The Mets have traded Ike Davis, released Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Valverde, put Bobby Parnell on the DL to have Tommy John’s Surgery, moved from last place to third place to fourth place in about two weeks, promoted and demoted Rafael Montero, demoted and then premoted Travis d’Arnaud, put starting pitchers Jon Niese and Dillon Gee on the DL and activated them, and done much more…all in the first half of the season! With most sports, this is the equal to what would happen over the course of multiple seasons, but that is not the case for Major League Baseball. Now, the trade deadline is approaching, pennant races are beginning, and the post season is still more than two months away. Some people may like it this way; but personally, I believe that it is time for the MLB to cut down the number of games played in the season.
It would not have benefited the Mets this season, but if the season ended at the All Star Break, the post season would look a lot different than it will in October. The Braves and Nationals would have played a tie breaker to see who would have won the National League East; the loser would have held one of the Wild Card spots while the Cardinals would have held the second; the Dodgers would have won the NL West; and the Orioles, Tigers, Athletics, Angels, and Mariners would all be in the AL post season. Not much has changed…but come October there will be many more differences. Why do baseball fans have to wait that long, while NFL fans only have to wait 16 games?
Another plead for a shorter season is for the players. A longer season means more injuries for the players. Throughout the years, baseball fans have seen too many players forced to give up their career due to injury. Some pitchers have not come back from Tommy John’s Surgery, and some fielders have not come back from other types of injuries. Concussions have recently taken a bigger toll on the game, as have collisions at home plate. However, if the season were shorter, there would be less risk of injury, because the players would be healthier and not have to work as hard to produce.
When asked, many people say they do not watch baseball because it is long and boring. This can be true. There is not something going on every second of the game, and the games have become much longer over time. However, these people are also referring to the length of the season. In the NFL, there are only 16 games, so each game means too much for the teams to lose. In the MLB, there are 162 games, so losses here and there do not hurt anybodies’ chances. But if the season was shorter, and the games meant more to the outcome of the season, then the MLB may get more viewers and fans, and it would not be a sport on a possible decline.
I am not trying to say baseball is boring. I am a giant fan of the sport and all that comes with it. But it may be time to reanalyze how the season is run. 162 games is an overly large number of games to play, as the games do not really begin matter late July/early August. The season does not need to be cut down a drastic amount, but maybe to just 100 games. In 2014, the All Star Break came after the Mets played their 95th game of the season, so maybe that should be cut down to their 50th game. Not only would this improve the sport and how hard teams try, but it would draw more fans and attention to the sport.
Why does MLB have to be like the NFL? Why should we cater to fans that aren’t fans? And money? Why would the players or owners give up all that lost money?
The NBA and NHL seasons are just as long as the MLB in terms of season duration. MLB plays more games, because it isn’t as taxing on the body.
Baseball is a sport of endurance, both physical and mental. You can’t get a lucky hot run and make the playoffs, which is one of the things that turns me off from the NFL. Why cheapen it?
This is the dumbest article ever there no chance of that happening because its a terrible idea
Would suggest shortening season to 154 games. Due to weather concerns, early to mid April games should only be played in warm climates and/or domed stadiums. The 2nd wildcard only cheapens the game in my opinion. The World Series games start much to late in the eastern time zone, which in part accounts for the poor TV ratings. There are also cold weather issues in late Oct. which dampen interest.
I could support a shorter season if it came with expansion to 32 teams, the end of Interleague play and a return to a balanced schedule.
Two 16-team leagues, play each team in your league 10 times. One three-game and one two-game home-and-home set with each team in your league. You could even keep your current structure of top three and two wild cards.
I realize it has zero chance of happening.
Go watch college baseball. The season is shorter.
I thought the author was going to argue going back to 154 games, so that the playoffs wont be so rushed and MLB could avoid playing games in NOV. But to cut it to less than 100 games? Then baseball becomes something else. Part of the storied appeal of Baseball is the length of the season. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Also stats wise, it’s hard to “Get Lucky” over 162 games… usually performance reverts back to the mean over a full season.
Going from 162 to 100 seems like a fairly drastic reduction IMO. I agree in theory that less games means more meaningful games, but it impacts so much more than that. Team revenue, broadcasting contracts, season stats, and much more. It sucks when the team you root for is out of the hunt early (Texas, Colorado, Cubs to name a few), but that’s all part of the game. Being more like the NFL should never be the goal. I watch this precisely because it’s not like football. I could stomach 150 though. That seems fair. I like Brian’s idea as well. Get ready to root for the Oklahoma City Hoodrats and the Charlotte Affordable Housing Complexes!
Huh, 100 games?
Imagine an MLB average gate of 1.5 million per year. Now multiply that by 30 teams. The result is 45,000,000 people paying for tickets. Most folks will spend 50 bucks (more likely 100 between ticket, food, trinkets), which is 2.25 billion dollars at 50 bucks. Even an average gate of 1 million, would mean 30 million people pay just to go. The MLB is not cutting revenue by nearly 1/3 no matter how many football fans cant handle a 3 season sport.
My recommendation is to not touch the schedule, except perhaps the post season.
Shorten the games not the season. If people say baseball is boring it’s because the games are too long. Stop letting batters fidget with their gloves after every pitch or at all. Make the pitchers throw a pitch every 10 seconds. This is what makes games take so long. There are the right amount of games, most just go too long.
There’s a lot of changes needed to be made to the MLB. I’d like to see more doubleheaders, which would mean some off days for the players, and hopefully a shorter season while playing 162 games. If this came to be, I’d expand the roster size from 25 to possibly 28, and they have to speeden up games as well. Whoever is the next commissioner is going to make a lot of decisions to help with baseball.
I agree with this author that the season should be shorten. Why the hell do we need 162 games to decide on how to crown a champion? The regular season should end by labor day weekend and then go straight into the playoffs that end by October 1st. I don’t buy this crap that owners would lose revenue. In fact I think with 62 less games it will create more intrigue; the stadiums would be near packed, the owners could charge a little more for tickets and ratings would go up for regular and postseason games. What is the point of having 162 games with an average of 15,000 buts in the seats when you could have 100 games and an average of 35,000 buts in the seats??? With the exception of Wrigley Field & Fenway Park most stadiums are more than half empty on a regular basis because there is too much of an inventory of games. Less inventory of games creates more demand and revenue for everybody. Also, I would keep the wildcard game, shorten the division series to best of 3, shorten LCS to best of 5 and keep the WS at best of seven. I would even shorten games to 7 innings and if the game reached extra innings into the 9th & was still tied you could have a homerun contest to break the tie. This would be in the same molds as the hockey shootout. During the playoffs this homerun contest would not apply.