Welcome
back to my Major League Baseball gripe-fest. Have an eye-full.
It will probably be clear soon that I am a
Cleveland Indians fan, and that all other teams are the unholy demon-spawn of the underworld.
Except maybe the
Cubs, whom I chose as my NL team back before interleague play, because I've always felt they were like the National League counterpart to the Tribe.
Besides hating-on the Cubbies is like picking on the "special-kids."
With
this uneven divisional-based scheduling—Why are MLB teams currently
playing nearly half of their schedules against the same four clubs?
I
know that the Yankees and Red Sox would prefer to play the entire
season against only
each other, and then battle for the “World Series of Smugness”
trophy—but right now each division has five teams, and each team is
scheduled to play the other four teams in the division: 19 times each!
These
lopsided schedules promote inflated stats and bored fans. Sure a
clear divisional champion will be declared, but on occasion some good
teams, and players, get to pound on the weak to pad their stats and
win/loss records.
This
scheduling practice, in effect, fragments the two leagues into six
mini-leagues, further segmenting fans.
Fans
whom on a chilly Thursday night may veto a trip to the ball-yard
because—yawn—the visiting team is the Minnesota Twin-kees [sic] for one of ten
visits. I hate admitting it, but certain teams put
“asses-in-seats."
Teams like Boston or the Bronx-Cheer Bombers,
[sic, straight-up] and other larger-market teams are generally good for
a lot of extra fans coming through the gates for a visiting series.
That means a lot of extra dough for struggling teams—struggling
teams without revenue sharing that is.
Spread
the wealth MLB—and the misery—balance the schedule. Give
some variety to the fans.
Fans
that currently won't get to see their team play the Yankees, Orioles,
and Red Sox nearly 60 times a year—which is wasted on Canadians and
Floridians anyway.
One
extra series among the divisional teams, or a home-and-home four-game
series is plenty.
What
season-ticket holder wants to look down and realize that nearly 1/2
of what they're holding is to see the same four teams over and over? I'm sure
even the “Fenway Fart-ful” [hell-yeah, sic] aren't always
thrilled getting 20 home games of Tampa-on [sic(k)] and the Toronto BJ's (tee-hee, tee-hee, no "[sic]" necessary.)
So
basically Major League Baseball is currently robbing most fans of
quality entertainment, by hogging the biggest marquee teams to play
mostly against each other.
I
love my Tribe, but the Cleveland Indians benefited from the
goofy-schedule themselves, temporarily, when in 2011 they jumped off
to a bloated record that had the fans screaming: “Pennant!”
But
Cleveland was mostly beating-up-on three struggling teams, and
splitting with the fourth. Eventually—as often happens with
Cleveland teams—everything went to hell, and a rival went on to win
the American League Central Division, with a lopsided 15-game lead,
and then get themselves mauled one step shy of the World
Series. Isn't that right Detroit Tiggers? [sic, damn-right
sic]
So
things did even-out eventually, and the Indians accepted their
traditional place during the October playoffs—curled up with a
nice plate of pierogi.
WhackyWookiee
