No More Vacations

Bud Selig (or someone with access to Bud Selig) decided it would be a good idea to make the MLB All-Star game count by giving home field advantage in the World Series to the team from the league that wins the All-Star game. I have a different solution to a couple of baseball's problems.

Last year, the Detroit Tigers had a long lay-off between the end of the ALCS and the start of the World Series. They were crushed by the Cardinals in the World Series ... although it had a lot to do with the defensive deficiencies of their pitching staff. I'm not going to make excuses for the Tigers and say they were hurt by their vacation time because I don't know. But, I think it's in the best interests of baseball and most fair to expedite the playoffs a bit.

This year, the Rockies had more than a week off between polishing off the D-backs and duking it out with the Red Sox in Boston. The NLCS ended on Monday, October 15, the same day Jake Westbrook outdueled Daisuke to give the Indians a 2-1 lead in the ALCS. At that point, the Indians and Red Sox should have played daily to finish up the ALCS. They played the next day, with Cleveland winning at home to go up 3-1. Then, there was an inexplicable non-travel off-day to enjoy the lovely fall weather in Cleveland. After game 5, there was a travel day for the teams to make the 600 mile trek back to Boston. Games 6 and 7 were played on Saturday and Sunday, with the Red Sox finally pulling it out.

Then, for whatever reason, MLB decided that two off-days were necessary between the end of the ALCS and the beginning of the World Series. Was one of those a built-in weather day? Or, was that what the Cleveland off-day was? So, we're left starting the World Series on October 24th, and I'm not sure why.

The Indians and Red Sox should have played consecutive days to finish up the ALCS. Additionally, the Rockies should have been rewarded with home-field advantage for winning their LCS in the fewest games. If both LCS's take the same number of games, then use the All-Star game result, if you want to. This new format rewards teams that mow their way through the LCS and have to wait for the team from the other league. You could apply the same format to the LCS based on the # of games needed to win the LDS. With these new rules in place, the Rockies would have known they'd be playing games 1 and 2 at home. Tickets could go on sale for the first two games. I think you can sell playoff tickets without announcing a date, as long as you set the start time ... you might not even need to do that, but it would be a nice gesture. The Red Sox could have one travel day to get from Boston to Denver.

Under this new format (and assuming the games went the same way in the ALCS), Byrd beats Wakefield to give the Indians a 3-1 lead on Tuesday. Beckett counters on Wednesday, sending the series back to Boston. Schilling and Daisuke throw Thursday and Friday to send the Red Sox to the World Series. They travel Saturday and the World Series gets underway on Sunday.

Why do this? First, you minimize the number of days without baseball. Personally, I like to watch games ... and it's annoying to not have games when there should be games! Second, you throw teams that have to sit and wait a bone. It's not their fault they swept their series. Third, it gets the playoffs done sooner; even with global warming, there is still the possibility of bitter cold and nasty weather in many baseball venues when you go late into October.