Best-Of-Five Results In Four Best

Posted at 1:27 pm on Thursday, October 11, 2007, in Uncategorized, and tagged baseball.

The National League Championship Series (herein, “NLCS”) begins tonight, and the American League Championship Series (herein, “ALCS”) begins tomorrow. There has been a lot of gripe expressed in the sports media that the best-of-five series format for the opening “Divisional” round is flawed, that the winner is not necessarily the better team, due to the short nature of the format. This may be true, and I also do not necessarily disagree with the opinion. However, these “experts” and pundits referenced this year’s playoffs as their rationale that there must be a change in the first round format. And to that, I wholeheartedly disagree.

There are four teams remaining. The two NL teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies, held the top two records in their league, and the Rockies are considered to be the hottest team in baseball (only the 1960 Yankees went into the postseason on a better run). The two AL teams, the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox, finished the season tied for the best record in baseball. Three of these teams won their division series in a sweep. The Indians finished off the highest-paid team in baseball in four games, on enemy soil, the highly-vaunted Yankee Stadium.

I do think that the playoff system can be improved. Firstly, the league should eliminate the silly rule that the first round cannot feature two teams from the same division in the same series. That has been a major sticking point in the past, effectively keeping the Red Sox and Yankees from playing each other in the first round, even if they were the first and fourth place teams. The top seed should always play the low seed, despite the division. Secondly, the first round shouldn’t include as many days off, besides travel days. This allows inferior teams to potentially start their top two pitchers twice (four out of five games), albeit on short rest, concealing any weakness in their pitching rotation.

Should the Division Series be expanded to seven games? Sure, why not. But please do not cite this year’s LCS teams as the reason why (I’m so sorry the Cubs lost, but they always do); the four remaining teams are the best in baseball.

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