Recently Jim Leyland complained bitterly that Interleague play has an adverse effect on his team this year. I happen to agree with him. Some years your favorite team may play only a few "weak sisters" from the other league; in other years they may be scheduled to play the very best teams in the other league. Since it is totally random and unbalanced, it seems illogical that these games should count in the league standings. If the fans want to see a nearby team from the other league, let the general managers of both teams agree to play an Exhibition Game just before Opening Day (Examples: Angels versus Dodgers, Cubs versus White Sox, Yankees versus Mets, Marlins versus Rays, etc.)
The National League standings should be determined only by games played WITHIN the National League, and ditto for the American League. Furthermore, I think the playoffs are TOO LONG. Baseball was not meant to be played in near-freezing weather. My solution: Eliminate the "Wild Card" from the Playoffs. You would have the team with the best Won-Loss record be guaranteed a spot in the League Championship game. The other two division leaders would play a best-of-five series, with the winner going to the best-of-seven series to determine the pennant-winner. Then the World Series would follow. Also, I would NOT schedule all the so-called "travel days" off during a series. These steps should get us back to the way it used to be - The World Series would be over in October and never drag on into November.
And as for Bud Selig's idea to add a Second Wild-Card team to the mix, I say "Forget About It"! I don't even want to have ANY Wild-Card teams.
As it stands now, division leaders who clinch their division early have NO INCENTIVE to try and win their remaining games. Managers play rookies called up from the minors and rest their star players. This seems wrong to me. Baseball teams should try to win every game that's scheduled. If we guarantee that the team in each League with the best record will automatically qualify for the League Championship Series, it provides an incentive to keep on playing hard to win late in the season. The regular season is 162 games long. Do we really want the 4th or 5th best team in a league to compete in the World Series? I don't! I feel that a team's Won-Loss record should carry more weight than it does in MLB's current playoff process. What do you readers think?
Natasha Barnard
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Amen to everything you said.
smart alec
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I pretty much agree with a lot of what you say here. I've never been a fan of inter-league play, and I think the novelty has worn off now. I'd be fine with them dropping inter-league play all together.
Agree also that it is a HORRIBLE idea of Selig's to expand the playoffs. I like the idea of dropping the wild-card, but that'll never happen. As a compromise, I'd like to see them leave it the way it is now: 3 division champs and a WC.
They should start the playoffs a bit earlier and definitely get the whole thing over in October. In the old days, there were several scheduled double-headers for each team every year.......they should go back to those to cut a few days out of the season, then they could start the playoffs a touch earlier.
ElevenRingsSTL
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