First of all, let’s just admit this is Wag The Dog to get you to stop talking about CHEATGATE and this won’t actually happen. But since it’s even being “considered” (that old Sandy Alderson gem of a word) let’s take a look.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post reportsthat Major League Baseball is planning radical changes to the playoffs to begin in 2022. The changes, summarized:
- Seven playoff teams in each league, up from five
- Team with best record in each league gets first-round bye
- Two division winners and three wild card teams play best-of-three series
- Division winner with second-best record gets to pick first-round opponent from three wild cards
- Division winner with third-best record gets to pick first-round opponent afterwards
MLB would host a reality TV-esque show on the Sunday night of the day the regular season ends in which teams select their playoff opponents. Sherman likens it to the NCAA selection show.
No. Just die already.
The sport has terrible custodians, and once the Truth About Math reveals the dirty secret of 2019 that you are very very afraid to confront Mets fans, it is going to get very ugly.
Oh and don’t forget how there has been rampant CHEATING.
Meanwhile, fun with numbers…
ESPN’s two XFL games over the weekend averaged 2.9 million viewers.
* Sunday’s St. Louis-Dallas game averaged 2,495,000 viewers (and pulled a 7.4 rating in St. Louis.
* Saturday’s Seattle-DC game averaged 3.303 million viewers.— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) February 10, 2020
…which compares nicely with
The league collectively averaged 3.04 million viewers per game during the Division Series round for 18 total contests aired on TBS, FS1, and the MLB Network. The figure is down from 3.2 million viewers per game last year, despite four fewer games being played in the 2018 Division Series round. (via Sport Business.com)
So I guess MLB is hoping that their playoffs are as popular as XFL 2.0.
Just die baseball. You had a nice run, but it’s time to go.
