Am I the only one that HATES the best-of-5 in baseball?

by Kingsrule41

Well, to be perfectly honest, I hate the best-of-5, period.

But in baseball??

I'm not a Yankees fan. I actually have no allegiance to any one baseball team. I just love the game.

Which is why the best-of-5 infuriates me so.

The sport is a marathon. Teams must endure 162 games a season. Critics argue that it is not a physical game/contact sport and thus it is somehow less impressive what these guys do. I say that is ridiculous.

Not only is it by far the longest schedule in sports, but with only 8 playoff spots up for grabs, every single game matters! Unlike in hockey and basketball where half the teams in the league make the playoffs, with only 8 spots available, it takes consistently good baseball all year to win a division or grab that one wild card spot.

So you somehow are one of the 8 teams to make it to the playoffs. You have done so by overcoming slumps and injuries and all other obstacles in your way. 162 games later.

And now your entire season rests on a best of FIVE?

3 losses and you are done?

Lose 2 games in a row and you are all but completely done for.

In a sport where depth at every position is so important, lets give a serious advantage to top-heavy pitching staffs! Two teams with equal offense, one has 2 aces, the other has 4 well rounded 12 - 15 game winners. Who is winning the best of 5? Who is winning the best of 7?

The 7 game series would actually be interesting.

It is completely absurd to me to have the first round of the playoffs decided this way. Cut spring training a bit shorter and start the season a few days earlier, or take 2 - 4 games off of the regular season schedule if time constraints are the issue, and let the best damn team win in the right format; a best of 7.

WoodsmeisterVarsity Captain

764 days ago

Score 3

We can't start the season earlier in Cleveland, Boston, New York, Detroit - cold weather cities. As it is now, many would say that spring training is barely long enough now to get starting pitchers ready for the regular season.

Teams also need the revenues provided for by the full 162 games to pay the ridiculous player salaries they keep offering the players. The fact that there is no revenue sharing means that cutting those "extra" games is a huge revenue drain on small market teams that depend on attendance rather than huge TV contracts.

I like the idea, but your solutions are impractical in today's environment.

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TylersaltAll-Star

764 days ago

Score 0

There actually is revenue sharing.

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WoodsmeisterVarsity Captain

764 days ago

Score 2

Not as it's practiced in the other leagues. Until everyone gets a piece of the Yankees TV contract, I reserve the right to consider what MLB does not to be revenue sharing.

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

764 days ago

Score 5

The thing about the 5 game series is that nobody has ever been able to properly justify it's existence. Why 5 games, then 7?

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Dcsundevil2002Div-I Stud

764 days ago

Score 0

If these teams are the cream of teh crop, they should be able to hold off from losing three straight. Hell, even that poor team, the Yankees, avoided getting swept this post season. These guys are pros, they should be able to do their thang night after night.

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LASportsblogAAA-er

764 days ago

Score 2

I agree that 5 game series are dumb in a sport that is all about 'winning over the long haul'. The format is much better in basketball where the 7-game first round series is like death to me.

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TheSportsFanaticWaterboy

764 days ago

Score 0

You can say the 7-game series death in basketball again. After the first round, I don't care anymore about the rest of the playoffs.

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Simms1156Div-I Stud

764 days ago

Score 1

What is the big deal if the season ends 4 days later? All you need is at most 2 more games, its not like your pushing back the end of the season by 2 weeks.

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KelsdadAll-Star

764 days ago

Score 0

Spring Training is too long. Players don't need four weeks of exhibition games. It's all about the $$$, in the old days, Sunday or holiday doubleheaders allowed the season to be condensed by a week or so and still gave teams ample time for travel, etc. Start the season by April 10th and no reason why it cant end by Oct 1st. And, it's the extra round of playoffs that's the problem, not the regular season.

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WoodsmeisterVarsity Captain

764 days ago

Score 2

I will reiterate - each team needs 81 gates to maximize revenues to pay for the insane salaries in baseball. So no planned one gate/two game doubleheaders. The players union pretty much only approves day/night doubleheaders as make up games. The lack of doubleheaders means that we can't condense the season any more than it is.

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Bberg11Varsity

764 days ago

Score 0

I don't like the 5 game series either. The whole season is made up of 3 game series, so it doesn't seen proportionate to have the first round be 5 games. I know it's not real practical to do two 7 game series plus the World Series, but I'd rather see it that way. I also hate a one game tiebreaker game. There's too much luck in baseball to pin one team's playoff hopes on one game. That's why they play series all year.

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Davis21wylieMVP

764 days ago

Score -1

Look, I'd like to see everything go old school -- 2 divisions per league, and after 162 games, have only the division-winners advance to the LCS. The wild-card round has done some serious damage to the legitimacy of the postseason; it undermines everything that's great about the 162-game schedule when a team can get in without even winning their division, get hot for a month, and come away with the most prestigious championship in sports.

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Davis21wylieMVP

764 days ago

Score 1

And, yes, I say that fully aware of the fact that we would not have won in 2004 without the wild card.

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Bberg11Varsity

764 days ago

Score 1

I like the purity of just two playoff teams per league, but you can't deny that the Wild Card has made the playoff race so much more exciting. This year alone, there were a ton of teams who were all playing like they had a chance to make the playoff, because they did. That means there are that many more fans still interested in September.

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BRGJV Squad

762 days ago

Score 0

Davis21wylie is right. The old format was much better. But I said this already in an earlier post. The wild card is stupid; if you can't win a division, you shouldn't have a chance at the World Series.

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FanProphetVarsity

764 days ago

Score 1

Now I will not argue any aspect of this article. Excellent article and well written.

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Rockymount7Red-Shirting

764 days ago

Score 0

I think after all of this, each team scheduling 4 to 6 doubleheaders in the regular season, and then going 'best of 7' in the division series & championship series would be ideal.

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Tyrone BriggsHall of Famer

764 days ago

Score 3

Five game series suck. Why suffer only a 3 game sweep when it could be 4 if you are a Cubs fan! {gawd I hate typing that...}

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DonatevoMajor Leaguer

764 days ago

Score 0

The thing about baseball is, that most of the time you're just standing there. So they have to play a 162 game schedule. I have to work over 250 days a year to make a fraction of what any of these guys make. That being said, I like a 7 game series.

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BRGJV Squad

762 days ago

Score 0

In those over 250 days a year, do you face things being thrown at you at 100 mph? Most jobs aren't as dangerous as a ballplayer's... Yes, if you're a policeman, a firefighter, or something like that, you have a more dangerous job, but I spent years of my life sitting at a desk writing stuff (or typing it into a terminal) and answering phone calls. 250 days a year of THAT is much easier than what a ballplayer goes through.

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