Let me set the record straight right off the bat..(pun intended) I am a Sports Geek. I grew up playing baseball in the spring and summer, football in the fall, and basketball in the winter. I love the NFL and College Basketball. But baseball is my passion. I am a Seamhead through and through.
Problem is, most of the guys and some gals that I work with are football fans and couldn't care less about baseball. Me being me, I often stir the pot, poke the bear, whatever phrase you want to use by professing that I believe baseball is better than football. We spend time going through all the old tired arguments...baseball is boring, it's too slow, there's no time clock, yada yada yada! I often have to remind them that was created first and football was just invented so baseball players would have something to do in the 3 month period between the last game of the World Series and the first day of Spring Training. Most of the time the argument is never settled because we both have only what we believe and as you know belief is knowledge that can't be proven.
Today, though, I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that baseball is better than football and here's why:
The regular season of the NFL is only 16 games while a season of Major League Baseball lasts 162 games. Today is the last day of Baseball's regular season, game #162 and as I write this blog there are 4 teams, 2 in each league, that are tied for the Wild Card slot in the playoffs that begin on Friday. The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays in the American League, and the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves in the National League.
None of the teams are playing each other so today there are 3 possible scenarios. If one of the tied teams wins and the other loses, the winner moves on to the playoffs which begin on Friday. If both tied teams win or if both lose, there will be a "play in" game tomorrow and the winner goes on in the playoffs. I don't have a dog in this hunt so I don't really care which teams win or lose though I have two very close friends that do. Tom is a Cardinals fan and Rebecca is a Red Sox fan. For their sake I suppose I hope those teams move on in the playoffs. We'll know later this evening what will happen since the games are still going on.
But how is that better than the NFL? Well, if 2 NFL teams end up tied for a division title or a wild card spot you begin to go through a ponderous "tiebreaker" system. I think the first tiebreaker is head to head competition between the two tied teams but don't quote me. The first few tiebreakers are pretty definitive like that and they usually don't get past the first or second tiebreaker before deciding which team moves on in the playoffs. There are, however, about 16 or 18 tiebreaker scenarios or so I'm told. I suspect they will probably never get past 4 or 5 on the list but in a worst possible case scenario we could see a playoff team decided by "which team scored more points on windy afternoons in October against a team who's coach's brother is named Fred" or something equally byzantine.
STOP THE MADNESS! Just have a play in game like baseball has. If 2 teams tie it's head to head. If 3 teams tie it's Round Robin. Just play the flippin' game. Let the players decide who moves on, not some statistician.
Yep, Baseball is better than the NFL. They get it. Let the players decide.
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