Friday, November 14, 2008

Another pointless opinion.

If I'm good at anything, it's complaining about things that will never change. Some would say it's wasted energy. Others would say it's an emotional outlet.
Whatever it is, most of the stuff on this blog wouldn't exist if it weren't for complaining about things that will never change.
Today's complaint: The structure of professional sports.
Why are there divisions? Every pro sport is broken down into divisions. East, West, South, Midwest - whatever. They're in every sport. Presumably, it's to encourage regional rivalries and promote the idea that we like to divide things into regions.
It goes back to the good old days, in baseball especially, when the winners of each 8 or 10-team league would go on to the World Series. Now, there are two other rounds of playoffs with the division winners meeting a wild card team, presumably the fourth best team, or the team that finished second in one of the divisions.
Why not just lump the National and American Leagues together like they used to, and take the 4 best teams? That way, you'd spare us the calculations of which division second-best is going to be the wild card winner. You'd just take the 4th best team from each league.
Basketball does it. Toward the end of the season, newspapers run standings listing all the conference teams in a big lump, where the 8 best go to the playoffs and the rest go home. Football and hockey could do the same thing.
You could still have your regional rivalries, since they already exist in the directionally segmented divisions. Keep the Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Marlin and Braves on the schedule, they just wouldn't be segmented.
Why cloud the issue with divisions? Two leagues, no waiting. Put the 4, 8 or 16 best teams in the playoffs and be done with it. Problem solved.
What's next? Plastic bags, gasoline-powered vehicles, cell phones or excessive trash? I have tons of issues.

3 comments:

kimmyk said...

i too have tons of issues too, but this ain't about me....

as far as sports go? i am clueless.

clue.
less.

Firestarter5 said...

...and it shouldn't be called the "World Series" since all the teams are within North America.

Anthony said...

We're kinda ethnocentric here in the U.S. - the center of the Universe.