Cubs and Pirates sudden-death playoff? Historical blip, not an outrage
Cubs players celebrate a 4-0 win over the Pirates on Sept. 27 at Wrigley Field.
From the department of searching for a solution to a problem that does not exist, we give you this: The system is unfair to the Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, so down with the system!
The Cubs and Pirates have won more games than any team in any division except their own. They will meet in the NL wild-card game. The problem, allegedly, is that one of those teams will go home after one postseason game. The Dodgers and New York Mets — and their lesser records — advance to the best-of-five division series, as division champions.
The solution, supposedly, is to seed the playoff teams by their records. In that scenario, the Dodgers and Mets would have the fourth-best and fifth-best records in the postseason field, and so they would play the sudden-death playoff game.
This is not a problem. This is a historical anomaly.
Since the wild-card era started in 1995, how many other times have the second- and third-place teams in one division won more games than the winners of the other two divisions?
Zero.
Seed the playoffs by record, and you would have to play a balanced schedule. For the Dodgers, that would mean fewer home games against the San Francisco Giants, more against the Milwaukee Brewers. For the St. Louis Cardinals, fewer games against the Cubs, more against the Arizona Diamondbacks. For the New York Yankees, fewer games against the Boston Red Sox, more against the Chicago White Sox. (On the other hand, the Angels would love fewer games against the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.)
Seed the playoffs by record, and a division championship becomes meaningless — heck, the divisions themselves might as well be abolished. If you’re going to be intellectually honest, throw all 30 teams together, regardless of league, with the teams with the 10 best records advancing to the postseason.
Oh, and the Cubs and Pirates do not face an insurmountable disadvantage. The teams in the World Series last year were wild-card teams.
Outrage over a historical blip is not unprecedented, and in fact increases in volume in an era that demands instant opinion, on sports talk and Twitter.
In 2013, when the Baseball Writers Assn. of America elected no one to the Hall of Fame, anguished cries echoed through the land: Do something before this happens again, and again!
In 2014, three players were elected. In 2015, four players were elected.
Remember last winter, when new Commissioner Rob Manfred floated a trial balloon about banning defensive shifts? The balloon landed with a thud, but the outcry obscured Manfred’s larger point: Let’s consider all sorts of options to deal with declining offense, but first let’s see if offense declines again in 2015.
Runs per game, 2014 season: 4.07. Runs per game, 2015 season: 4.26.
Twitter: @BillShaikin
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
