Sunday NFL teams were playing game 4 of 16. MLB teams were playing game 162 of 162. Detroit and Minnesota were tied for first in AL Central. I was watching Giants on Fox, Jets on CBS and NFL Red Zone. Detroit was on MLB network. Minnesota was not televised here in New York.
Minnesota was to host a play-in game if tied with Detroit. However, Minnesota's home park was occupied for Monday Night Football on ESPN: Vikings with Brett Favre hosting Favre's former team Green Bay. 21 million people watched that Monday NFL game. MLB decided to have Minnesota play Detroit on Tuesday at 5PM ... on TBS. Not Fox. Not even ESPN. TBS, which is carrying MLB division playoff series. Not in prime time, after 8PM. 5PM on nothing cable channel TBS. Minnesota beat Detroit in 12 innings in case you missed it.
This morning I happened to see Selig interviewed on TV. No, not NBC's Today show. Not even ESPN. On a simulcast of ESPN radio.
Way to go Bud, getting your sport covered!
Then this moron has the nerve to praise himself for what a great idea he had in creating the stupid MLB wild card playoff system. I had written in my first post on this blog about this. To quote myself, June 9, 2006:
Let’s face it when Major League Baseball (MLB) expanded its playoff system in 1994 by splitting into three divisions in each league it did not put much thought into it. MLB just tried to copy basketball and hockey, which had been doing this stuff forever. Some people felt the divisions were good because they allowed more teams to be competitive. No, what made more teams competitive was that in implementing the three divisions MLB DOUBLED the number of teams that made the playoffs. For some reason baseball people did not notice. They could have doubled the number of playoff teams and eliminated the two divisions they already had in each league but that never occurred to them. What mattered was not the number of divisions but the number of playoff teams.
Maybe part of it was some vague idea that there would now be more first place teams. Did they think no one would notice that there were also more last place teams? Or that teams hovering around .500 are not really very good.
The objective should be fair competition. It should not be a random event in which a .500 team happens to be first in a weak division and a .580 team is out of luck.
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So now Minnesota flops into the playoffs with 87 wins to play the Yanks who won 103. Hey, Texas won 87, why isn't Texas in the playoffs? Oops, Texas finished second in AL West. Nice system, Buddy. Making it even worse is stupid inter-league play. Yanks play Mets six times. Yanks have been good each of those seasons. How is that fair to the Mets? Most teams play teams in the other league only three times. And why should the Yanks with 16 more regular season wins than Minnesota risk its season in a five game series with only one more home game as reward for the far better regular season record?
What is that last World Series game played in the daytime? Maybe around 1981? Football, both college and NFL, scared MLB off Saturday and Sunday afternoons decades ago. Now, MLB has retreated to a twilight play-in game on TBS.
Not even counting the whole steroids mess, Bud Selig, you are a moron!
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