{"id":8926,"date":"2010-10-26T18:35:23","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T01:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=8926"},"modified":"2010-10-26T18:35:23","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T01:35:23","slug":"postseason-reform-is-a-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/26\/postseason-reform-is-a-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Postseason Reform Is a Bad Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the upcoming collective bargaining agreement set to occur, Major League Baseball is considering some ground-breaking changes that could change the course of baseball for years to come.<\/p>\n

ESPN reports that Major League Baseball could make a series of changes to the 2012 regular season and postseason. Changes could include shortening the regular season, making the Division Series a best-of-seven series, and increasing the amount of Wild Car teams.<\/p>\n

Changes to the 2011 regular season and postseason are unlikely, and would be minor.<\/p>\n

These changes would be bad for baseball. If anything, by the time the World Series comes around, people are tired of watching baseball, and that has led to the declining television ratings for the postseason. Adding games to the postseason would only worsen that issue.<\/p>\n

Adding more Wild Card teams would also have harmful effects on the game. Currently, many teams clinch the postseason with a lot of time remaining in the season. With more chances to make it to the postseason, the possibility of a useless, boring September would be only increase.<\/p>\n

The NFL and NBA have many more teams make the postseason than baseball does, an argument being used by supporters of postseason reform. Both sports have considerably less games than Major League Baseball does, so it makes sense that more teams should make the postseason. Furthermore, there have been many cases in the NBA where teams who clearly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deserve to make the postseason end up making it regardless.<\/p>\n

The one change that would make sense is to shorten the regular season. However, the Players Union has said that it is unlikely, because teams would lose revenue.<\/p>\n

I am the last person to feel bad for Major League Baseball in this regard. True, shaving 10 games off the regular season would cause teams to lose millions of dollars, but that is the equivalent of me losing 25 cents. Even so, I really couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care less about how much excess money is going into the pockets of these already wealthy men and women.<\/p>\n

Finally, all of these arguments are aimed at increasing revenue for Major League Baseball. If this is going to continue to be their objective, we might as well send\u00c2\u00a0Alex Rodriguez to law school, and Albert Pujols to medical school. In other words, baseball should be shying away from a business aspect, not embracing it.<\/p>\n

Baseball is a business, I do not doubt that. But too often, people involved in the sport feel they are entitled to much more than they deserve. That alone has been — and will be — very harmful to the sport.<\/p>\n

Enough increasing revenue. Baseball is supposed to be fun for the fans, and fun for the players, not a spontaneous money-making machine. It may just be possible that Derek Jeter doesn’t need a spare gold-plated hubcap after all.<\/p>\n

For the top analysis of the week, subscribe to\u00c2\u00a0Bronx Weekly<\/a>. To read more thoughts and analysis, check out my\u00c2\u00a0blog<\/a>. Subscribe to my articles and blog posts\u00c2\u00a0here<\/a>. Also, follow me on\u00c2\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, send me an\u00c2\u00a0e-mail<\/a> and check out more at\u00c2\u00a0jesskcoleman.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the upcoming collective bargaining agreement set to occur, Major League Baseball is considering some ground-breaking changes that could change the course of baseball for years to come. ESPN reports that Major League Baseball could make a series of changes to the 2012 regular season and postseason. Changes could include shortening the regular season, making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11951,163,10208,1841,1371,11950,11952,460,191,4933,973,11957,4629,5796,11955,11954,11953,2230,124,11956],"class_list":["post-8926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-adding-games","tag-bad-idea","tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","tag-division-series","tag-espn","tag-espn-reports","tag-excess-money","tag-game","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-nba","tag-nfl","tag-pockets","tag-regard","tag-sports","tag-television-ratings","tag-that-would-make-sense","tag-there-have-been-many-cases","tag-wild-card","tag-world-series","tag-would-make-sense"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t