coolhandluke121 wrote:Worst. Ratings. Ever.
I'm not even sure why I'm happy, but maybe I just enjoy seeing Manfred squirm under the pressure. I'm definitely feeling some type of way about how much less important the regular season has become. And yes, I do realize the playoffs have always been a crapshoot, but getting there wasn't.
It was definitely a meh capper to a good rebound season for MLB. I generally don’t like **** on WS with smaller market and/or non blue blood teams b/c I’m a fan of one that is both. If it were Brewers vs Rangers likely is the same or worse ratings.
I do get the playoff thing though. The format does seem to favor lesser seeds. But I dont know the fix. I like having multiple wild cards and it keeps the season interesting for more teams. The byes seem to not matter but do you make the wild card more of a gauntlet? I think Bob Costas mid season threw out an idea of having Wild Card 5 vs 6 in a 1 game playoff. Winner plays Wild Card 4 in a best of 3. And then the 1 seed can pick playing Wild Card winner or 3rd Division winner. From there its best of 5 in Divisional Round and Best of 7 rest of the way. That wouldn’t alleviate a playing gap but only 1 team in each league would be playing straight through. And then all the division winners get a bye. I don’t know if that is perfect either. I dont ever see them having less teams in the playoffs.
In the end, if letting in 6 teams there is going to always be chance the best teams don’t make it through. So maybe no other idea would be better since they’re never going back to 2-4 teams making it. The problem ratings wise is everyone loves upsets/blue bloods losing until its non sexy Final and everyone is indifferent to the teams. Its like the NCAA tournament. Upsets are great early on until its an Ole Miss, Oregon, Northern Iowa, Purdue final four.
