Why a tournament after 162 games? Don't we know the best teams by then?

Ralf Roletschek, CC BY-SA 3.0
via Wikimedia Commons

It's a rhetorical question, so don't say it's to make more money. 

https://www.mlb.com/standings 

Starting Thursday, two days from today, the Tampa Rays will play a five game series against either the Yankees or Red Sox, whichever wins the American League (AL) wild card game tonight in Boston. Why? Tampa won eight more games in the 162 game regular season in the same ridiculous five team mini division. Because a tournament suddenly broke out? Why does Tampa need to prove itself all over again in both the five game series and then in a seven game series, both of which introduce much more randomness than the 162 game season.

AL East:
Tampa: 100-62
Boston: 92-70
Yankees: 92-70
Toronto: 91-71
Baltimore: 52-110

Perhaps even more unfair is the National League (NL) in 2021:

NL West:
San Francisco: 107-55
Los Angeles: 106-56

Teams play 19 games against each of the four division rivals, that's (19*4)/162 or 47% in division. FORTY-SEVEN percent! What the heck?

And they do not play the same schedule outside of the division. For instance Yankees and Red Sox games against:

Astros, Royals: Yanks 6, Red Sox 7
Angels, As: Yanks 7, Red Sox 6
Mets: Yanks 6, Red Sox 4
Phillies: Yanks 4, Red Sox 6

1. Even among ardent fans, how many knew this? I had to look it up.

2. You've got people agitated about the fairness of having the "do or die" one game elimination wild card game. Really? Compared to what?

And lest we forget: the thing that undermines the basic integrity of the 162 game regular season the most: tanking before it reaches the two thirds point. There should not be any trades during the season. None. That would fix that problem. Oh, but the handicapping is so much fun! Grow the heck up!

Merger: AL and NL merged years ago. How come no one noticed? Wednesday, October 19, 2011

... the merger technically happened in 2000, not 1994 ...

If the merger between the once independent American and National Leagues had been treated as such then the new organization, MLB, Inc., might not have made such absurd decisions about organizing the new single league...

... AL and NL agreed  to play a series of games starting after the 1905 season, usually best of seven, between the champions of their respective leagues.  It became known as the World Series.  Since the generally unrecognized merger of the AL and NL, the World Series description has persisted for what more properly should be called the MLB finals.

More of a mess is that MLB did not even attempt to reconcile the different rule, the 1973 designated hitter (DH), which applied to the AL but not to the NL.  That schism persists to this day, the first of the MLB finals, and MLB is not even embarrassed by that as it should be.  FORTY years and MLB has not resolved a simple rule aberration...

SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2011   The unique absurdities of MLB. ...

Not treating the new MLB, Inc. as a merger caused other problems...

The AL and NL identities, especially the DH, continue to thwart any real reform.  Here's what you tend to get: add another wild card team...

MLB in 1994 could and should have DOUBLED the number of playoff teams simply and more fairly by leaving the AL and NL entities with two divisions each and allowing second place teams to qualify.  Those divisions, introduced in 1969, had a decent amount of geographic balance, which is why they were named east and west.  Instead, MLB tried to mindlessly imitate the other sports by creating mini divisions ... the inequity of having teams play 162 games only to have them then subjected to a tournament, which as often as not, produces a random champion as is happening in 2011.

It was a merger.  A damn MERGER!  Treat it as a merger and realign the teams geographically with all the rich and natural regular season rivalries ...

Geographic realignment will produce a more fair and compelling playoff system naturally, one that even MLB, Inc. may not be able to prevent.

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