Case Against and For Expanded MLB Playoffs

Mike Carp did some damage to the
struggling Tampa Bay Rays. 

Last year, Major League Baseball changed their rules to a five-team playoffs allowing an extra team in for a one-game playoff. It created a great deal of discussion about what might be next for baseball. In my opinion, I could see baseball shortening the season by a week and then having the fourth and fifth team play a three-game series versus one single game. They say this would cause some damage, but a one-game playoff does nothing for me personally.  I doubt they will expand to six teams or heaven forbid eight teams.

The one people should probably expect is baseball is as Taylor Swift might say never ever getting back together with the four-team playoff model. Although if the playoffs were pre-2012, the National League would be must-see every night. But the American League shows why five teams is the better decision in the long run.  

The National League would be awesome in the next couple weeks if they were only four teams allowed in because right now, it is a five-team race with five playoff sports. I highly doubt the Washington Nationals can catch the fifth spot, but then again, weird shit happens in baseball all the time.  There would be storylines about what if the Pittsburgh Pirates do not get in after having their best season since 1992 or could the other two NL Central teams outlast the St. Louis Cardinals having the Cards miss the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

Would it be unfair to one of these teams?   Yes but only if it is St. Louis or Pittsburgh missing out.  Cincinnati has sort just been there the whole year. They are like the person who ends up at the party yet you have absolutely no idea how they got there. We all know that guy or girl. Unless one of these teams pull a Boston or a New York Mets in following couple weeks,  the National League playoffs are all but set just need to place the teams. These two weeks will still be fine in the NL because there is some intrigue to see where these squads finish, but it would have been awesome to see what happened when the pressure would have been truly on.

The American League is a completely other story.  While the AL East and AL Central are probably locked up by Boston and Detroit, the rest of the league is still as open as a field in Idaho.  Texas is the Wild Card, but they are only three games back from Oakland for the AL West. The second Wild Card is truly unpredictable and makes its case for why baseball needs the fifth Wild Card position.  As of this morning, four teams are within three games of the second Wild Card position. The Tampa Rays are clutching on the lead, but they have lost seven of their last 10 games trending water right now at the worst time. New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals are vying for the final position making for an absolutely thrilling final couple of weeks.

The other great thing about the American League race right now is it is not a guarantee Texas will make the playoffs either as the first Wild Card. They are only 2.5 games ahead of Tampa meaning most of the teams mentioned above have a chance at overtaking both Wild Cards with a hot run in the final two weeks of the season. It is likely inevitable some team whether in the playoffs or not will shit the bed and will be the talk of the baseball world.

If you are a purist, and wish baseball still had a four-team playoff, maybe pretend the National League still allows four teams. But if you want to have some fun, watch American League baseball in the coming weeks because it is setting up for some fantastic theater.

Charlie.

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Kazz's Top 2013 Summer Moments

With class starting and summer ending for yours truly, I thought it was time to sit down and make a list of the “Best Things” that happened to me this summer—whether sports related or otherwise:

The Best Things List
1. The Miami Heat Championship. It is almost hard to remember, but to start off this summer LeBron dipped into championshipism[1] for a second time. It was really great. For the majority of the NBA season I had been able to sit down and write about either A) what I was watching or B) my personal NBA feelings on things. However, when LeBron double-dipped, I went nuts. I basically partied as if I was on the Heat. So, my apologies for never coming out with anything, but I was jacked up. The only negative aspect of the second championship was that athletes and regular people alike had new social media outlets such as Twitter and Vine to constantly remind people how poorly they use social media. I want everyone to know I am disappointed with LeBron James when it comes to his portrayal of himself via these mediums. He is lame on social media, that is just how I feel. However, I like him for his basketball game, so I look past it. I need to stop writing about this. The NBA starts in 64 days.      

2. Both Jay-Z (the peoples champ) and Kanye West (whose voice has turned drastically more higher than before) dropped albums. I sleep with a poster of Jay-Z behind my bed so I always have his back, but comparing his work on Magna Carta to the work ‘Ye did on Yeezus, Kanye got the best of him. That is not to say I do not 100% feel what HOV did on MCHG, it’s just that I felt Yeezus even more. These are two of my top five favorite music artists so the fact that they dropped albums within two weeks of one another shocked me. Usually when rappers do so it is in the spirit of competition. It is to my understanding that these two are pretty good pals therefore I felt it was odd, but I loved it nonetheless. I wanted to like Magna Carta better, but it just was not to be. Plus it is a lot easier to bang to Yeezus than to MCHG. That is a fact.

3. I went on a real vacation. I missed an entire week of work (something I have never done) and went to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Milwaukee catching some baseball games all along the way. My Dad and brother were my trusty companions along the way, and I can assure you my Dad only fell asleep at one game[2]. The funny part about him only falling asleep at one game is that it ended up being at the Chicago Cubs game, and the Cubs happen to be his favorite team. I am sure the couple beer gardens we stopped at before the game had nothing to do with his sleepiness. Know this though, if I took one thing away from the trip it is that Progressive Field in Cleveland may be the coolest park I have been to yet. Atmosphere is great, the weather was perfect (Obviously that is not always the case) and you can drink LaBatt’s Blue there, which I thought was great because I hadn’t drank a LaBatt’s Blue since I got a code violation when I was fifteen (Ed. Note: LaBatt’s Blue is one of the most slept on cheap beers, the London Fletcher of beers if you will – CT) Also for $5.50 you can buy a hotdog with a Philly cheesesteak on top of it made slowly by two dudes named Stuart and Ernest. Very, very slowly.

4. I think ASAP Ferg did a lot for me this summer, but truthfully, I want to shed light on Trinidad James’ verse on Ferg’s “Work (Remix)”. See, Trinidad literally glorifies the abducted child soldiers in Africa for their “shoot first” mentality. I quote, “Shout Out the Motherland (Africa)/ 12 year olds with guns in hand (abducted children)/ They ain’t ask no questions, *****, all they do is, bang, bang,bang”. I’m all for keeping it G, but come on!

5. The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. In Cleveland, while pleasantly buzzing on LaBatt’s, we walked from the Indians’ game over to the RRHOF. It was awesome. If you are interested in seeing amateur sketches of random PAC-10 football players drawn by Jimi Hendrix, you can find those there. If you are into child petting and want to see one of Michael Jackson’s glittered gloves that is there. And if you want to see Jim Morrison’s childhood boy scout uniform or Diddy’s Gucci jacket, that was also the place to go. Basically, The RRHOF was way more than what I expected. I highly suggest people give it a gander.

To be honest, I loved this summer. Every year seems to keep getting better and I am excited to see what the Fall brings. I also couldn’t make a “best things of the summer” post without adding that I also found myself a girlfriend this summer, the wildly entertaining and stunning miss Sofi Majstorovic. Sometimes I feel like it truly rules being me.

Go Packers 

-Andrew Kasmarek
                                                                                                                                                                  
[1] Clearly just made that word up.
[2] The over/under was set at 2.5 by the way.

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