SubscribeBad idea of the day
Soapbox time.
I love Peter Gammons, the veteran baseball analyst for ESPN and the Boston press, but this is nuts.
In his most recent column on ESPN.com, Gammons opines about how dull this season has been: no big pennant races, no outstanding individual performances, save by a handful of players, no real controversy.
So what to do to spice things up? Why, add another round of playoffs, of course.
[I]s it time to think about expanding the playoffs? I agree with Brewers general manager Doug Melvin, who says, “Most general managers don’t want it watered down like the NHL or NBA. Not many are wild about the idea.” Granted, it seems as if so many teams make the Stanley Cup playoffs that they need a WCCA-Hockey East shootout to fill out the brackets. But why not think about having two wild-card teams per league?
Before readers get all worked up, Gammons quickly states that starting the season a few days earlier would mean not extending play into November, but the current situation is bad enough.
Starting earlier isn’t the answer: Unless the games are scheduled for the West Coast, you have dicey early-spring weather elsewhere in the country. Another alternative — reducing the number of regular-season games from 162 to, say, 154 (the amount before MLB expanded to 10-team leagues in 1961-62) and starting a couple of weeks later — would not fly with the players’ union because that would mean salaries would be lower, shrinking from an average of $12 gadziollion to $10 gadziollion.
Gammons continues
For years, folks have tried to punish the wild-card team and make winning the division more important. Well, if you use up a pitching staff on the weekend to get to a Tuesday or Wednesday divisional series, there is a serious disadvantage. On the other hand, it would be an advantage to teams such as the Rays and Blue Jays that compete against the economic powers in New York and Boston. No one suggests that a wild card play-in is going to blunt the ratings of a USC-Ohio State season jumper or the NFL’s ability to get prime games into the first two weeks. However, it’s something to think about in a September when baseball seems to have drifted off beyond the horizon.
Blah, blah, blah.
Is there anyone else beside cynical little me who sees this as a way for teams and television to grab more money, especially in a season which Gammons notes, has suffered economically along with the rest of the world?
Gammons:
[A]ttendance is down only 6 percent in an economic climate distraught with fear, loathing and unemployment. We appreciate that from 1995 to 2008, baseball’s revenues grew at an unsustainable pace. But two clubs’ CEOs fear that — even as the economy shows signs of turning around — the fans are growing used to giving up fancy steakhouses for the grill and eschewing the $250 seats; the entire country has seen that, even in New York, one doesn’t have to be seen behind home plate at baseball games.
Boo-hoo.
None of this even touches on a problem that’s been going on since some genius decided night games were the only way to go for the post-season.
The starting times are ridiculously late, often failing to get under way until 8:45 thanks to the inane droning of the talking heads in the studio and elaborate pre-game ceremonies. Many of the contests don’t conclude until after midnight, to the disappointment of those who have early bedtimes or actually have a job to go to in the morning. (Derek Jeter earned the nickname Mr. November when he came to bat after the clock struck midnight on Oct. 31, 2001 in the 10th inninng of Game 4 in the Series, but that was because the season was delayed 10 days in the wake of the Sept. 11 bombings.)
You want to win back the fans, cultivate a new generation of young baseball nuts? Have some of the games on during the day, when parents and kids can sit together and share the experience without worrying about having to tune out with the score tied 4-4 in the seventh because it’s waaaaay past little Johnny’s bedtime.
So more playoffs? If Bill Veeck was still alive, he’d put it to a fan vote. And I’m pretty sure the majority would agree, that’s not the way to go.
With you all the way. Awful idea from Gammons, and a few days games here and there would be a welcome change.
You have to believe it’s the owners who stand the most to gain. After all look what they did with doubleheaders. Do you remember when it used to be a single admission event? Now they pull down twice the dough. I wonder if they make the cars leave so they can charge twice for parking?