The Giants finished 81-81 last season. In 2021 the Giants won 107 games, the Dodgers 106. The Dodgers play in the wildcard game. Even if there was but one wildcard in 2021, the Dodgers would have been it. You play 162 games for a reason.
Ok, year before then, thanks! That year, in the NL West, we had LAD at .654 and SFG at .660 and TB in the AL East at .617. The post season did its thing, and I was hooked since the Stros were in it and I had caught enough games that I was somewhat invested in the whole thing, a lot more than I am this year. But, it didn't seem right to me that LAD and SFG had to go through one-another in the WS. Post season ball seems to tell me and everyone else to pound sand. It's our 4th of July, Apple Pie and Hot Dogs Sport, Innit? It's perfectly like life in the USA. IF you can grind it out and do well enough you get a chance to play for the gold. And at the end, there is one winner. Regardless of how much one kicked ass during the grind. My question however remains unanswered. Not that I'm trying to press you, just curious. I'm still very much a newb to being a fan of this sport.
I’m an old fart who became a baseball fan around 1955. 8 teams in each league where only the 1st place team went directly to the world series. No other playoffs unless the top two teams finished in a tie which happened in 1959 between Milwaukee and the dodgers which the dodgers won. 1961 and 62 saw expansion to 10 teams in each league, the schedule went from 154 games to 162. But still only the 1st place team went directly to the world series. The regular season meant everything. Finish 1st or go home. I’ve been ingrained with that ever since. In 1969 expansion again to 12 teams and 2 divisions. Even so, only the 1st place team in each division went to the ALCS and NLCS. Win your division or go home. You had to finish 1st in your division. The regular season still mean everything. It was first or nothing. Baseball expanded to first 14 teams in each league, then to 16 teams in the NL and 14 in the AL. Still it was finish first in your division or go home. The regular season still meant everything. Then in 1994, MLB went to 3 division in each league, the wildcard team was introduced, the ALDS and NLDS came about. For the first time ever, a team didn’t have to finish 1st. That diminished the regular season to me. A second-place team now had a chance to win the world series. That was anathema to everything that was. Then a 5th team as added bringing about the wildcard game, now a 6th team. Now two teams that finished 14 and 16 games behind the division leaders has as much a chance to get into and win the world series as the 1st place teams who proved over the long haul, they were much better than those other teams. Perhaps I’m stuck in the past. Now MLB looks more like the NBA where 16 teams out of 30 qualify for the playoffs. You don’t even have to be a team that finishes in the top half of the league to qualify for the playoffs in the NBA. The world series is no longer the best team in each league playing each other, one could say the hottest teams get to the world series. I’m just old fashioned. I believe in order to get into the playoffs, a teams must win something. Like a division title. Why give 6 also run teams a chance? They proved over a 162-game schedule to be inferior. Now, any of those 6 teams can get hot, win the world series. It’s not the best team, but the hottest that get into the world series. This is just me. My Braves finished in a tie with the NY Mets last season, each winning 101 games. I’d rather have a playoff game between them for the division title with the winner going directly to the NLCS as the division winner, the 1st place team. I think it’s the long history of baseball where only the 1st place team makes the playoffs that has me thinking the way I do. I can’t stand wildcards, they won nothing, they don’t deserve to be in the playoffs with a chance at winning the world series.
Amen. I absolutely do not disagree and I think this is consistent with my comments in my previous post. Mindblowing your tenure as a fan of this sport. I’ve disliked it my entire life, since failing at T-ball. And then came 2005 and one game I caught between the Stros and the Royals. There was something about that game that finally made me realize that the heart of the game was the epic battle between first: the pitcher and the batter; and second between the vast odds against the offense of the defense at the major league level of ever letting a ball get away. Wicked. Fabulously Wicked Sport. This overweighted ability of reg season losers getting hot to take the WS though is, I agree, lame AF
However, I don’t see this quite as what is happening this year. Biased, getting to see my Stros for the first time all year since my wife cutout Comcast cable and hence ATT Sportsnet. And it just wasn’t something I’ve had much time for these past two years anyway. But, I do see some value in calling for the reg season teams to keep kicking ass the distance into October. Otherwise maybe there is some bit of a lack of the level of excitement that seems to me to be there in the October games.
This debacle between the Rangers and the Oles, for example, not exactly a case of a slacker reg season team getting hot, as much as it may have been a case of a reg season giant running out of gas.
To show you how old I am, I remember the Giants in New York, the Dodgers in Brooklyn, the A’s in Kansas City prior to their move to Oakland, the Braves in Milwaukee and the old Washington Senators moving to Minnesota to become the Twins. Then the new expansion Washington Senators moving to Texas to become the Rangers. Back then it was listening to the games on radio. Only on Saturday with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese game of the week was I able to watch a major league baseball game. I also got to see the likes of Ted Williams, Willy Mays, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Stan Musial, Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson plus so many more all play. But on TV. Back in those days the all star game meant something, it wasn’t unusual to see players like I mentioned above play the whole game. I remember Pete Rose smashing into Ray Fosse at home plate during the 1970 all star game. It was very important game which was played to win, today the all star game is played to get all the players into the game. The world series was played during the day when in the afternoon teachers brough tv’s to school so we could watch the games. Baseball was king. Times change and so too has baseball. I never was able to attend a major league game until the Braves moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1966. But the Atlanta Crackers, a Southern League AA affiliate of the Braves played in Atlanta which I was able to go see a few games a year. I played High school baseball, then was drafted into the army in 1966, made the army a career retiring from active duty in 1986, then made the army a second career working for them as a Department of the army civilian and finally retired in 2012. I did play some baseball in the army, but they were company games.
Cannot believe this result. This sport. It's the best, it's the most horrid. I still have insane fear of the Stros repeating the WS 19 performance, but it's better than having lost tonight, as I fully expected this game to end 4-2 in Dallas's favor. Woo effing hoo, Rim Ram Rus! We're the best in baseball, And all the others suck... Apologies, just let me enjoy this evening, I like the Phillies too, but hope if we can clear Dallas, we'll whip their butts....
Well, I suppose I’ll have to support the Rangers now. I was thinking perhaps to go for the Phillies, but watching a multi-millionaire fail to come to the game with a serviceable glove kinda left me a bit cold.
Rough 12 months for Philly sports fans. Lose the 2022 World Series, Lose the Super Bowl, Lose Games 6 and 7 (including a Horrific Loss in Game 6 at Home) to the Celtics in NBA Playoffs, then the utterly embarrassing debacle in the 2023 NLCS. Rough 12 months for Philly sports fan.
Any predictions on World Series? Rangers with Home field advantage... Rangers Favored -170 DBacks Underdogs +150
Game 1 was pretty entertaining. Nice pace, good action throughout the game. Adolis Garcia is freaking on fire! Glad to see him be professional about another HBP and take his base like a boss. Clearly another intentional HBP, Umpires should have thrown Sewald out of the game and suspended him for two more? Oh, no, guess not since Garcia decided not to spark the drama. MLB has put its bogus finger on the Stros just about a few times too many for my tastes. But I suppose I'll skip my beef with it for the moment. Pretty sure the Rangers kicked my Stros butts without any help from MLB in games 6 & 7 of the ALCS as I doubt Bryan Abreu would have been able to reverse the losing streak the Stros have been on at home since at least the beginning of Sep. Nice to watch the rest of the Fall Classic without having a particular care who wins it - just looking for some great plays. Segar's throw to first, wow! That was just down right amazing. Lowe sets his glove on the dirt and Segar nailed it. Oooof!
