You play 180 games to play best of 5 twice and then a best of 7. This is why I lost touch with MLB back in the 90s.
Whats the 180 games for?
MLB 2023 Season
- Thread starter Blaze
- Start date
Whats the 180 games for?
Naitch
Reads history books
I would be fine with going back to the best team in the American League and National League playing in the World Series, but MLB would never go back to not having a playoffs.
The problem with baseball is that it's a streaky game so any playoff system is going to favor teams that get hot at the right time.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
This playoff system is what helped us in 2021. So I won’t fully hate it. But damn I’m just frustrated.
HoneyBadger
Big Amber Glenn Fan
But now, the best teams sit for a week and get ousted in the first round.
Houston being the exemption because of course.
Naitch
Reads history books
The Braves and Dodgers are perennial playoff chokers. In terms of teams that don't wear a choker around their neck as a fashion statement, we're 1-1 this year.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
Hate that for Harper. Hope he ain’t to banged up
Naitch
Reads history books
Huge loss for Philly if he's out.
HoneyBadger
Big Amber Glenn Fan
Didn't the Braves just win the World Series a couple years ago?
Not playing for a whole week is a big deal in baseball. It's why the "All Star Break" is a big deal and why there is always talk about how can be a momentum killer.
Naitch
Reads history books
They've won the NL East six consecutive times and only converted that into one pennant (and one ring). Kind of similar to the 90s.
Now this is getting interesting. Two on, no out.
It would help if you could work an at-bat and not take a poor swing in the first or second pitch.
Naitch
Reads history books
....AND CHOKE
The Phillies’ powder blue throwbacks are really nice fwiw.
That’s baseball.
That’s baseball.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
Go Arizona. **** everyone else.
Naitch
Reads history books
I'm bandwagoning Philly. Every other option is either a bland ass expansion team in a bland ass stadium (Arizona and Texas) or Cheaters (Astros).
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
Tbh Nature, Braves are a team that just isn’t good once they have a break. They had a slow start after the All Star break as well. I wouldn’t chalk that up to being a choke.
Whoever comes out of the NL I’ll pull for.
Dominated em, again.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
Tbh. Only really dominated one game. All the others were good close games.
I don't follow the Dbacks much, but my confidence is pretty high in this team.
Naitch
Reads history books
Sounds like a coaching problem then.
I had a great uncle down in Boston who grew up a Boston Braves fan. He kept with it through the Atlanta years. He was a character. I do like that the Braves are still basically wearing the same uniforms they wore in Boston. It's nice to see Boston sports represented in a small way.
I'm assuming long dead? As they moved to Milwaukee over 70 years ago
Shut out game one. Should’ve won game 2 but Braves had a great comeback in the 8, credit to them. Crushed in game 3. Hard fought game 4.
I really enjoy you as a poster so I don’t wanna go back and forth.
Naitch
Reads history books
He would be in his early 80s today but he died about 5 years ago. The Braves moved in 1953 and it was sudden. One day they were doing spring training as the Boston Braves and the next, they were the Milwaukee Braves.
Especially after Bryce just said his arm is fine and his funny bone was hit lol.
DBack have run rough shod through the first two rounds so we’ll see! They’re basically us last year lol
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
It’s something, and it ****** sucks because I don’t get to see many Braves games during the season because Dish doesn’t carry Bally Sports, so any game that I get to see is like important to me, I skip wrestling when a game is actually on National TV and not blacked out during the season, and playoff time is something that I look forward to, because I know I’m going to get to see all the games. Now two years in a row, that’s only a few games before it’s over for me. I honestly hate it.
I honestly couldn't imagine my team moving on me. Philly is the only place the Phillies ever played. The last serious attempt was a bum owner trying to move the Eagles to Phoenix in the 80s. The A's left but that was long before I was born.
That was my hope, it looked like knee to elbow right on the funny bone.
Naitch
Reads history books
That honestly sucks. Part of the fun of following a team is watching the local broadcasts because there are so many quirks that make them fun to watch. You miss out on a lot if you only watch the national broadcasts.
I wonder if YouTube TV or a different carrier would have Bally Sports.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
I look more at scores than I do anything else, which is why I don’t really see it as dominating. But if that’s the way you see it then so be it. Was a fun series. Good luck.
Naitch
Reads history books
It's crazy to think that the A's still have more World Series wins in Philly than the Phillies do. That's not even a knock on the Phillies, the A's won 5 World Series in Philly.
Not so Fun Fact (for you): The Braves won their first World Series against the Philadelphia A's (the Red Sox beat the Phillies the next year).
Local announcers make sports, he's been dead since 2009 but Harry Kalas is still the voice that says Phillies in my head.
"That ball is outta here 3 run home run Bobby Abreu!"
"Chase Utley you are the man"
"He struck him out! The Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 World Champions of Baseball!"
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
I checked and the only thing that is available to me would be DirectTV that has it, but that’s not exactly my choice on what we have. But yeah.
Well I should say last season, I did get to watch more because my cousin had Cox Cable(which is outside my area sadly) and he let me use their log in. But after our Grandma passed last year, they got rid of cable right after the season was over. But yeah since July 2019, I’ve basically been without the games.
Naitch
Reads history books
The Red Sox without Jerry Remy feels weird but I'm happy we still have Joe C. on the radio.
Unfortunately YTTV doesn’t have the Bally networks. I haven’t been able to see any of the Lightning/Magic/Rays in several years. They offer a streaming service for $20/month, which I find to be outrageous, and they also split them with the South Florida teams (Heat/Panthers/Marlins) to effectively try to get you to buy two packages. I think it’s Magic/Panthers/Marlins and Lightning/Heat/Rays.
The Bally networks have been struggling on paying their bills so more and more teams across the NHL, MLB, and NBA have been taking their rights to local OTA affiliates. Hopefully things keep trending that direction.
Weirdly we have lost a World Series to every AL East team but the Rays who we beat in '08. Red Sox 1915, Yankees 1950, 2009, Orioles 1983, and the Blue Jays 1993. Our only other loss was last year to the Astros. Weirdly enough we beat the Royals of all teams back in '80.
You don't become the first professional team to 10,000 losses with sustained success for 140 years.
Naitch
Reads history books
It's almost easier to follow your team if you live out of market these days. I just subscribe to MLB.tv and get the Red Sox games on NESN. I hate that I can't get the local ads though. I'd rather watch an ad for Sullivan Tire or other Boston based businesses than whatever bland ass **** MLB.tv throws out there, it's especially weird when I get targeted DC local ads during a commercial break of a Red Sox game.
And you guys barely made it over Montreal, another team that couldn't really find sustained success.
When I was a kid, I always wanted a Boston-Montreal World Series because Montreal wasn't too far from where I grew up so they were my NL team back then. The Nats are my NL team now because I live in DC so I guess they kind of still are my NL team but I don't really connect the Nats and Expos.
Vermont would've been a battlefield during a Boston-Montreal World Series.
I was at UVM during the 2009 series, ****** Yankees fans everywhere.
Naitch
Reads history books
Vermont has a lot of Red Sox fans (which bleeds over Lake Champlain into northeastern New York weirdly enough) but you have some Yankees fans who are contrarian assholes. You have New York transplant assholes and New Yorkers who go to UVM. There's actually a mild controversy now in Vermont because UVM has such a high out of state percentage. People are complaining about UVM "not serving Vermonters."
The Burlington media market goes into New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. When I was a kid in New Hampshire, we got New York campaign ads, which was weird as ****. It carries New England sports fandom to northeast New York at least. I can't remember if the Yankees were covered as a "local" team by the nightly news but I know the Sox were.