I don’t know about you, but there are certain things in life that I just don’t understand. I would consider myself a big fan of logic, which is why I just don’t get major league baseball’s playoff system! First off, I applaud baseball for only allowing 8 teams into the post season. I would think that the reason for being so selective in the amount of teams you allow into the post season is to magnify the importance of the regular season. This obviously isn’t as high of a priority to sports such as basketball and hockey, which let over fifty percent of their teams into the playoffs. But here’s my question: Why not just seed the teams in the order of best record to worst? This would seem to ensure that the top teams are rewarded for their work over a 162 game season, and also make sure that they aren’t forced to play a higher quality opponent than they should otherwise be matched up against. Seems simple, doesn’t it? But no. Apparently it would be way too damaging to the game to have two teams from the same division face off in the 1st round. Unfortunately, when there are only 4 playoff teams in your league to begin with, this doesn’t leave you with many other options as far as the matchups go.
What drives me even crazier is that in the early stages of the wild card, I don’t even know if they had a system in place! Take 1995 in the American League as an example. The Indians had by far the best record in the game. Next came the Red Sox, Yankees (as the wild card team), and the Mariners who won the West. Ok, so I understand that if the best team played the worst team, then the Yankees would play the Red Sox in round 1. Fine, lets eliminate that and make it so the Indians play the wild card team, the Yankees, who had the 3rd best record, and then the 2nd seeded Rex Sox can play Seattle who finished with the worst record. Well apparently that was too easy. Instead the Indians played the Red Sox, who finished a full seven games ahead of the Yankees but apparently still didn’t deserve home field advantage in the first round, and the Mariners hosted the Yankees. If anyone can find logic in that, please let me know. But enough about baseballs stupidity, I don’t want to be here all day. The fact is, I’ve always wondered if the way baseball chose its matchups actually had any affect on who would eventually win the World Series. Would we have seen a different champion crowned if baseball simply seeded the teams, 1 through 4 in each league, and didn’t worry about which division the wild card came from? Well, maybe its not too late.
Let’s start with the years that were not affected. The 1995 playoffs would have seen different matchups in the first round and ultimately in the ALCS, but in the end the Braves and Indians would face off for the championship, with the Braves coming out on top. 1998 and 2001 would be totally unaffected (this happened because the wild card team resided in the same division as the team with the best record, but the wild card team had the second or third best record overall). And thank God for that, because the 2001 World Series was one for the ages. The last three years (2003-’05) would also be mostly unchanged, with the exception the 2004 National League matchups. The Astros would be forced to play the Cardinals in the first round, and the Braves would play the Dodgers, thus the Astros would go home one round early and the Braves would make it to another NLCS, ultimately losing to the Cards. In the end, the Red Sox break the curse against St Louis. That leaves 5 seasons in which the “new format” provides us with a strong possibility that a different champion is crowned.
Let’s start with 1996. The American League would play out in the same fashion, with the Yankees defeating Baltimore 4 games to 1 in the ALCS. However, there would be a shakeup in the NL playoffs, when the Braves would matchup with the Cardinals in the first round, and division foes San Diego and Los Angeles, the 2nd and 3rd seeds respectively, would also go head to head. In the first matchup, the Braves would also fall behind 3 games to 1 (just as they did in their NLCS matchup with the Cardinals), except this time they wouldn’t have time to win the next three, because the 5-game series would be over. The Padres would take care of the Dodgers in 4 games, but fail to take more than 1 game from the Cardinals, who would win the NLCL 4 games to 1. This would leave us with a matchup featuring arguably the two most storied franchises in baseball history. This time there would be no one named Mark Wohlers on the opposing pitching staff to give up a big home run to the Yankees in game 4, and the Cardinals would defeat the Yankees 4 games to 1.
Next we have 1997. Instead of the Mariners getting an early matchup against the #1 seeded Orioles, they would play the Yankees in round one. And just like 1995, it would be a classic 5-game series, with the Mariners again coming out on top. The Indians would still manage to get past the Orioles, this time in round 1, but would lose in six games to the Mariners, who dominated them in the regular season taking 8 of the 11 games. Their opponent would be the Florida Marlins, whose path to the World Series was unchanged by the new seeding. However, the Marlins were unable to solve the brilliance of Randy Johnson, who would win 3 games, including the decisive game 7, and collect the first of his two career World Series MVP awards. Call me crazy, but with a championship under their belt, perhaps Griffey Jr, Arod, and Randy would all have stuck around for a few more years instead of all eventually going elsewhere.
