Baseball’s long-ago decision to make a couple of levels of short series that teams would have to negotiate like a minefield, showed itself this year.
The justification for departing from one pennant winner with the most victories in each league was money. The Lords of Baseball, the Owners, wanted more money. They thought without evidence at the time that more fans buying more tickets in more series would make them more money. In the short run, perhaps it has.
In the long run, the fans that follow teams beginning in April know that in October their teams’ victories won’t matter. What will matter is whether their team “qualifies” for the first of many short series on the way to the World Series. Even if a team wins more than 100 games, as the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles both did this season, their records won’t matter if they don’t make it past all of the multiple short series.
So the lesson is that winning games between April and October does not matter so long as you win 3 out of 5 games, or 4 out of 7 games, to really punch your ticket to the World Series. The Lords may be making money on this in the short run, and maybe not, but if those Owners pay attention they will see and hear and smell the loss of interest in the long run.
Short-term profits and long-term loss. Isn’t that so 2023?
CIAO! ARRIVEDERCI!