{"id":5034,"date":"2009-10-12T20:31:19","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T19:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=5034"},"modified":"2010-04-02T15:33:45","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:33:45","slug":"any-chance-of-a-five-game-best-of-five-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=5034","title":{"rendered":"Any chance of a five-game, best-of-five series?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MLBLogo\"The Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappointing year has condemned me to being a neutral fan once again during the offseason.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes a magical moment can convince you to throw your support behind one of the remaining teams, usually an underdog and\/or a team that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made it to October for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been taken in\u00c2\u00a0 by anyone so far, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be, but I will be cheering for Colorado tonight.<\/p>\n

Before Phillies fans start to vent their anger, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really nothing personal. I just want to see at least one five-game series going the distance during the first round of the playoffs. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already had three sweeps and while they hardly lacked for entertainment and drama, particularly with the astonishing end to yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Angels-Red Sox game, five exciting games are always better than three.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Series that end early also have a knock-on effect on the flow of the postseason more widely.\u00c2\u00a0 Plenty of rest days are now part of the schedule, which is fine when series go four\/five games or six\/seven games, but they make for a lot of waiting around when teams like the Dodgers, Angels and Yankees inconveniently dispose of their opponents in short measure.\u00c2\u00a0 Had either the Phillies or Rockies swept the other last night we would have had three empty days before the NLCS started.<\/p>\n

Sweeps in the Championship series stage are even worse.\u00c2\u00a0 The World Series begins on Wednesday 28 this year (the early hours of Thursday 29 for us).\u00c2\u00a0 Game four of the NLCS is Monday 19, while the ALCS could potentially be over on Tuesday 20.\u00c2\u00a0 Waiting over a week to get back out on the ballfield wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be great for the players, let alone us impatient fans.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, MLB can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do much about this.\u00c2\u00a0 Sufficient time needs to be allowed for each series and rest days are an important part of that if you want the players to play at their optimum level.\u00c2\u00a0 Logistical factors also mean that MLB couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just move the World Series forward by a few days in the event of two short Championship series.\u00c2\u00a0 It would make it impossible to plan properly for the event, whether you are arranging the travel arrangements for the teams, marketing the games as part of your TV schedule or carefully organising your annual leave from work to allow you to watch the Fall Classic live in the early hours of a British morning.\u00c2\u00a0 I would prefer to put up with a delay rather than see my plans go up in smoke, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for sure.<\/p>\n

Phillies fans shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about my Rockie rooting tonight as my support didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help Minnesota avoid a sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees.\u00c2\u00a0 I was hoping for a Twins win because it would have had a positive effect on today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s schedule for Brits keen to catch more live postseason action.\u00c2\u00a0 Game four of the Yankees-Twins series was provisionally scheduled for 00.37 BST, so the rearranged game four of the Phillies-Rockies series would have been moved forward to a 21.07 BST start. The Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sweep means that the game will now begin two hours later.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t complain too much as early risers did get some bonus live action this morning from Colorado.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies and Rockies were still playing as I logged on just before 7.00 a.m. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no better way to start the day than sitting down with a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea and listening to the excitement of a live postseason game.\u00c2\u00a0 Ryan Howard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth gave the Phillies a 6-5 lead and unsurprisingly delighted their commentators. The sight of Brad Lidge coming out of the bullpen for the bottom of the frame wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite so well received.\u00c2\u00a0 Two free passes hardly eased their nerves, but Lidge managed to close the door in the end even if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly slam it shut (more a case of the door mat getting stuck beneath it at first and then the lock causing him a bit of bother before it finally went into place).<\/p>\n

There are no second chances for the Rockies now.\u00c2\u00a0 They need to win tonight to send the series to a fifth game decider.\u00c2\u00a0 Most non-Phillies fans will be hoping they can do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappointing year has condemned me to being a neutral fan once again during the offseason.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes a magical moment can convince you to throw your support behind one of the remaining teams, usually an underdog and\/or a team that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made it to October for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been taken in\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-5034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5034"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7258,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034\/revisions\/7258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}