One of the most fan un-friendly things in sports is the milking of the postseason. The NBA used to make a 5-game series last for two weeks just for the TV revenue.
Well, it seems as if Major League Baseball has gotten on the bandwagon.
The ALCS ... featuring the Yankees, who clinched last Saturday, and the Rangers, who clinched on Tuesday ... will take place Friday night. That means Texas will have two off days while the Yankees have five. When you are used to a baseball season having 15 games nearly every day of the year, this is pain.
If you are waiting on the NLCS, you'll have to come back on Saturday. That's when Game 1 between the Phillies and Giants start. Philly clinched on Sunday, meaning they have nearly a week of downtime before suiting up again. That must really help the timing, eh?
Meanwhile, our World Series will take place in November. Why? Because they can't find the time to fit in all these games or something. The extra three or four days they could've shaved off this week could have knocked some of those November games back a month.
Remember when the Division Series were played in a six-day period? You'd play two in one park ... travel day ... two in the other park ... and if it went the full five games then it would be played immediately after Game 4. Screw it if it was Mariners-Rays! They must cross the country and play tomorrow!
Now they have an off day before Game 5. That's fine, since we only saw one series go that far, but keep it simple, stupid. But, no, they want to keep TBS and FOX happy by pre-scheduling the Championship Series so those networks can fit their programming around it.
Again ... this is baseball. They don't need off days like that. They're used to playing six games every seven days -- they've done it all year long!
So, again, why would any 5-game series last longer than a week? And why would any 7-game series last more than 8 or 9 days? And if the Phillies and Yankees clinch in four games, don't wait a week to get these two on the field again. Patience is not a virtue on these things.
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