Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

MLB Playoffs Lack Urgency

Super Bowl weekend is hailed as a national holiday in the United States. Even for those fans whose favorite team is left out of the granddaddy of sporting events, people across America and the entire world watch in awe while the NFL’s two finalists battle it out for the Vince Lombardi trophy.

But in baseball, the postseason — and more importantly, the World Series — has lost its allure to the casual fan. Fans do not put the rest of their lives on hold to catch it, and in fact, many tend to not watch the games once their teams are eliminated.

Although baseball cannot change itself to allow for one “all or nothing” contest for the championship, it can still alter its postseason schedule and structure to boost interest not only for fans of the game, but also for those who would watch for the sheer cultural significance of the event. In the past, there was a mystique surrounding the World Series that has been lost in recent years, and baseball needs to recapture its prominence in the sporting world.

In the new collective bargaining agreement, MLB has agreed to add an additional playoff team to each of the two leagues. While the specific plan has yet to be established, it is likely that the two wild card teams in each league would play in a one-game playoff to determine who advances to play in what are currently the American League and National League divisional series — essentially the league’s quarterfinals.

Many teams, players and fans will likely balk at the idea of a single-elimination game to determine the fate of two worthy teams. But from a marketing standpoint, a one-game playoff would be a surefire way to generate significant interest.

Similarly, if single playoff games were extended throughout the entire postseason, baseball’s playoffs would be compared to the chaotic yet undoubtedly popular NFL postseason as well as college basketball’s March Madness. Unfortunately, do-or-die playoff rounds wouldn’t be a fair way to determine a winner after a 162-game regular season.

The Super Bowl, unlike the World Series, can succeed with individual playoff games due to the nature of the sport. Not only is it impossible for the athletes to play such a physical game multiple times per week, but also each game of the 17-week regular season is treated with significance, unlike the long and methodic MLB season.

The NFL maximum of four playoff games is 25 percent of the length of the regular season, while MLB’s 19-game maximum is a much smaller percentage (11.7) of the 162-game schedule. Still, the MLB playoffs are long and drawn out, and a change must be made.

The current format makes sense competitively to determine a winner. Just like other sports, teams can win a championship by “getting hot” at the right time. At the same time, however, baseball’s greatest flaw is its extension of the postseason for more than a whole month when it could be completed in a much shorter time.

Perhaps the real reason behind baseball’s loss of fan interest is its inconsistency between the regular season and postseason in regards to the regularity of games played. From April to September, teams play virtually every day with several days off worked in throughout each month. In the postseason, however, teams play every other day at most.

If baseball is to regain interest, it should stick to its regular season pace. MLB doesn’t do the naturally slow-paced sport any favors by extending the postseason into late October and early November.

Even though the MLB cannot turn the World Series into a single-day extravaganza like the Super Bowl, it can turn each round into a week-long event, with only one or two days off in each round instead of three or four. Fans and especially players are used to six games per week, and the MLB loses fans each time it extends the playoffs. Baseball should feed off the energy of one game to the next day instead of forcing fans to wait.

MLB may think it helps itself by remaining in the spotlight for a longer period of time. But in reality, it ruins what can be an exalted World Series by disrupting and extending its season. Although counterintuitive, ending the season earlier is the best way to push baseball back into the forefront of sports fans’ minds.

Preston Barclay is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business. TURNING TWO IN THE 202 appears every Tuesday.

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