Part 6: How hard it is to make the playoffs.
I love playoffs in all sports. But baseball's playoffs are the best because only 10 teams make it. And really it's only 8. I can't really count a team that only plays one playoff game as being in the playoffs. In basketball and hockey, more than half the teams make the playoffs. In 2011, the Pacers won 45% of their games and made the playoffs. And even in the NFL, we had the Seahawks make the playoffs with a 7-9 record. You don't get nonsense like that in baseball.
Because so few teams make the playoffs, the regular season matters. The only sport where it matters more is college football. Sure, any one game doesn't matter all that much when almost every team is going to win at least 60 games and lose at least 60 games. But the Dodgers missed the playoffs by two games this year. I could easily find three random games that they lost in the middle of the season that could have been the difference (the game where the dude on the Padres stole home comes to mind).
Besides the fact that it's harder than any sport other than college football (2 teams, soon to be 4) to make the playoffs, you also have to earn it. There's no getting in on tie breakers. If you finish tied with somebody, you have to beat them in a tie breaker game. Obviously this would not be feasible in football, but why not in basketball? If two teams were tied for the last playoff spot, make them play one game to get in.
I'm pretty sad that the regular season is over and the Dodgers didn't make the playoffs, but still, the playoffs are awesome.
Part 7: The return of pitching to baseball.
I hate the steroid era in baseball with every fiber of my being. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and others made a mockery of the numbers that were sacred in baseball. I'll never forgive them for that. The problem hasn't totally been solved. The 2011 NL MVP and 2012 NL home run leader was on steroids. We could have had a batting champion on steroids this year if Melky Cabrera hadn't done the right thing (after doing the wrong thing, of course). But in 2000, the league's ERA was 4.77; this year it was 4.01. Clearly we're moving in the right direction.
The home run is exciting, but when it happens all the time, who cares? The coolest thing that can happen in a baseball game is a no hitter or perfect game. That involves great pitching. There were a lot this year, but they're always riveting. I'd rather watch great pitching any day over a 10-8 game.
Speaking of great pitching, I have some thoughts on the NL Cy Young this year. If there was a pitcher who led the league in ERA (by 0.2, a pretty big margin), WHIP, and on base percentage against and finished second in the league in innings pitched, strikeouts (one behind the leader), batting average against, and slugging percentage against, that guy has a pretty good case for Cy Young, right? I'll even throw in WAR for the stat geeks (I think that's a silly stat. Show me WAR. You can't.) and this pitcher led the league in WAR. He was first or second in all these categories. The other guy who was first or second in each of these categories was R.A. Dickey, Gio Gonzalez, Matt Cain, or Johnny Cueto. All those guys had very good years, but they weren't as good as my guy. Who am I talking about? Clayton Kershaw. But he's not going to win the award because he won last year and the Dodgers didn't help him win enough games this year. If the Dodgers had helped him win three more games, he'd probably win the award easily.
But back to how pitching has returned from the dead. We should never forget who saved baseball from steroids. If I had a Hall of Fame vote, I would never consider voting for anybody who used steroids, with one exception. That's right, Jose Canseco. I don't know if I would or not. And it may not have been intentional, but the man saved baseball. Remember the hearings in Congress on St. Patrick's Day in 2005? It was probably the greatest random sports day of all time (the steroid hearings, the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament, and Shaq vs. the Lakers). And we had a bunch of clowns lying and/or pretending not to speak English. But Jose Canseco told the truth. And he saved baseball. Thank you, Jose.
I meant to add the fact that I hate how defense in football is dying. When I was growing up, great teams played defense. Teams had to be able to run the ball also. There was still great quarterback play, but now it's just gotten ridiculous. That West Virginia-Baylor game last weekend was a joke. Football games should not have a score of 70-63. I'd rather watch last year's LSU-Alabama game that was 9-6 and it was difficult to score. It was difficult to score not because the offenses were bad but because the defenses were so good. As much as I detest the SEC, I do respect the fact that they play defense and I enjoy it when they teach a lesson to a school from another conference where they don't play defense. In the NFL, they need to go back to where some contact with the receivers was allowed so that defenses have a chance against a great quarterback.
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