Season attendance figures are out: http://www.mlb.com/news/article/mlb...md=20140929&content_id=96997392&vkey=news_mlb League total of almost 74 million, which completely blows away any other sport Dodgers (as is often the case) get the prize at close to 3.8 million Seventeen weekends saw attendance in excess of 1.5 million (even the NFL can't match that) Five teams pulled in more than 3 million (Dodgers, Yankees, Cardinals, Angels, Giants) L.A. is a serious baseball town, with two teams, that's 162 home games, for which they averaged 45,626 fans. That's a huge number, six days a week, for six months. People can talk up the decline of baseball all they want, but there is no other sport that comes remotely close for number of games, length of season, or attendance. It is still America's past time.
Pretty great game last night. I wasn't a big fan of the latest post-season expansion, but I have to say, getting two single game eliminations every year can definitely create some excitement. Both teams played as you'd expect with everything riding on it. Really fantastic result, and such a good match-up. Hopefully we'll get some similar drama tonight, with SF ultimately losing, of course (hi @Chuck).
Great game last night! The Mrs. grew up mostly in KC, so she was pleased that the Royals are back in the postseason for the first time in nearly 30 years! Glad they won...we apparently tuned out and went to bed one inning too early, but it was getting late... Also glad to the WSJ published their Baseball Playoffs Hateability Index, which the Cardinals won!
That index suffers from a few of the high hate teams not making the post season this year. But to be honest, the only one I hate in that group is the Giants, though I'm not crazy about Detroit either, just don't feel it enough for the word hate to come in to play.
"Excessive beards" Anyway, that ranking is epic fail for not tagging the Nationals with about 10 points for a terrible nickname. And the Angels for snubbing Anaheim. Also, yay Royals! Kinda surprised they managed not to choke.
Though the Cardinals are a close second, I find myself hating the Tigers more than any other team on that list. And they got it wrong; Tiger fans do invade opposing ballparks, at least here in Chicago where there are quite a lot of transplanted Michiganders.
I didn't realize the Cardinals were so despicable. Using these metrics, I don't even think the Redsox or Yankees would rate higher.
it was particularly disappointing that I had decided I was no loner interested after the baseball gods fucked me in 2013....then have them pull be back in before bludgeoning me to death in August for ANOTHER playoff miss... BUT the pain is almost worth it because it led to this epic exchange. Backstory: a. after the Jays made only one minor deal in the week prior to the mid-season deadline, a couple of their high profile players, including Jsse Bautista expressed disappointment (albeit, the deals which leaked out would have been very bad ideas) b. Toronto sportswriter Steve Simmons is widely considered a major douche. Last night, this happened:
That is awesome! Bautista actually follows me on Twitter for some reason. Dustin Pedroia also follows me, but in his case it sort of makes sense. As for Simmons' comment, I don't think anybody associated with the A's wishes the hadn't made it to the wild card game.
Well, yes, it fails to take into account the Yankees '90s run, which combined with previous domination and being from NYC should keep them deep in despicability for another few centuries. Whoever put that chart together thinks much too small. Or is, like, 18 years old. Or a New Yorker. There was some nonsense . . . last year? . . . about Cards fans trumpeting The Cardinal Way like it was some sort of eternal metric of holiness, when in fact apparently it was just the current scouting-and-signing system for the franchise or something. I totally understand other fans' teams getting irked by that, and it's a ridiculous notion for anyone who seriously considers the team's history for a moment. And having survived the '90s as a Blues fan, I understand being irritated that a particular other team keeps winning your division or knocking your team out of the playoffs. But seriously. Yankees. And Red Wings.
Yes, but at the time of the July 4 trade for Samardzjia and Hammel, the A's had the best record in baseball and looked to be running away with the division. Even squeaking into the second wild card spot on the last day of the season was an epic collapse. And it was Hammel who gave up the walkoff hit, btw. This matchup was particularly intriguing because the Royals represent everything Billy Beane and Moneyball despise. They run like crazy and sacrifice bunt every chance they get.
I kind of wanted the Pirates to win tonight, nothing against the Giants. But I also really like Madison Bumgarner, so still pleased with the result.
Are you kidding? The Red Sox would bypass the Cardinals on the "Excessive Beards" count alone! I love how they put in the "Best Fans in Baseball" criteria to effectively single out the Cardinals!
The Redsox would certainly score more terrible beard points, but the Cardinals have a 1 point edge on pennants, PED users, contracts > $100M, and payroll. Even if we assign a 3 point beard rating, I think the Sox land just behind the Cards.
Wrong on 2 of 3... Pedroia is > 100M (source: http://www.rotoworld.com/teams/contracts/mlb/bos/), vs Holliday...it's a push according to http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/salaries/_/name/bos/boston-red-sox the BoSox have a 2014 payroll of 154.5M vs 107.5M for the Cards
Forgot about Pedroia's contract to the end of time, and I was thinking about next year's payroll. At any rate, I have no problem with the Redsox being top tier on hated teams, I just don't think these metrics are useful. I mean, seriously, the Yankees have no beards, that doesn't negate their status as Satan's spawn.
Every TV exec's worst nightmare: Kansas City vs. Baltimore in the ALCS! I couldn't be happier. Now if the Dodgers can just take care of the Cardinals…
I certainly did not expect this. Figured Baltimore and LA of A for the ALCS, but also expected more from Detroit. Two sweeps!
Why are the most dominant regular season teams so crap in the playoffs? The only exception this year is the Orioles, and while I like them and like their chances against KC you have to wonder if being the obvious favorite isn't a handicap.
The play-offs are often like that, because the teams with the best records weren't necessarily playing best in September. The Orioles had a fantastic September, we should expect them to continue to dominate. The Dodgers, on the other hand saw some drop-off. Detroit just wasn't that good, and the Angels had an easy schedule.
Cardinals vs Giants in the NLCS! The rest of the National League must be getting pretty damned tired of watching those guys! In the ALCS, I can't decide...I like seeing the Royals do well after so many years in the cellar, but the ghosts of the 1985 "I-70 Series" still haunt me. So not sure I'd like to see them in the WS, unless the Cards don't advance. Then again, it could be a nice opportunity to exorcise those demons, and I think Yadi can put a significant damper on KC's running game. I would think they'd hate STL/KC even worse...two smaller market teams from "Flyover" territory. At least the Orioles would draw some East Coast fans. But you *know* the TV Execs must be rooting hard for SF/Baltimore, just to get the East Coast/West Coast matchup!
Royals/O's is win/win: either Kansas City finally returns to the WS, or the old Browns in their shiny new orange get there! Add the Cardinals in and it's probably the all-around best LCS year ever?
Seriously, why bother winning the division? What advantage does it give you? Better to scrape and claw your way into a wild card spot then get hot at the right time.
It's fairly common for a wild card team to win the pennant. But at least now, one bad game can end that before it starts. The play-in format is a reason to play for the division. But I really hope we don't get a KC/SF World Series. We don't need an argument to support further play-off expansion. Actually, what I'd like to see is two more teams, and reversion to four divisions. Get rid of inter-league play, make each division almost like an independent mini-league, with most play taking place only in division, maybe just two series against teams from the other division. Then have only division winners play in the post season. Baseball is about the 162 games establishing which teams are best. A league championship series makes sense, and of course the World Series makes sense. The current format is too long for most people if they don't have a team involved.
Perhaps the four divisions could also be geographically aligned somewhat (west and east half of the country). It would probably still be good to have the cities with two teams have their teams in separate divisions.
Too bad they're going to get swept by the winner of the Giants-Cardinals series. History shows things don't go so well for teams that have to sit for a week. Hope I'm wrong… not because I particularly care who wins, but I'd like to see a 6-7 game World Series.
