It's playoff time for the NBA and NHL right now - actually they are over a month into their playoffs, with two rounds left to play (semi-finals and finals). I was having a conversation the other day with some friends about how long these two league's playoffs were. Maybe I am the only one, but I feel like they drag on forever. Don't get me wrong, I am a big hockey fan and playoff hockey is definitely the best hockey, but the NBA... not so much. Perhaps it's because as a Knicks fan, I don't have much to root for, and haven't for quite some time? I am not a big fan of the NBA - most of the time I find it boring - I find it lacks the teamwork that College Basketball possesses, and I just can't get into it. You can also thank ESPN for their obsession with Lebron James, or with the finals coming down to Cleveland and Golden State every year since 2015 (and possibly again this year) - I am sorry NBA fans but I personally just cannot get into it. The NBA playoffs this year commenced on April 14th, and they could possibly end as late as mid-June... that's nearly 2 months of just playoffs. I get it, each team doesn't play every day, you need to account for travel and every game is nationally televised, but 2 months? In the NBA, there are four rounds of playoffs, which means 8 teams per conference make the playoffs. Each round is a BEST OF SEVEN series - why?
This all got me thinking - in relation to the NBA and NHL, the MLB playoffs are much shorter. If you are unfamiliar with the format, there are 30 MLB teams split evenly into two leagues; the American and National League, respectively. Each league is then divided into 3 divisions consisting of five teams (East, Central, and West). At the end of the season, each division winner makes the playoffs. But, you can't have just three teams from each league make the playoffs, so back in 1995 Major League Baseball added the Wild Card team (the team with the best record, that did not win a division). Now, with 4 teams the playoffs can be spread out into three rounds, a best of five "Division Series", a best of seven "League Championship Series" and lastly the best of seven "World Series". Back in 2012, they added a second Wild Card team - creating a one-game, winner moves on playoff game, in hopes to add more end of season excitement (and more profits) to a supposedly dying sport...
Since the Yankees played in this game in 2015 vs. Houston and last season (2017) vs. Minnesota, these are intense and stressful games. It's hard to imagine your team's season and postseason coming down to just one game. I get that the benefit of winning the division is to not play in the single elimination game... but in this case, one game does not prove anything to me. Look at last years gave against the Twins - Severino made big push as a Cy Young Award finalist - yet looked nothing of the part in that start. The point I am trying to make is that anything can happen in just one game of baseball. This match-up should be a best of three series - home team advantage could either give the team with the better record the last at-bat in Game 1 and Game 3 or more controversially Game 2 and Game 3. The other requirement for this series should be no off days. It doesn't matter if a West Coast team is facing an East Coast team - every team makes this trip a few times each year, sometimes without an off-day - this is the playoffs and these are professional players, they can handle it.
Ultimately, this approach would lengthen the season by one or two days? In my opinion, GREAT - I love baseball, and if they could play year round I would be for it - but not everyone is as passionate about this sport as I am. And, people already complain about how long the season is, and how "boring" a game of baseball is. Yet, I feel this way about the NBA, and here we are with two months of NBA playoffs.
Expanding the Wild Card series from a single game to a best of three series is hardly controversial compared to an alternative format that I have devised. I will likely catch a lot of flak for this format, but please hear me out as it would definitely spice up the playoffs. I am proposing turning the playoffs into a bracket-style tournament, where EVERY TEAM makes the playoffs. Yes, you read that correctly, every team is involved in this scenario. Now, I know what you are thinking - "But every team doesn't deserve to make the playoffs" - and you are probably right. But, I have in mind something similar to the College Basketball - March Madness bracket the entire country fills out and applying it to baseball. Think of how exciting that first round of the college basketball tournament is... entire fan bases get involved in cheering on their team. What if we applied that kind of enthusiasm to Major League Baseball. Opening Day is such a spectacle, and every team gets to be involved. Fan bases are hopeful, and believe that anything can happen. What if we treated the playoffs in a similar vein?
Let me elaborate, because if we have a league-wide tournament - then why bother playing the long and arduous regular season? Just like in college basketball, you play for your seeding. The better your seeding, the more favorable your first round match-up. Now, in order to do this, the divisions could either be removed completely or have the league split into two divisions - I will get more into this in a minute.
The schedule would have to be changed and the season be shortened, as a tournament style playoff would be longer than the current format. I propose to shorten to a 154 game schedule, and a balanced season-long schedule. For this reason, I suggest eliminating division play allowing teams to play each team in their respective league the same number of times, balancing the schedule. I almost could hear the collective groan as I had typed that. And, maybe I am all alone in this - but I actually enjoy seeing the Yankees match up against teams from other divisions more than watching them play the Rays and Jays 19 times a year. I know, there's the division rivalries that have developed over the history of baseball (i.e. Yankees - Red Sox), but I feel these rivalries are over-hyped and blown WAY out of proportion (thanks ESPN). I would much rather see the Yankees match up against other exciting teams like the Angels or Astros more than just the measly home and away series we get every year. I would also like to see less of Chris Sale, Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Craig Kimbrel's bat wing (but that's just me).
I propose we keep Inter-League Play. Sticking with my theme from above - I enjoy it when the Yankees face off against teams they don't normally play all the time. Like this past series against the Nationals, or teams like the Cubs, Rockies, Brewers, etc. It gives the fans (and players) a chance to see different players and ball parks. Also, it could create buzz about potential World Series match ups. Yes, my plan keeps the World Series in-tact.
With that said, I figure you play each team in your league nine times for three series of three games each. You may play one team on the road for two series, but you may play a different team for two series at home - it should all even out. This would leave twenty-eight games left over for Inter-League play and for variety sake, I propose each team plays 7 different teams in two separate two game home and away series.
Now, with 15 teams in each league it's not a simple bracket, some manipulation had to be done, but you can see the bracket in the image below. (The seeding shown in the bracket below are based on standings from May 17, 2018 - using win percentage as a tie breaker - these selections are simply to demonstrate my idea and carry no weight)
Right away you can see the top two seeds get a first round bye, and the #14 and #15 would play in a single elimination play-in game. Including the World Series, this is a four-round tournament. Round 1 and the Play-In game are single elimination, Round 2 is a best-of-three series (this is the benefit of finishing the season as the #1 or #2 seed), Round 3 is a best-of-five series, and the World Series remains a best-of-seven.
Round 1 and the Play-In game, like college basketball (or the Super Bowl) would be played on neutral ground (and can vary every year like the All-Star game), with the better seeded team as the home team. The play-in game would be played first, with an off-day in between for travel. Round 1 will have half the games played on one day, and the other half the next. Round 2, the best-of-three, I would propose the lower seeded team play on the road the first game, with game two and three played at home. Each round will have one off-day in between, except for the World Series, it will have two. Off-days can be sprinkled throughout each series for travel days and possible weather related delays, but kept to a minimum.
The point of this format is to involve every team and to create different postseason match-ups. The beauty of the game of baseball is anything can happen - any team can win. Good teams lose, bad teams win (sometimes) - this has the potential for epic upsets and it gives every team a shot. One could argue that every team has a shot at the beginning of every season, but this will create a unique dynamic to the post season that could ignite a fan base that hasn't experienced postseason play in a while. Any team can get hot and go on a run. But, each round is longer than the last, and the better team will usually prevail.
So, what's the point? Where is the incentive? If every team makes the playoffs, then why play over 100 games? Why not just start the season with the tournament? The incentive is to finish in the top two seeds, earn the First Round bye, and skip the Single Elimination games. This is not much different than now - teams don't want to play in the Wild Card game. They don't want their season coming down to one game, teams want to win the division. Perhaps split the league into two divisions, and the two division winners (not necessarily the two teams with the best records) earn the First Round bye. And, maybe this format is too limited here - maybe only two teams getting a First Round bye isn't enough.
A second and maybe more competitive and incentive laden option would be to have the top 12 teams in each league make the tournament, but the top four teams in each league earn the First Round bye and avoid the single elimination game.
My initial goal was to involve all the teams - generate an extended excitement and additional revenue across all 30 fan bases. Clearly there are some kinks that would need to be worked out and maybe including all 30 teams in a playoff format is over ambitious, and doesn't benefit the really good teams as much and allows underachieving teams to get by.
I would really like to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think of these proposed playoff formats? Do you have any ideas that can help improve these ideas? Maybe you have any of your own suggestions to improve the MLB playoffs? Or perhaps you think the current format is perfect just the way it is? Either way I would love to discuss this more with all of you! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.