Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Baseball has seen its fair share of renovations and realignments over the past three decades, but one of the most significant changes in the history of the game came in 1995 when commissioner Bud Selig put a whole new spin on the way the league would operate.
1995 saw the creation of a new division in each league and a Wild Card in each league. The Wild Card in each league also led to a second round being added to the playoffs.
The League Championship series was added to baseball’s post-season play in 1969. That meant that the top two teams in each league had to play a best of five series before advancing to the World Series. Since the addition of the Wild Card team in each league the Championship Series has been changed to a best of seven format and the Division Series was added to the playoff roster. This new round (in 1995) is a best of five series.
What does all of this mean for the sport of professional baseball? Well, for one, it gives more teams the opportunity to continue playing baseball once October rolls around and it creates more revenue for the sport in general. Since the addition of the Wild Card team and the Division Series to post-season play there have been more than enough sweeps in the first round of play. Has the Wild Card Era lessened baseball with all of these first round sweeps? Or, has the Wild Card Era provided enough thrill and excitement towards the end of the regular season to keep baseball fans happy?
Since the advent of the Wild Card team in postseason play and the onset of the Division Series in each league, first round sweeps have become all too common and many baseball experts and former players claim that the first round should also be a best of seven format, not a best of five format. I tend to agree. As much as I like to see certain teams swept out of the postseason in the first round, if you play a 162 game season you should have more of an opportunity in the first round with a best of seven series. A best of five series is not the greatest measure of a ballclub. A best of seven series is the best measure of a ballclub.
Since 1995 there have been 60 Division Series to take place, two in each league. A handful of those series ended in a sweep, more often then not, for the same team. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have been swept from the first round of the MLB playoffs twice, both times by the Boston Red Sox.
Other sweeps, but not all of them, in the first round have come at the expense of the Red Sox, the Padres, the Dodgers (1995 and 1996), the Giants and the Astros. The Chicago Cubs, including 2008, have been swept in the first round of the postseason a total of three times. This season they were knocked out by the Dodgers, last season by the Diamondbacks, and in 1998 by the Braves. The first round of the playoffs needs to be expanded for the sole purpose that there have been too many sweeps in the best of five format.
The Major League Baseball playoffs have lacked excitement for at least the last few seasons because of the sweep. Seeing a team sweep another team during the regular season is nice, especially when the sweeping team needs every win they can get during a pennant race. But all of these sweeps during the postseason are becoming a little old.
Take for instance the 2007 playoffs. The first round saw three sweeps and only one series went four games when the Yankees lost to the Indians 3 games to 1. Then, in the League Championship round, one of the two series ended in a sweep. To make matters worse, the World Series ended in a sweep for the third time in four years. A total of five sweeps occurred during the 2007 playoffs out of the seven series played.
The 2009 playoffs were not much better, especially in the first round, with three of the four series ending in sweeps once again. The only series that did not end in a sweep was the Phillies and Rockies, which went four games, with the Phillies winning the series 3 games to 1. The other three series saw the Dodgers sweep the Cardinals, the Yankees sweep the Twins, and the Angels sweep the Red Sox. The League Championship Series were a little bit better this time around, most notably in the American League, as the Yankees knocked off the Angels 4 games to 2. The NLCS was exactly the same for the second consecutive year as the Phillies eliminated the Dodgers 4 games to 1, this time in Philadelphia instead of Los Angeles.
With the debacle of the 2008 World Series looming large over the heads of Major League Baseball, changes need to be made to the playoff format. World Series game five was suspended because of inclement weather and resumed two days later. The Phillies eventually won the game, 4-3, and took the World Series 4 games to 1 over the Rays. But other than the late-inning dramatics of a continued game five, there wasn’t much excitement outside of Tampa Bay and Philadelphia during the playoffs. Bud Selig and the rest of baseball’s administration need to figure out how to bring the excitement back into the game. Now, with the World Baseball Classic causing the 2009 season to begin a couple of weeks later than normal, the World Series was played into the month of November for the first time since 2001 (9/11 attacks suspended the sport).
We haven’t seen a thrilling (all seven games played) World Series since 2002, when the Angels beat Barry Bonds’ Giants 4 games to 3. The 2009 World Series, between the Yankees and Phillies, went six games, with the Yankees winning their 27th title 4 games to 2. This was the first World Series to go past five games since the 2003 World Series, which saw the Florida Marlins knock off the Yankees 4 games to 2 for their second title in team history.
Baseball is in need of another change, this time to make the playoffs a little bit more exciting, by expanding the first round series to best of seven. If we have to suffer through another first round of sweeps in 2010 the game might lose more fans. Possibly the most exciting game of the season was game number 163 for the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins. It was a one game playoff to determine the winner of the American League Central, which went to the Twins by a score of 6-5 in 12 heart racing innings.
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Jim is the creator and editor of At the Dish, Cinn City Sports, Life with Tony and Enzo and owner of JAVFreelancing. He coached baseball for five years, three at his former high school (Holy Cross in Delran, NJ) and two at prominent Division III program Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has worked for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, NJ; Metro Networks in Bala Cynwyd, PA; and was the play-by-play announcer for the Camden Riversharks of the Independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for two seasons (2007-2008) on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the student-run radio station at Rowan University. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, sons Tony and Enzo and dog Phoebe. He can be reached at jimvassallo@mlbdrafts.com.
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