Yep. For all the money LA spends, they have one championship in the last 34 years to show for it. And that one was the pseudo title during the Covid season. To be fair though, they were cheated out of a title in ‘17 by the Houston Assholes.
Just means I won't have to watch anymore baseball this season.
It is crazy, the Padres finished 22 games behind the Dodgers who had 111 Ws. No matter.
sports.yahoo.com
Why do we value upsets in a single elimination basketball tournament in March and April but abhor them in a multi-game baseball series in October?
I think we've all accepted that the NCAA Tourney is not a good way to determine the best team. I'm just not sure MLB going that route even more is a good thing.
Or...baseball can always count on Dave Roberts to make a huge coaching blunder.
Over a 3 or 5 game series, a manager would have to try really hard to throw the series to the underdog. A couple of poor decisions should not cause a 111-win team to fall to a clearly less-talented roster.
He does it almost every year though. I'm a massive Dodgers fan and Roberts almost always finds a way to blow a game or two. In a short series...that is fatal. Pulling Anderson after five innings was beyond dumb.
It sure is entertaining though! All of the participants in the NCAA know the rules... win and move on or lose and go home.
I understand that the Twins front office and Rocco were brought in by the Dodgers to consult for the playoffs.
It was almost as though Rocco was the manager for that last game.
Actually, under the old system the Braves would have finished 3rd in the division, 10 games back of the Dodgers and 5 back of the Astros in the NL West, and would have been eliminated with a week to go despite winning 101 games.It is crazy, the Padres finished 22 games behind the Dodgers who had 111 Ws. No matter.
Phillies were in 3RD place 14 games behind both the Braves & Mets, both with 101 Ws. As the 6th seed would not have even qualified. No matter, they are now in the NLCS.
Old system the Mets & Braves would have faced off in a Game 163 with the Winner getting a #2 seed into the Divisional round vs the Cardinals. Loser would have had to play the Padres in a 1 Game Wild Card. Phillies would have already been done.
Granted, regular season more than likely would have played out differently with the old format.
As for TV ratings, collectively there were fewer eyeballs collectively on the Wild Card round then their were last year even though they were only 1 Game. That is skewed because the AL WC in 2021 was Red Sox/Yankees.
Still ESPN should not have any complaints, more games meant more chances to sell commercials.
MLB’s Jacked-Up Wild Card Format Delivers Softer TV Ratings
Major League Baseball’s steroidal new postseason format appears to have had a dilutive effect on the TV ratings, as the expanded Wild Card round failed to match the outsized audiences of recent years. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the four playoff series averaged 2.75 million...
If the Guards can take down the Yankees tonight, wow the ratings till tank. Go Cleveland.
Old like 1994? Then we'd have a Mariners/Yankees ALCS. The Twins still would have finished 3rd in a terrible 7 team AL West.
Actually older than 1993, going back to 1968, it would have been NL Winner Dodgers vs AL Winner Yankees in the World Series and have been decided by now.
I agree regarding the sentiment of “lesser” teams getting hot in the postseason. And it happens in every sport - 1987 MN Twins, 1995 Houston Rockets, 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2012 LA Kings, etc.
Remember that like it was yesterday even though it was 35 years ago
Approximately 6 months later...one of Twins that had a HR in Game 1 was punched out by the other.
Single elimination is single elimination but it is roughly proportional: 1 game 'series' for 30-35 game season = 5 game series for 162 game season!
I was there. $20 ticket.
Game 1 of the WS was the only one of the Twins 1987 post-season run that I was not at in person.
This reminds me when I was at game 6 of the 1991 Stanley Cup finals at the old Met. Got tickets the night before for 41 bucks. Not nose bleed seats either. Row 6 at the blue line.
First time ever brothers have faced each other in the playoffs.