Unpopular Opinion - Goodbye 162 game Seasons

[OriolesMagic83]

26 minutes ago, Moshagge3 said:

I wonder what would happen if some President in the future decided to come out and say, "I don't care who wins the World Series, I'm inviting the team with the best regular season record to the White House." I would have to consider voting for whoever says this during the campaign.

I lost all interest in team's visits to the White House after it became a way to make a political statement. 

[osfan83]

I'm for anything that keeps my interest in Orioles baseball longer than Memorial Day. Put all 30 teams in the playoffs, at least I will have something to watch in July and August. 

Why not hand out multiple trophies?

- Best team in MLB during the regular season gets the Bob Gibson Trophy.

- Team that wins the post season playoff tournament earns the Reggie Jackson October Hero Trophy. 

[DrungoHazewood]

4 hours ago, osfan83 said:

I'm for anything that keeps my interest in Orioles baseball longer than Memorial Day. Put all 30 teams in the playoffs, at least I will have something to watch in July and August. 

Why not hand out multiple trophies?

- Best team in MLB during the regular season gets the Bob Gibson Trophy.

- Team that wins the post season playoff tournament earns the Reggie Jackson October Hero Trophy. 

I don't know how you could do this 150 years into pro baseball, but having more than one thing to play for is a crucial thing.  North American sports are almost forced into a situation where many teams can secure playoff spots because there is only one trophy anyone cares about.  If you don't have multiple things to play for and you have just two, or a very small number, of playoff teams then you get situations like the old St. Louis Browns who'd be essentially eliminated on May 7th every season and 350,000 would pay to watch them the whole year.

Or the Orioles.  A modern team in a beautiful ballpark and 5700 people show up to a home game because (shh!) there's nothing to play for.  Yea, yea, love of the game, next year's contract, blah, blah, blah. 

I know you guys just love when I bring up soccer, but in most leagues there's the Championship.  Then there's the open cup, where every team from that league's Yankees on down to semi-pro teams can (in theory) win it, and sometimes the 20th-best team in the league actually wins it.  There are English teams who've won the FA cup the same year they were relegated to the 2nd division.  Most leagues also have some other cup competition, like the League Cup.  And then there's club competitions like Champions League or the Europa League.  Then there's national teams to root for with many of your favorite club team players.  And promotion-relegation battles where even 20th place teams can have 50,000 fans show up the last day of the season in a game that decides if they get to stay in the big league.

But not in our sports.  You win it all or you're nothing, which means it's glaringly obvious that you're nothing a small fraction of the way into the season for many teams.

If I were MLB I'd shorten the regular season to 130 games and have a club competition with all the teams from Japan and Korea.

[osfan83]

13 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I don't know how you could do this 150 years into pro baseball, but having more than one thing to play for is a crucial thing.  North American sports are almost forced into a situation where many teams can secure playoff spots because there is only one trophy anyone cares about.  If you don't have multiple things to play for and you have just two, or a very small number, of playoff teams then you get situations like the old St. Louis Browns who'd be essentially eliminated on May 7th every season and 350,000 would pay to watch them the whole year.

Or the Orioles.  A modern team in a beautiful ballpark and 5700 people show up to a home game because (shh!) there's nothing to play for.  Yea, yea, love of the game, next year's contract, blah, blah, blah. 

I know you guys just love when I bring up soccer, but in most leagues there's the Championship.  Then there's the open cup, where every team from that league's Yankees on down to semi-pro teams can (in theory) win it, and sometimes the 20th-best team in the league actually wins it.  There are English teams who've won the FA cup the same year they were relegated to the 2nd division.  Most leagues also have some other cup competition, like the League Cup.  And then there's club competitions like Champions League or the Europa League.  Then there's national teams to root for with many of your favorite club team players.  And promotion-relegation battles where even 20th place teams can have 50,000 fans show up the last day of the season in a game that decides if they get to stay in the big league.

But not in our sports.  You win it all or you're nothing, which means it's glaringly obvious that you're nothing a small fraction of the way into the season for many teams.

If I were MLB I'd shorten the regular season to 130 games and have a club competition with all the teams from Japan and Korea.

Exactly what I was thinking. I've recently started following the Premiere League the last 5 years (Liverpool), and have grown to appreciate the multiple tournaments, battle for placement into the Champions League, and fight to stay away from relegation. The MLB sorely needs this. I love the Orioles, and have followed baseball closely since 1970, but really have a hard time caring when we are 15 games out on May 23rd.   

[MikeAD]

I would be more than ok with 100 games, 50 home, 50 away, expand the playoffs and call it a day.  I am also for game clocks, pitch clocks and anything that gets fewer, quicker, more fun games.   The alternative is no baseball which we are much closer to than most "traditional" fans will admit.  If I am an owner, I want 50 much better attended games, than 81 nearly empty games.  Tie player salary to seasons and not games and call it a day.  Players dont want to play more games, they just want full pay.  

[Oriole1940]

23 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I don't know how you could do this 150 years into pro baseball, but having more than one thing to play for is a crucial thing.  North American sports are almost forced into a situation where many teams can secure playoff spots because there is only one trophy anyone cares about.  If you don't have multiple things to play for and you have just two, or a very small number, of playoff teams then you get situations like the old St. Louis Browns who'd be essentially eliminated on May 7th am in a beautiful ballpark and 5700 people show up to a home game because (shh!) there's nothing to play for.  Yea, yea, love of the game, next year's contract, blah, blah, blah. 

I know you guys just love when I bring up soccer, but in most leagues there's the Championship.  Then there's the open cup, where every team from that league's Yankees on down to semi-pro teams can (in theory) win it, and sometimes the 20th-best team in the league actually wins it.  There are English teams who've won the FA cup the same year they were relegated to the 2nd division.  Most leagues also have some other cup competition, like the League Cup.  And then there's club competitions like Champions League or the Europa League.  Then there's national teams to root for with many of your favorite club team players.  And promotion-relegation battles where even 20th place teams can have 50,000 fans show up the last day of the season in a game that decides if they get to stay in the big league.

But not in our sports.  You win it all or you're nothing, which means it's glaringly obvious that you're nothing a small fraction of the way into the season for many teams.

If I were MLB I'd shorten the regular season to 130 games and have a club competition with all the teams from Japan and Korea.

 

[Oriole1940]

As I was one of the 350,000 or whatever who attended Browns games, there was something to play for every so often.  For example, to beat the D... Yankees is one that comes to mind.  It was a more peaceful time in America, as most were not walking around with a chip on their shoulder. There was so many fewer places to put the Sports Dollar, that even to  watch a talent deprived team was a good way to spend a few hours, and August Busch always saw to it there was plenty beer to wipe the losses away from memory, for at least a while.  And it could get interesting as one game I attended as a small child with my Uncle,  when he celebrated a bit much and ended up losing his coat.  He said it was worth it as the Browns beat the Yankees that day.  Fun at the old ball park.

[Moshagge3]

MLB's vision of how a 14-team playoff system would look is absolutely terrible. If they gave byes to the league division winners and the other four teams did a single-game elimination tournament to advance to the division series, it would be stupid, but not too objectionable. But MLB only wants to give one bye? So if two teams in different divisions finish tied for the best record with 102 wins, one team gets a bye based on head-to-head record or something, and the other team has to play a best-of-three crapshoot against a .500 team? And their pitching isn't lined up because they were going for the bye until the very end of the season, while the .500 team can send their ace to the mound? Woof. The "ghost win" idea sounded silly on its face, but it would do its job in this case.
 

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

154 long overdue. Frustrating. 

[ExileAngelos]

They could actually expand the regular season to create more revenue by playing a bunch or separate gate 7 inning double headers.  Could also apply these double headers to the postseason to fit in more games and more playoff teams and more revenue.  If the game is tied after 9 innings the winner is determined a 10 minute per side home run derby.