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Baseball's Double Switch
Wall Street Journal ^ | November 18, 2011 | Daniel BarBarisi

Posted on 11/17/2011 4:42:02 PM PST by SMGFan

MILWAUKEE—Major League Baseball plans to revamp its divisions and playoff format with a series of moves that will have significant ramifications for at least two of its media partners and millions of fans. MLB hopes to begin some of the changes next season, with an additional wild-card team making the playoffs in each league as part of an effort to generate more television revenue for baseball and give fans of midtier teams a reason to continue buying tickets and following games through the entire season. The four wild-card teams will play a one-game or best-of-three playoff to determine who moves on to the divisional series.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: baseball; chat; majors; sports
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To: TBP
And go back to rotating home field for the World Series, not depending on the All-Star Game.

Or the team with the better record. A Wild Card team should NEVER have home-field advantage.

61 posted on 11/18/2011 10:22:54 AM PST by dfwgator (I stand with Herman Cain.)
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To: buccaneer81

No, the solution is expansion.

There are fewer players per 1000 available males today then 50+ years ago.


62 posted on 11/18/2011 10:23:08 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: forgotten man
Stop playing world series games in the middle of the night when kids cannot watch it.

I agree entirely. At least play the weekend games in the daytime. If you must play weeknight games, then put them on at 6 or 7 so kids can watch them.

63 posted on 11/18/2011 10:26:59 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: TBP
Yes..154..thanks...

doubleheaders won't return..the teams need the gate reciepts...and the very few times they have them..usually because of make-up games after rainouts..it's two separate tickets...fans have to leave and return..

Doubleheaders were originally commonplace back when teams travelled by train..they needed the extra day of for travel..

64 posted on 11/18/2011 10:28:40 AM PST by ken5050
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To: Jim Noble
Until the Dodgers return to Brooklyn, nothing else will be right.

The site where O'Malley wanted a new ballpark is going to be home to the Nets. Is KeySpan Park expandable?

The other city is Buffalo. When the Continental League folded, Major League Baseball promised to take in its 8 cities. Buffalo is the only one that never got a team. (And Montreal had one for 36 years, but lost it. I think it might do better the second time around.)

65 posted on 11/18/2011 10:31:43 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: GreenLanternCorps

Love it.

Citi Field is modeled on Ebbets Field.


66 posted on 11/18/2011 10:32:41 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: OldPossum

Without the DH, games are shorter and there is much more strategy. Yes, it’s more interesting that way.


67 posted on 11/18/2011 10:34:06 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: OldPossum

The DH has led to the increase in pitchign specialization, which has led to short benches, thus less managing. Baseball is quintesentially a strategy game.


68 posted on 11/18/2011 10:35:02 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: OldPossum

The DH has led to the increase in pitching specialization, which has led to short benches, thus less managing. Baseball is quintesentially a strategy game.


69 posted on 11/18/2011 10:35:08 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Colonel_Flagg

“From a sporting standpoint I have to laugh at the concept of a team that couldn’t win its division somehow becoming a ‘world champion’. Yet we see it repeatedly”


We Red Sox fans loved it in 2004.


70 posted on 11/18/2011 10:36:05 AM PST by Mears (I can't take anymore of this.)
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To: NautiNurse; Nick Danger; big'ol_freeper; raccoonradio; warsaw44
Have you seen this? Grrr.... why don't they just leave well enough alone?!

Oh yeah: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

71 posted on 11/18/2011 10:36:13 AM PST by nutmeg (Yes We CAIN !! Herman Cain 2012)
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To: eddie willers

I remember an incident around 1968 or ‘69 (ironically involving Houston) where a pitcher was working on a no-hitter going to the 9th inning, but the game was 0-0. Manager Preston Gomez lifted his pitcher for a pinch-hitter and set off a controversy for a week. With the DH, that never happens.

Managers these days manage too much “by the book.” They think if it’s the 9th, they’re required to bring in the closer. If they don’t and they lose, they’ll get crucified for it. If they do, well, he had a bad game.


72 posted on 11/18/2011 10:40:01 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Impy
There are too many division games in my opinion

Then why have divisions at all?

73 posted on 11/18/2011 10:40:55 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: AuH2ORepublican

Wild cards eliminate the thrill of the Bobby Thomson homerun or the Bucky Dent homerun. Those are great moments.


74 posted on 11/18/2011 10:43:32 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: TBP
I posted this earlier:

Dispense with division races and make it a balanced schedule. Make it like the NBA and NHL where the top teams in the conference (or in this case, league) go to the playoffs. To expand the playoffs, you have the top four teams go, where one plays four and two plays three. It gets rid of division races, which have been compromised by the wild card anyway. That way it would be like the old days, except of course then it was only the top team from each league that went to the post season. In case of ties, use head to head records or one game playoffs, where necessary.

75 posted on 11/18/2011 10:47:45 AM PST by drew
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To: drew

So to correct the problems posed by having second-place teams win the World Series, you propose offering fourth-place teams this chance? Yeah, that makes sense.


76 posted on 11/18/2011 10:55:12 AM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: PapaNew

>>>World Series in December?

In Minneapolis - Hell yeah!!


77 posted on 11/18/2011 11:00:16 AM PST by Keith in Iowa (Hope & Change - I'm out of hope, and change is all I have left every week | FR Class of 1998 |)
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78 posted on 11/18/2011 11:01:42 AM PST by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
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To: nutmeg

I must confess I’m a pro-American League bigot—that is,
I love the DH, etc. Yeah, there’s “tradition” and “strategy”
but this yr as I followed the NL playoff games and the World Series games played in NL parks I HATED when the pitcher would come up, spoiling a potential rally (for Rangers in WS, for example). More interleague in ‘13? That also means less
rivalry games in the individual leagues.

I suppose they will still have more than a few Red Sox-Yankees games but adding more NL means less AL. More
no-DH games.

I do kind of want geographical purity and equality (each league having 15 teams, that is) and in some ways it makes sense to have Rangers and Astros in same league. Why not O’s and Nationals? Then again with more interleague play you’ll have more than a few of those games now.

(And one big sin of geographical heresy is in the NFC
East...I’m sorry, DALLAS? In the NFC _EAST_??? :) )


79 posted on 11/18/2011 11:50:44 AM PST by raccoonradio
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To: Keith in Iowa

Heck then why not move the World Series to a neutral site... a dome?

“Live from the Rogers Centre in Toronto, it’s the 2012
World Series! The Philadelphia Phillies against the
Texas Rangers!” :)


80 posted on 11/18/2011 11:52:45 AM PST by raccoonradio
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