5 Game Opening Round

[Birds08]

Does anyone else find this completely ridiculous? 162 games followed by a best of 5 series. Sports with 82 games have 7 game first rounds, so I see no reason baseball shouldn't change it.

[whatdoiget000]

So the Cubs could be eliminated today?

[Migrant Redbird]

I see a very good reason. Baseball and cold weather don't work very well together. The current round of 2 playoffs just to get to the World Series often leaves the "fall classic" being played in conditions which are far to close to being winter. Adding 2 games to the division championship series only exacerbates the problem.

I don't see any good solution.

(1) Shorten the series. They're already short enough.

(2) Shorten the season. Teams aren't willing to sacrifice the revenue.

(3) Build more domes or removable tops on Northern stadiums. Ugh! Not to mention the expense.

(4) Move the playoffs to neutral Southern sites. Double Ugh!!

[Big Mac]

I see a very good reason. Baseball and cold weather don't work very well together. The current round of 2 playoffs just to get to the World Series often leaves the "fall classic" being played in conditions which are far to close to being winter. Adding 2 games to the division championship series only exacerbates the problem.

I don't see any good solution.

(1) Shorten the series. They're already short enough.

(2) Shorten the season. Teams aren't willing to sacrifice the revenue.

(3) Build more domes or removable tops on Northern stadiums. Ugh! Not to mention the expense.

(4) Move the playoffs to neutral Southern sites. Double Ugh!!

Why not just start the season a week or so earlier?

[Birds08]

I see a very good reason. Baseball and cold weather don't work very well together. The current round of 2 playoffs just to get to the World Series often leaves the "fall classic" being played in conditions which are far to close to being winter. Adding 2 games to the division championship series only exacerbates the problem.

I don't see any good solution.

(1) Shorten the series. They're already short enough.

(2) Shorten the season. Teams aren't willing to sacrifice the revenue.

(3) Build more domes or removable tops on Northern stadiums. Ugh! Not to mention the expense.

(4) Move the playoffs to neutral Southern sites. Double Ugh!!

Your point is well taken, but adding two games to the first round would at most add 3 days. I don't think 3 days makes a difference with regards to weather.

[Crazysilver03]

Why not just start the season a week or so earlier?

Well next season the whole season starts a week later because of the WBC, so our last home game isnt until Oct 4th.

[SpringBarb]

I'm fine with the 5 games, honestly, but it would also help if they showed some flexibility and played the postseason more like the regular season and had fewer days off. I mean, we know today who's going to the NLCS (and may also know the ALCS!), but it doesn't start until Thursday. That's just crazy! And the ALCS won't start until Friday! I realize that tv schedules, etc., need to be kept in mind, but we could bump this postseason up almost a week.

[getxstoked]

Why not just start the season a week or so earlier?

Have you ever been to Chicago in late March?

Yeah, that's why.

[Crazysilver03]

Have you ever been to Chicago in late March?

Yeah, that's why.

Yeah, well the easiest thing to do is have Northern at Southern or Western teams to start the first week of the season.

[Migrant Redbird]

Yeah, well the easiest thing to do is have Northern at Southern or Western teams to start the first week of the season.

The schedule makers try to do some of that, but there will always be mid or late April winter storms in the Northern part of the country. They can't have the Northern teams spend the whole month of April on the road.

[Migrant Redbird]

Yeah I totally agree with the original post. It's actually ridiculous in my eyes.

NBA plays a beast a 7 when 16 teams get in and they play 82 games. Baseball plays 162 game seasons, with a one game tiebreaker and a 5 game first round.

The NBA plays all of their games indoors, and they have a much shorter regular season, so it's not at all comparable.

The excuses for why they can't extend it are so lame IMO.

The weather excuse is terrible...

You're entitled to your opinion, regardless of how "lame" it is.

... Does the atmosphere change from April 1st to the end of the WS just to accomodate baseball?

Huh? Did you have a point?

Is a game March 26th in Chicago really much different than April 1st? Really?

If you want to look at the average temperatures and record lows for Chicago, you'll observe that there's a relatively steep curve in average temperature around March 31st and a pretty significant jump in the record lows between March 26th (10 degrees) and April 1st (19 degrees).

If you look at snowfall frequency for Chicago, you will see that it also has a very sharp decline around April 1st.

So, statistically, pushing opening day back just a week in Chicago would significantly increase the number of games which need to be postponed due to snow and increase the number of games played under miserably cold conditions.

Revenue thing is BS as well. Take out 3 off days throught the year if the revenue means that much.

The everyday position players and the relievers value their off days, especially those players like Ripken and Tejada who are trying to put together "iron man" streaks. The Players Association would be up in arms if the schedule makers tried to eliminate too many of those.

Starters would probably love to eliminate more off days, so that their routines could be more consistent.

If it did why do some games go unplayed at the end of the year if they don't count?

(1) Most of the tickets are already sold if a game is rained out, so the teams already have that revenue in their pockets, except the walk up sales.

(2) The teams would derive very little additional revenue from a makeup game, if it was not germane to the standings. I doubt if the additional revenue would be enough to offset the costs for travel and for stadium operations.

Add in a scheduled double-header every month. It's not that hard to think of a way to add in 4 extra days to accomodate a 7 game series.

Teams don't like double headers because they either lose revenue for the game or have to worry about selling tickets for 2 games on the same day and clearing out the stands between the games.

Managers hate double headers because it can royally screw up their pitching rotations and exacerbate the problems with an over tasked bullpen. When the Cardinals played a double header against the Nats on June 5th, the rookie starter was left in the game even after surrendering 8 runs early, until he reached his pitch count. On two occasions on June 5th, La Russa let his pitchers hit with runners in scoring position and 2 out, just so that he could get another inning from his pitchers. (One doubled; the other homered in his first ML and 4th professional at bat, but that's a fluke.) Despite that, La Russa ended up using 3 of his relievers in both games. The walk off home run in a tie game was hit off the guy who got the save in the first game.

And, aside from Ernie Banks, most players hate double headers. Ernie would have hated them too, if teams back in his day scheduled a couple hours or more between the games, so that they could clear out the ball parks between games and collect admission for the second game.

[byrdz]

Yes, I do.

Someone said have you ever been to Chicago in late March?

Is there a magic button that is pushed between late March and April 1st that changes the weather from not playable to playable?

There is not a difference between March 25th and April 1st in any city other than chance and luck.

I think the point is that it's already on the cool side in the windy city in April. Bumping it back into May will just subtract another 10 degrees or so putting them into the range of mid-30's to mid-40's, average of 37F. That's without wind chill factor which they have plenty of.

[hammer310]

Yeah I totally agree with the original post. It's actually ridiculous in my eyes.

NBA plays a beast a 7 when 16 teams get in and they play 82 games. Baseball plays 162 game seasons, with a one game tiebreaker and a 5 game first round.

The excuses for why they can't extend it are so lame IMO.

The weather excuse is terrible...Does the atmosphere change from April 1st to the end of the WS just to accomodate baseball? Is a game March 26th in Chicago really much different than April 1st? Really?

Revenue thing is BS as well. Take out 3 off days throught the year if the revenue means that much. If it did why do some games go unplayed at the end of the year if they don't count?

Add in a scheduled double-header every month. It's not that hard to think of a way to add in 4 extra days to accomodate a 7 game series.

Good post man, I agree.

Who the heck cares if they are playing in colder weather, it affects both teams anyway. There is no way that a Mid October game will be any different than a late October game.

There is no reason why they cant start the season early (except this year for the WBC).

5 games to decide your playoff hope after playing 162 games in a long long season is ridiculous.

[Odenton O]

NBA plays a beast a 7 when 16 teams get in and they play 82 games. Baseball plays 162 game seasons, with a one game tiebreaker and a 5 game first round.

The NBA playoffs go on for entirely too long as it is. They're the last thing we should model MLB playoffs after.

[Sports Guy]

Whether you lose in 5 games or 7 games, it is still a small sample size and doesn't reflect who the best team is.