WeAreNDHockey
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Re: MLB 2011 Post-Season: Who misses the NBA?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but interleague play all year long necessarily mean MORE IL games? Basically every 14th series has to be an IL series, so theoretically, you could play just 4 per season.
I think preliminary scenarios had each team playing one series each against each team in another IL division, and perhaps 1 addition series each year against an obvious rival (As/Giants, Cubs/WSox, etc).
The way IL is done now is extremely unfair in terms of balancing the schedules. It isn't uncommon for two teams in the same division to have a very different IL slate. Didn't the Phils have a much easier set of AL opponents than the Braves? If you get 6-9 games against Baltimore and the Braves get 6-9 against New York or Tampa, who has an easier path? The way it should be done is for everyone to as similar a schedule as possible to maintain division integrity.
One of the things this tells me is that the true impact of IL play has diminished in terms of TV ratings and attendance. It was a big deal in the 90s (started in '97) but now maybe not so much. So no more big clusters of it in June when the season starts to drag for some teams.
Personally if I had my way, we'd get rid of the divisions entirely and everyone would play everyone their league an equal number of times and there would be no more IL play. This will never happen because baseball is oddly beholden to the number 162, like exactly 162 games is the perfect number. Well it was in the days of 10 team leagues and no divisions (just like 154 was in the days of 8 team ones).
If I had to make a schedule and it had to be 162 games, and there has to be divisions and we have to have some interleague play, here's what I'd like to see: 15 games against a division in the other league, 6 games against the other 10 teams in your own league, and 20 games each against your division foes. That's 155 games. To get to 162 add 7 games against your IL "rival" and there's your 162 game season. MLB would get to increase from 18 to 20 the number of games between the Yanks and BoSox every year, plus get at least 7 and possibly 10 games every year between the Yanks and the Mets. We all know ESPN and FOX would loooooove that, since those are the only series that get any real promotion anymore in the regular season.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but interleague play all year long necessarily mean MORE IL games? Basically every 14th series has to be an IL series, so theoretically, you could play just 4 per season.
I think preliminary scenarios had each team playing one series each against each team in another IL division, and perhaps 1 addition series each year against an obvious rival (As/Giants, Cubs/WSox, etc).
The way IL is done now is extremely unfair in terms of balancing the schedules. It isn't uncommon for two teams in the same division to have a very different IL slate. Didn't the Phils have a much easier set of AL opponents than the Braves? If you get 6-9 games against Baltimore and the Braves get 6-9 against New York or Tampa, who has an easier path? The way it should be done is for everyone to as similar a schedule as possible to maintain division integrity.
One of the things this tells me is that the true impact of IL play has diminished in terms of TV ratings and attendance. It was a big deal in the 90s (started in '97) but now maybe not so much. So no more big clusters of it in June when the season starts to drag for some teams.
Personally if I had my way, we'd get rid of the divisions entirely and everyone would play everyone their league an equal number of times and there would be no more IL play. This will never happen because baseball is oddly beholden to the number 162, like exactly 162 games is the perfect number. Well it was in the days of 10 team leagues and no divisions (just like 154 was in the days of 8 team ones).
If I had to make a schedule and it had to be 162 games, and there has to be divisions and we have to have some interleague play, here's what I'd like to see: 15 games against a division in the other league, 6 games against the other 10 teams in your own league, and 20 games each against your division foes. That's 155 games. To get to 162 add 7 games against your IL "rival" and there's your 162 game season. MLB would get to increase from 18 to 20 the number of games between the Yanks and BoSox every year, plus get at least 7 and possibly 10 games every year between the Yanks and the Mets. We all know ESPN and FOX would loooooove that, since those are the only series that get any real promotion anymore in the regular season.
