MLB Playoffs

Thanks for the political info, guys. Same with you, Dyed. Shows how much I know. Believe me, I hope it isn't a red state. I've got a friend who lives in Springfield, Mo., and it doesn't get much redder than that. Hope that changes. Especially for this election.

 

If your friend were to move 30 minutes west to say Kansas, it would get much redder than that.

 

C'mon Spnited, lame jokes about your age are timeless.

Kinda of like ... I dunno ... you!

 

Come on now Oz, you can't try and give a rational explanation as to why the Tigers and the AL Central are choking away the World Series. All we've heard all season from the AL Central fans is how great the division is and how every other division in baseball is overrated, so I think in fact this is a choke.
As a Yankees fan I am actually rooting for the NL - even though I despise LaRussa - and I am not doing it because the Tigers beat the Yankees. Normally I would root for the AL as long as it was anyone but the Red Sox or the Mariners, but after reading on this board for six months about how great the AL Central is, nothing would amuse me more than the AL Central blowing the World Series they were heavily favored and almost universally predicted to sweep.

 

Not so much giving a rational explanation for the Tigers as I am the Cardinals. And let's be honest here, all season you've heard how great the AL Central is because people bagged on the AL Central from start to finish. Self-defense there.

I forget who it was, but someone here commented that the Yankees would miss the playoffs because of the Royals. The reason? Those mediocre AL Central teams would beat up on the Royals all season, fatten their win totals and advance to the playoffs while the Yankees -- supposedly in the toughest division in baseball -- would miss out. Nevermind that the worst team in the bigs this year came from the AL East and that the Royals took the season series from Boston, despite six of the games being at Fenway.

So please excuse us AL Central types for talking loud the moment Detroit smashed the Yankees and A's. We hoped to see something like that, given how East Coast SportsJournalists.com bagged on the division from start to finish.

 

Fair enough. And you are right the AL East wasn't as good in the end as it had been in year's past, maybe I just get excessively defensive because A) I am a Yankees fan and B) I am not part of the East Coast SportsJournalists.com group. I am a Yankees fan from the Southwest via the Northwest.

 

No problem, Angola. And I'm still hoping for the Tigers to rebound, not so much for AL Central reasons, but because I do fear the wrath of Cardinals fans everywhere. As a Royals fan, that would be intolerable.

 

Any of you non-Red Sox or Yankees fans that is good/likes Poker should sign up for this and win it and then SportsJournalists.com will rule supreme.

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?showtopic=12349

 

Someone at work said this was the best baseball game he ever saw. I asked the dude when he started watching baseball.

This postseason has been a complete fizz. I have watched all or parts of all 28 games, and only two of them have been the least bit compelling. Worst postseason I can remember.

 

I'm with you, though I haven't seen that many of the games live because of work, but the only games I have enjoyed as a fan was Game 1 of the Yankees series - for obvious reasons. And the only game I have enjoyed as a baseball fan was Game 7 and even then it was only because I love baseball. It wasn't all that compelling until the Mets left the bases loaded in the sixth or whatever it was.
I have watched the World Series, just because it is the World Series, but if I am just some average idiot on the street - which I recognize is highly possible - I could give a shit about this series.

 

Because I was bored -- well, and because I never get tired of it -- I popped in my Official 1991 WS videocassette.

And while I realize comparing this World Serious to that one is like comparing a Scoop Jackson column to the Gettysburg Address, it just amplifies how bad this postseason has been in terms of even halfway-decent games. Hell, the '91 NLCS was better than this WS -- and who the fuck remembers the '91 NLCS? (Well, except me. Avery with ice water in his veins. ;D)

I've watched every game in this postseason -- as I always do. The World Serious is not over, of course, but right now Kenny Rogers' smudge is the only defining moment. That doesn't even put it in the top 80 postseasons of all time. It's just below the 1979 postseason, which at least had a theme song to give it some flair. And just ahead of 1943, which was decimated by war.

 

The team that's scored the first run has won all three games. That makes for dull baseball.
Oh, yes, one more thing. Since MLB went to the third round of playoffs in 1995, this is the 12th World Series. Only one of them, 2001 has been memorable except to the fans of the teams involved. And even then... I mean, it's pretty bad when winning the World Series is sort of an afterthought for RED SOX fans.
Three rounds of playoffs, a maximum of 19 games, is just too many, The post-season becomes too much like the regular season. Avoiding that is one reason the NFL has a two-week interval before the Super Bowl. If for no other reason, fans who diligently watch October baseball as Tommy Lasorda demands and who live in the Eastern time zone are seriously sleep deprived by World Series time. Baseball butnout. Catch it.
There should be 4 divisions of 7-8 teams each, four winners, two 7-game post-season series. This will never happen, since it would involve temporary revenue loss in pursuit of future gains. That's the one real taboo in American society.