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6/14-6/17 Red Sox @ Mariners Series Thread
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jun 19, 2018 13:36:20 GMT -5
OMG no on 16-team playoff fields please. How about a 30 team playoff field?Sounds crazy at first, but Sam Miller is not a dummy or a hot take artist, and I really think there's something too this. Maybe every team making the playoffs is too much, but since the playoffs aren't contracting anytime soon, and a bigger playoff bracket with more emphasis on fair seeding of teams based on their record could really improve the playoffs and the regular season as well.
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 19, 2018 14:21:15 GMT -5
Why bother having a regular season then?
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jun 19, 2018 14:26:10 GMT -5
Why bother having a regular season then? Did you read the article? This is all about creating a more interesting regular season. I mean, why do we have a regular season now? The AL race is over except for deciding who wins the AL East and who takes the first wildcard, and it's not even July.
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Post by jerrygarciaparra on Jun 19, 2018 16:24:29 GMT -5
OMG no on 16-team playoff fields please. How about a 30 team playoff field?Sounds crazy at first, but Sam Miller is not a dummy or a hot take artist, and I really think there's something too this. Maybe every team making the playoffs is too much, but since the playoffs aren't contracting anytime soon, and a bigger playoff bracket with more emphasis on fair seeding of teams based on their record could really improve the playoffs and the regular season as well. now that is truly thinking out of the box. it is way ahead of it's time. Give it about 50-100 years.
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Post by kingofthetrill on Jun 19, 2018 17:06:38 GMT -5
I wonder what that would do to the trade deadline. Would many teams still be sellers?
Also, don't we have a game in 2 hours? I don't see a current game thread.
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 19, 2018 18:05:39 GMT -5
Why bother having a regular season then? Did you read the article? This is all about creating a more interesting regular season. I mean, why do we have a regular season now? The AL race is over except for deciding who wins the AL East and who takes the first wildcard, and it's not even July. It's making the regular season a lot more meaningless. And what would the best teams in the league be doing waiting for almost 4 weeks while all of the lesser teams eliminate each other? They have almost no shot at being ready to play a playoff game with that much of a break. edit- nevermind, I see the explanation, but I still see it as a complete scheduling nightmare and there would still be a lot of time off for the top teams.
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Post by telson13 on Jun 20, 2018 11:45:55 GMT -5
Yeah when baseball has it's next realignment after the expansion, the top 8 teams should be in the playoffs and it should be 7 game series throughout the whole way, like in basketball. It'd be the most fair thing baseball could do. 8 teams from the west. 8 teams from the east. 4 rounds of playoffs. Shorten the season if you have to. Knowing baseball and their love for this wild card game, they'll probably push for 4 wild card teams and the top 4 teams in the west and east. This one game play in makes me queezy. It'd absolutely suck to see a 100 win team get eliminated in one game. That possibility is stronger than most this year because Seattle who is the second wild card, is actually quite good. Paxton can shur anyone down for a game, their offense is really good too. OMG no on 16-team playoff fields please. The thing with the play-in game is that, in part, it's an attempt at making the division matter. But the problem is that it punishes wild-card teams rather than rewarding division winners, really, and a team with one stud ace pitcher gets a disproportionate advantage. Add 2 teams, go to 2 or 4 divisions in each league, 4 or 2 wild cards. 3-game series in the first round instead of one-game play-in (you can't really have the 2 teams with byes sitting for much longer), keep the LDS and LCS/WS the same length. Agreed. I don’t want to see sub-500 teams in the playoffs. It’s already a risk now, but at least it’s unlikely as to be essentially non-existent.
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Post by telson13 on Jun 20, 2018 11:49:05 GMT -5
Did you read the article? This is all about creating a more interesting regular season. I mean, why do we have a regular season now? The AL race is over except for deciding who wins the AL East and who takes the first wildcard, and it's not even July. It's making the regular season a lot more meaningless. And what would the best teams in the league be doing waiting for almost 4 weeks while all of the lesser teams eliminate each other? They have almost no shot at being ready to play a playoff game with that much of a break. edit- nevermind, I see the explanation, but I still see it as a complete scheduling nightmare and there would still be a lot of time off for the top teams. Time off for top teams was what I see as the major sticking point. Players aren’t going to see a 2-week vacation as a reward for a good regular season. I’d think most would see it as a giant cooler.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jun 20, 2018 13:41:00 GMT -5
It's making the regular season a lot more meaningless. And what would the best teams in the league be doing waiting for almost 4 weeks while all of the lesser teams eliminate each other? They have almost no shot at being ready to play a playoff game with that much of a break. edit- nevermind, I see the explanation, but I still see it as a complete scheduling nightmare and there would still be a lot of time off for the top teams. Time off for top teams was what I see as the major sticking point. Players aren’t going to see a 2-week vacation as a reward for a good regular season. I’d think most would see it as a giant cooler. Guys, that these ideas aren't easily implemented is literally the point of the series: The implementation details of this system are the least interesting part of it to discuss. Yes, it's probably unworkable, but so what? Consider the benefits. Consider what this reveals about baseball as it currently exists. Expand your thinking beyond minor adjustments to the current broken system.
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Post by telson13 on Jun 20, 2018 16:52:41 GMT -5
Time off for top teams was what I see as the major sticking point. Players aren’t going to see a 2-week vacation as a reward for a good regular season. I’d think most would see it as a giant cooler. Guys, that these ideas aren't easily implemented is literally the point of the series: The implementation details of this system are the least interesting part of it to discuss. Yes, it's probably unworkable, but so what? Consider the benefits. Consider what this reveals about baseball as it currently exists. Expand your thinking beyond minor adjustments to the current broken system. I get the point; I just don’t really find the unworkable hypotheticals in this case to be particularly compelling discussion. Maybe it’s that I lean traditionalist, or maybe it’s simply that “getting radical” as Bodhi (an all-time great Swayze role) would say just doesn’t grab my interest in terms of discussion. To me it’s a reduction to absurdity...the bizarreness of a proposal is not directly proportional to its value as a focus of discussion. Just my opinion, in this instance, though.
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 20, 2018 17:37:17 GMT -5
I remember when I started watching baseball, I didn't need the Red Sox to be in the playoffs or win a World Series for me to have any interest in them. I enjoyed baseball because it's baseball. I mean how did Red Sox fans ever exist in the first place??!! They never had any chance of winning for about 19 out of 20 seasons on average and still broke hearts without any real expectations. Some of my favorite teams were teams that missed the playoffs because I loved how they never gave up. I didn't mind how long the games took. I just liked the atmosphere and loved the sport. I could sit down and watch a little league game because I like baseball that much. Things sure have changed. Fans need instant gratification and they need their team to win every single game to be happy. May as well make games 3 innings long and decide ties with a home run derby and put every team in the playoffs just to keep these diehard "fans" interested whatsoever in baseball. I know this is just crazy talk, but if you want fans to be interested in the games, lower prices and stop trying to fool them into believing that they have to pay a mortgage payment to go to one game just to be a part of a special season for their team. I love going to Durham Bulls games because it costs me $10 to sit right by the field even though I don't give a damn about the team or the outcome. And yeah, get off my lawn.
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Post by telson13 on Jun 20, 2018 22:28:52 GMT -5
I remember when I started watching baseball, I didn't need the Red Sox to be in the playoffs or win a World Series for me to have any interest in them. I enjoyed baseball because it's baseball. I mean how did Red Sox fans ever exist in the first place??!! They never had any chance of winning for about 19 out of 20 seasons on average and still broke hearts without any real expectations. Some of my favorite teams were teams that missed the playoffs because I loved how they never gave up. I didn't mind how long the games took. I just liked the atmosphere and loved the sport. I could sit down and watch a little league game because I like baseball that much. Things sure have changed. Fans need instant gratification and they need their team to win every single game to be happy. May as well make games 3 innings long and decide ties with a home run derby and put every team in the playoffs just to keep these diehard "fans" interested whatsoever in baseball. I know this is just crazy talk, but if you want fans to be interested in the games, lower prices and stop trying to fool them into believing that they have to pay a mortgage payment to go to one game just to be a part of a special season for their team. I love going to Durham Bulls games because it costs me $10 to sit right by the field even though I don't give a damn about the team or the outcome. And yeah, get off my lawn. I used to work in a lab just after college and my good friend was a graduate student and a big Yankee fan. One early (?) May day in, I think, 1998, we went to get Taco Bell for lunch and as we were walking through the Bean we remarked on what a great day it was. Clear, 70s, perfect NE spring weather. When we got back to the lab my buddy looks at me and says “Isn’t Pedro pitching tonight?” “Yeah.” “We need to go to that game.” And we did. I think we caught the T at the Arlington Green line stop, but we walked a good ways too. Bought bleacher seats for something like $17 apiece. Pedro went on to whiff 15, including Griffey Jr three times. We could hear the pop in the glove way out beyond CF. It was glorious. To me, THAT’s baseball. I agree...make it accessible. It’s the experience, the lazy evening under the lights, rooting for your guys. Sure, I’m a traditionalist...but honestly, to me that’s what separates baseball from every other sport. The pace, no time limits, the relative constancy of the rules. I don’t wanna see baseball New Coked. I loved 7-team divisions. I don’t so much mind 2x3x5. But I’d prefer they expand, and go back to 2x2x8. I don’t want more playoff teams. I suppose they could do 2 Div seeds and 4 WC (down to 2 winners via 3-game playoffs and then 2 Div-WC series of 7 games). I get the drive for revenue, but there’s another way to play it. Get the nostalgia train running again. Make the ballpark an experience for everyone again.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 20, 2018 22:46:45 GMT -5
I know this is just crazy talk, but if you want fans to be interested in the games, lower prices and stop trying to fool them into believing that they have to pay a mortgage payment to go to one game just to be a part of a special season for their team. This is the main reason why I want a new Fenway Park. Seats should be cheaper in some section of the ballpark. Sure the best seats will always cost a lot more, but it shouldn't cost me 250 dollars to buy two good seats to a Fenway Park game. I don't want to start that argument over again though.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 20, 2018 23:42:12 GMT -5
Yeah, the price of going to Fenway can be prohibitive when you factor in more than just the ticket. There's the overpriced food, parking fees, and these days it's hard to just get tickets. You have to go thru a broker and pay their premium - kind of like legalized scalping.
With all of my other expenses that have absolutely nothing to do with baseball, I can basically afford to go to 1 game a year and I paid more than I wanted to for the game I'm going to at the end of July. Instead of bleacher seats my buddy wanted better seats, so we paid more. Hope we're not stuck behind a pole!
Still, baseball is the best game hands down. It's totally the thinking man's game and the pace allows for you to watch the game on the field and see if it compares with the game going on in your head as you anticipate what's going to happen.
You really don't have that kind of time in other sports.
I started rooting for the Sox in 1980 and like JimEd said they were not really a threat to win a World Series and winning was just a dream.
Still in that first year I learned about hope as I saw the Sox whittle a 13 game deficit in half as Labor Day approached and the Yankees stumbled a bit as the Orioles closed in.
But I also learned about frustration with the Yankees as they beat the Sox like a drum in September and within a month's time the Sox went from 6.5 games out to 19 games out! Meanwhile the Orioles got to within .5 game, kept winning, won 100 games and still didn't catch the Yankees. No Wild Card. No playoffs for them.
After the Sox came so damn close to winning in 1986 and broke my heart in the Series the need to win was more pronounced. I mean it must suck to be a Texas Rangers fan - if the best you ever do is blow the World Series, being 1 strike away twice in the same game in two different innings - then it's a real disappointment. That's why I was so happy for the Cubs.
There are fans that can simply enjoy a nice day at the park or a team that gives it a good shot, but for me personally, that's kind of an empty feeling. I mean, as a diehard, when the best thing you have going for your team in its recent history is the surprise 1967 pennant that wound up being a World Series loss, and Pudge's Game 6 HR, which was the high point considering they blew the Series in Game 7.
I'm not saying that the empty feeling is always the worst thing because without the losing and the aggravation, it's harder to appreciate the winning, the glory.
2004 meant so damn much because of all that went before it. But given that I don't have another 86 years to live, I'd like to see the Red Sox win the World Series as many times as possible before I'm not around to enjoy it.
I want them to win every year. I don't expect them to win every year. If I had that kind of hubris I'd be a freaking Yankees fan and their arrogance, smugness, and overconfidence nauseates me.
I'm glad the Sox have finally broken through. Sure made decorating my Red Sox shrine room a lot more fun! With the Pats run of success and the Bruins and Celts recent titles I was able to come up with a fun theme. That championship feeling, something I couldn't have enjoyed without the lesser times.
Anyways, I think that baseball needs to pick up the pace a little. It's not the game that's slow as much as it's the pace. I wish they'd shorten commercials but that's not going to happen.
I wish World Series games started at 7 so kids could actually watch. I'm tired of those games ending past midnight. How can you grow your fanbase that way when the showcase games are on so damn late?
Maybe they should use some sort of ping-pong ball lottery system for draft picks to dissuade tanking. Maybe they should have some sort of minimal salary floor and penalize those owners that are only looking to line their own pockets.
I certainly wish they'd make the prices to the ballpark cheaper.
Like Telson, I prefer the old 4 division 26/28 team structure, but it probably wouldn't fly in today's age.. And I hated Wild Cards. Not sure what the best way to do it going forward is. 4 Division Winners. No ALDS/NLDS/Wild Cards? The division setup is so ingrained in me. I'd hate the hockey/basketball setup.
Maybe have 4 divisions in each league and 2 wild cards each. Have the 2 weakest division winners play the Wild Cards in a 1 game play-in? Or maybe have a double header with the Wild Card needing to sweep and the division winner needing only 1 win to advance? Then 7 game division series/LCS/World Series.
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