Be honest. Aren’t most of you secretly hoping for a Dodger/Yankee World Series? After all, baseball is about a whole lot of memories and what better ones to share than those of Ebbets Field and Yankee Stadium. I didn’t come of baseball age until the early 1950’s so I may have a tainted view of what constitutes a valid baseball memory, but believe me, the Dodgers and Yankees are right at the top.
The Yankees have won the most World Series in history and it’s not even close. They’ve won participated in 40 while their closest contender, the SF Giants (okay New York Giants if you’re an oldie) is second with only 20. But no matter. I have different thoughts on who should even be in the playoffs. Back in those days there was only the American League and the National League. No Divisions. That was it. So the team that won the most games in each league were the Pennant Winners and automatic World Series participants.
And isn’t that the way is should still be? Good grief. It’s bad enough having really bad Division Winners being able to compete for the Pennant. Some teams under .500 can still compete for the Pennant depending on how bad the rest of the division is. And forget about the Wild Card. The only possible reason for having that competition is for gate receipts and MONEY. MLB is good at that. They’re running unbelievable ads during the playoffs trying to get kids, I mean 8 and 9 year olds, sucked into buying MLB products online. MLB.com? That’s what’s happening, reminiscent of Wheaties and Cheerios ads in the old days. Get ’em while they’re young. And that merchandise is expensive. How can the average joe afford to buy this stuff for his kids?
I digress. The teams with the best records in MLB for any given season should be the Pennant Winners for each League and they alone should advance to the World Series. And there should be NO INTER-LEAGUE PLAY DURING THE SEASON. Inter-league play undermines the Divisions. How can you say the best team in any Division is one or the other if they’re all playing each other during the regular season. That’s what the World Series is supposed to determine.
So here it is. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros – 2017 Pennant Winners. That’s the way it should be. (Well, actually Houston was one off from the most league wins but they’re there so we’ll leave it alone.)
World Series winner to be determined.
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