Originally Posted by
Olympic Fan
As a hard-core, old-time baseball fan, I'm constantly amazed by what fans like and what they don't like as the powers that be tweak the game.
Personally, I HATE interleague play, which destroys the uniqueness of the World Series. I have no problem with the designated hitter, which is a very old idea (first proposed in the 19th Century). Yeah, it negates certain in-game strategies, but it also creates new, long-term strategies.
But there is NOTHING I hate more than the wild cards and the expanded playoffs. I've heard the argument that it allows more teams in the playoff hunt at the end of the season, but, hell, if that's your goal, just expand to a 16-team playoff like the NBA and NHL -- think of all the teams that will be in the mix at the end!
Baseball is different. In football, the best team is going to win 90 percent of the time. In basketball, the best team wins 75-80 percent of the time. In baseball, the best team usually wins less than 67 percent of the time.
The point is that the best teams are at a disadvantage over a short series. Just by chance, a weaker team is going to win a fair share of 5 and 7 game series. For more than a century, baseball determined its best two teams over the course of the long season, then let them play off in a short 7-game series. True, that sometimes led to so fluke world champions, but with the leagues seperate you could never know whether the Dodgers victory over the A's or the White Sox over the Cubs in 1906 was a real upset or a reflection of the two leagues.
Ah well, I know I'm spitting in the wind here. As far as moving a team (the Astros) to the American League, what does it matter? The two leagues are so intertwined now and schedules are so convoluted that it makes little difference.
Indeed, the designated hitter is just about the last difference left between the two leagues.