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I’m sure that you’ve heard Major League Baseball and other sports use the term growing the game. Now what I’ve always thought they’ve meant was to try to reach people who can’t see games or show teams that don’t get the exposure that some of the teams do.

Now you would think that the MLB Network would be a big part of baseball trying to grow their game, but honestly with the way they’ve shown games this season I don’t think they are.

I don’t have the exact number, but it sure seems as though the MLB Network shows quite a few New York Yankees games and it got to the point this past week where I think they televised every Yankees game. Do the Yankees really need that exposure?

Now I know what they’re going to say. They’ll tell you that these games were shown because they wanted to cover Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run, but this doesn’t really hold up. Earlier this season Miguel Cabrera got his 3000th hit and all MLB did was cut into the game; we didn’t get a week’s worth of Detroit Tigers game. Then just recently Albert Pujols just hit the 700th home run of his career and again all we got from the MLB Network was a cut in.

Now what Judge did was incredible, but it quite possible that we may never see a player get to 3000 hits or 700 home runs again, so why wasn’t the MLB Network more interested in these player accomplishments.

Sadly, there is one very simple answer to this: RATINGS!

No matter what they try to sell you about growing the game or any of those kinds of things when it’s on television it’s all about ratings and being able to charge for commercial time. Now with the playoffs about to start they’ll be able to charge even more for that commercial time.

It’s sad, but that’s how it is. There are teams that always draw a good television rating and the Yankees are one of them. You’d think that the Cardinals would draw and audience, but you have to remember that accord to Major League Baseball they’re considered a small market team. As for the Tigers, well they’re almost 30 games under .500 and even a player trying to get his 3000th hit isn’t really going to up that all important rating that they want.

Speaking of Judge and what he just accomplished. While getting to 62 home runs is a great achievement it seems as though some people think that he just set the record for most home runs in a season, and he didn’t. Judge’s 62 home runs actually put him in the 7th slot for most home runs in a season and all of those spots ahead of him were set by three players.

Now since the three players that have hit more home runs in a season than Judge are Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa it’s possible that there are people who don’t believe that their numbers should count because of the performance enhancing drug accusations they’ve all dealt with. While I understand people questioning the numbers those three players put up and I am one of them to be fair none of them every failed a drug test and in McGwire’s case when they reported he was using a performance enhancing drug there were no rules in baseball against it.

So, while what Judge did is fantastic, and he should be the unanimous choice for American League Most Valuable Player 62 home runs is still 11 home runs behind the number that Bonds put up in 2001.

As we move forward into the MLB playoffs the match ups are set. In the American League the Cleveland Guardians will host the Tampa Bay Rays while the Toronto Blue Jays will host the Seattle Mariners. In the National League the St. Louis Cardinals will host the Philadelphia Phillies while the New York Mets will host the San Diego Padres.

In case you don’t remember these are the best of three game series with all of the games being played in one ballpark. In this case it’s Cleveland, Toronto, St. Louis and New York that will be hosting these series.

Four teams get 1st round byes. In the American League it’s the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros while in the National League it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves getting the byes.

When we move into the division series. Over in the American League will see the Yankees take on the winner of the Cleveland/Tampa Bay series while the Astros will face off against the winner of the Blue Jays/Mariners series. Then in the National League the Dodgers will face the winner of the Padres/Mets series while the Braves face off against the winner of the Cardinals/Phillies series.

I’m not sure why MLB didn’t decide to reseed the playoffs after the wild card round, but they didn’t. That means the teams with the best records in their league the Dodgers and the Astros could face a division winner in the division series.

That doesn’t make a lot of sense to get what would appear to be the tougher match up when you had the best record, but without reseeding that’s how it’s set up.

Is there something that you’re looking forward to when the playoffs start on Friday?

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.