regular season should be more meaningful.
The best setup was when we had four divisions and you had to win it to make the playoffs
Sadly, with all pro-sports money (read: more post-season games) is what the owners want.
2007-06-30 06:32:40 · answer #6 · answered by harmonv 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sounds to me like the real problem is the wild card. It is not really a good thing at least i think so only the best should make it in.
2007-06-30 02:27:25 · answer #7 · answered by Rocketman 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
One day, we're going to have 2 sub .500 teams in the world series.
2007-06-30 02:17:53 · answer #8 · answered by TedEx 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It's just you!
I mean the wildcard does bring fun into baseball. I mean I like to laugh at the Mets when they hang a WC banner up and celebrate. I enjoy the WC very much.
2007-06-30 03:07:26 · answer #9 · answered by Veritas et Aequitas () 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i think alot of things in baseball changed when they started paying 10's of millions to athletes and all the problems with steriods
2007-06-30 02:16:17 · answer #10 · answered by cameron greene 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋