oblong

So what's the solution? It's sports. Lower seeded teams beat higher seeded teams all the time. It's why they play rather than just hand out post season awards. I don't see a problem here to be solved. LA got to rest their team and start their stud for game 1, just like Houston did with Verlander. Kershaw got bombed. Verlander didn't. That's how sports works. Underdogs used to be a good story. Now people are whining.

I wonder if that's how everyone felt when the Tigers were beating the Yankees in the playoffs...

The Braves take the lead so I guess the format is ok now. Baseball twitter can calm down now.

That’s it?

Every format change to the playoffs has been done to address alleged problems. Should we give higher seeds an extra runner on base like we do in extras? They are losing games to teams that are also pretty good.

I like the idea of first and second halves. Teams that are in first at the ASB get in. Details can be worked out but the overall concept would be fun

I wonder if the responsibilities are different? Maybe as the PBP guy Mario does other things like narration or PR visits or hosting events. Could even be things like reading promotions during the game. While Rod can take a breather or use the restroom Mario has to read copy. The PBP person drives the events while color guy reacts. Just spitballing.

I guess I would add that when it comes to days off and rewarding clubs for better records I will defer to the players and owners. if that's how they want it then so be it. What do I care? I shed no tears for Baltimore, I have no animosity but it's not my team and as a viewer I want enjoyable games to watch and I especially like it when there's 3-4 games a day to watch. When it's an afternoon game even better.

but on the flip side Verlander shut them down pretty good in game 1 and if he stayed in the game it could have been a shutout.

wow.

Locally for me and in Hamtramck you have large Muslim/Arab populations that formed a kinship with MAGA and the right wingers over banning books and anti gay stuff. They will learn soon how friendly they really are when it comes to Israel and middle east policies. The local commentary is very different from the national commentary.

that goes back to the AL and NL being different entities moreso than now. You had AL offices, NL offices, AL Umpires, NL umpires. The teams didn't play each other during the season. Player movement wasn't like it was today. In that sense it was unique. Now the leagues are just words rather than units with any meaning. They could be called conferences for all we care. It would be an interesting study to see how that evolved over time, at what point did they join up and what made up each connection? Could the American League add a team without the National League's approval for example? Or make their own rules? Outside of the NFL though no other league goes through this effort to reward teams for regular season sucess other than seeding. Everyone just got split up a certain way and that's how it was. The NHL did away with the Wales/Campbell conference designations. The NFL just took on the AFL and made it "American Conference" to pretend there was a difference.

How much would a guy who does just national games thorughout the year make annually? Is it worth the daily grind of doing the same work for a team? Do they make mid six figures? 10K a game? I wonder how that works.

I just dont see it as a problem that needs fixing. If we need to protect the higher seed teams then just cancel the playoffs and award championships by record, which will never happen obviously. Byes make sense in football because it's a physical game and there's also lots of studying and planning that goes on. The body can heal during that time. I guess if there is a problem to be solved it's baseball's own doing by expanding the rounds, being beholden to TV considerations, and trying to squeeze the added playoffs between a 4 week window when you have to allow for time to settle tiebreakers and days off for travel. All of that has nothing to do with the teams or the players and their abilities, it's financial. "Let's make it exciting by having sudden death" gets cancelled by "Well it's not fair to have an all or nothing game and we want to introduce another team into the playoffs anyway" "Let's give the top two division winners a bye" gets cancelled by "well they are rusty now" "Let's make every round best of 7" gets cancelled by "there's not enough time to fit it all in before Thanksgiving" "Let's give the higher seed all the home games early on" gets cancelled by "The owners wants games in the other team's ballpark"

It's baseball and is there really a difference in teams that win 90 games and those that win 99? They are all good teams and it's a cliche but anybody can beat anybody 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5. The road teams are 9-5 this postseason.

This org wants former players involved. It’s part of the marketing strategy. They keep hoping for the next Mickey Redmond.

My son was born on November 4 in 2003 and it was 74 degrees. I also remember having his family birthday party outside in 2020 because of COVID because it was in the 70s.

how do you define success? I bet with 30 clubs there's 8 answers.

yes I did notice. I liked it. Traditional teams like the Cards, Yankes, Sox, and Tigers should stick to theirs but I dont' mind the newer teams mixing it up. I love the Tigres jerseys though. They are beautiful. I would refer that style, with Tigers I guess, over the current home uniforms.

Do these knuckleheads like Baseball Dan and Ari Fleischer really believe the dems should have helped? Or are they just trying to parrot the company line. Democrats dont want a GOP sppeaker. When presented with a chance to get rid of one then they should act. THe same would hold true with Republicans.

The uniforms, or "fit" as the kids say today, has been a small bright spot for me. Makes me hate the new Tigers home uniforms even more.

Mario was a pro in the sense that he could easily go do a basketball game the next night and not miss a beat. You didnt notice him. Which to some could be a plus. On TV though you don't really need someone to always tell you the action as you can see it, of course the flip to that is a lot of people today watch TV by "having it on while playing on their phone or reading a book". But in that scenario do you need to hear everything? Banter with your PBP is important. That's why the players only broadcasts didn't bother me. SOmething different

Now that Rod has a job I think it’s possible Mario came back. Slim but possible. If they brought him back and not Rod then they open themselves up to a lawsuit I believe. And throw in the race angle. Just not worth the hassle and both were at fault even if one was more at fault. In that situation you just move on.