Sports Time Radio

Well the first round or the wild card round as they where calling it of the Major League Baseball playoffs is in the books and I don’t think there where any really surprises as to which teams are moving forward.

Now I know that there where a few people who thought that the Minnesota Twins would beat the Houston Astros in their wild card match up, but once you looked at Minnesota’s recent playoff history and the fact that they would be without Josh Donaldson; is it a surprise they got sent home? I did think that Minnesota would win a game, but instead they dropped their 17th and 18th consecutive playoff games and are done for the season.

I’m also sure there where a lot of people who thought the Chicago Cubs would beat the Miami Marlins in that wild card match up, but I don’t know where they came up with that or why they thought it would happen. The Cubs started the season off hot and got out to a big lead in the NL Central, but they’ve been a terrible team for about the final 30 games or more and it showed in this series. Of course I do live in the Chicago suburbs; so it’s no surprise I heard everyone picking the Cubs.

Now to me these wild card match ups didn’t even seem like playoff series. They just felt like regular three game series. Maybe it was the fact that their where no fans in the stands to add that playoff type atmosphere or maybe it was the fact that this was just a joke of a season with only 60 games and whoever wins the World Series isn’t really going to be a true champion. I’m not sure which one it was or maybe it was something else all together, but I just didn’t think of this as playoff baseball.

The only thing I found interesting about the entire 8 team playoff set up was the fact that the NL Central had four teams and the AL Central had three teams make this little tournament. Of course all seven of those teams from those two divisions that got into the wild card round where eliminated. I mentioned that the Astros sent the Twins home and the Cubs embarrassed themselves against the Marlins. The rest of the NL Central had the St. Louis Cardinals being knocked out by the San Diego Padres. As for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds they where both swept out of the wild card round. The Brewers by the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Reds by the Atlanta Braves. As for the AL Central the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians two straight to send them home and the Oakland A’s knocked the Chicago White Sox out in three games.

I gave the AL Central teams a much better chance to get out of the wild card round than I did the NL Central teams, but in the end they all got knocked out with only the Cardinals and the White Sox managing to win a game.

I also feel tat I was lied to by Major League Baseball. I didn’t look ahead at the playoff scheduling and when I heard tat there would be no off days I was excited to see how teams handled their pitching staffs. What I didn’t realize was that their where multiple days off between each series. I guess it’s my fault for not looking at the schedule, but this really bothered me as they made it seem when they announced this that there would be baseball for at least or up to 15 days in a row. With as quickly as the wild card round ended there are now two days with no baseball games.

Unfortunately for baseball this will give the casual fan plenty of time to find other things to watch and when the playoffs start back up they probably won’t be tuning back in. With both the Cubs and the White Sox out of the playoffs I doubt there will be too many fans from Chicago turning the games back on when they restart on Monday.

Now I understand that no other sports wants to find itself having games on Sunday’s with it being football season, but if you just look at the hit the NBA took in the ratings giving your fans free time allows them to find other things they want to do or watch. Now I’ll still be tuning in because I’m a baseball fan, but will you be watching?

Just like in the wild card round the American League starts things off. The Astros and the A’s start things off on Monday followed by the Yankees and the Rays. Tuesday has all of the remaining playoff teams in action as the National League jumps in with the Padres vs. the Dodgers and the Marlins vs. the Braves.

Hopefully these will be some interesting series, but in all honesty I would’ve liked to have seen Major League Baseball wait until the championship series to have division rivals face off. I’m also wondering what the Dodgers and the Rays get for being the top seeded teams in their leagues. In essence they got nothing if you look at these match ups. Why weren’t the match ups reseeded? It’s not like it would’ve affected travel or anything like that since they’re all going to the same location. It not only seemed like winning your division didn’t mean anything, but also have the best record in your league only gets you the final at bat. How much of an advantage is that?

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