sharon_orn
Member
I get the sentiment. I do. I also agree with it, to a point. Playoffs are watered down in all sports. There are so many available spots, it often feels like the regular season is just an extended exhibition schedule. A lot of baseball fans still pine for the way things were from 1903-68, when you had two leagues (eight teams each at first, then 10) and only first-place finishers, two of them, were welcome in the World Series. And theyll usually concede it was also OK when the leagues were split into two divisions from 1969-93, same rules: first place only. Fewer football fans feel the same nostalgia about the way the NFL (and AFL) used to just pair the champions of the East with the champions of the West. But theres also le s argument because pro football introduced wild cards as early as the 1969 AFL season. The NFL has had wild cards longer than it didnt. Heres the thing, though: Wild cards are a genuine salvation. Sure, it was fun in the old days when your team simply had one of those years, won 102 and coasted to the Series. And sure, it was even more fun when youd go down to the wire and edge a foe out on the last day of the season. Books are written about such teams. Movies are made. But the overwhelming majority of teams from 1903-93 had the exact opposite experience. Playing out the string from June 1 is a rough sentence for any fan, let alone for the teams actually playing out the string. Our baseball season in New York offers the two best examples of why the wild card works. New York Mets second base Jeff McNeil (1) 2-run home run during the fourth inning when the New York Mets played the Miami Marlins Friday, August 16, 2024 at Citi Field in Queens, NY. Robert Sabo Chris Scinta Jersey for NY Post On the one hand, you have the Mets, who in prior seasons wouldve been toast when they were 11 games under .500 and 18 games behind the Phillies. Toast in May is the worst kind of toast. And you can say all you want about the folly of the Mets and Braves, at present, dancing this weird dance of shared incompetence, but the fact is theyre both playing meaningful games. Thats a good thing. The Yankees? Look, they may wind up winning the East (and I think they will), but the fact is the Orioles are plenty good enough to beat them there. And if they do, and do because they won 101 games instead of 100, its hard to argue that the Yankees dont belong in the playoffs. The winningest team of the Casey Stengel era was 1954. They won 103. They finished eight games behind Cleveland. Is that right? I bet the members of the 54 Yankees might argue otherwise. The other sports have always had what amounts to open-door policies when it comes to wild cards. Hell, the NHL once allowed 16 out of 21 teams into the playoffs which was, admittedly, a bit extreme. But I remember what turned out to be the first spark of what became the great Knicks renai sance of the 90s. That was 1987-88, Rick Pitinos first year as coach. Early, that team was every bit as awful as the three that had preceded it, bottoming at 14-28. They were still a le s-than-braggable 37-44 entering the seasons last game but remarkably, they found themselves in Game 82 with a Pacers team that was 38-43. The tiebreaker meant this was a win-and-in. The Knicks won an 88-86 thriller at Market Square Arena, made the playoffs, even took a game off the Bird-McHale-Parish Celtics once they got there. Maybe its absurd to think of a team playing .463 ball over a full season as a playoff team, but for a whole generation of Knicks fans, that finale was one of the few truly e sential games in 15 years. It mattered, believe me. For the record, heres a list of teams that wouldve been denied the opportunity to win the title they won if theyd also been required to finish in first place: Aaron Judge reacts after he connects on a solo home run against the Texas Rangers in the seventh inning at Yankee stadium in the Bronx, New York on Aug. 11, 2024. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST The 1973 Knicks. The 1980 Islanders. The 1983 Islanders. The 2007 Giants. And you cant tell me the tapestry of New York sports wouldve been better without the banners for all of those teams being hung, or that they mean any le s to fans who rejoiced in those runs. For kicks, heres four more teams who never got a shot because they werent able to utilize a wild card. The 1942 Dodgers (104-50). The 1954 Yankees (103-51). The 1970 Giants (9-5). The 1985 Mets (98-64). I for one would love to see the playoff games those teams werent allowed to play. Vacs Whacks I go back to a question my pal Joel Sherman and I used to ask each other a lot in the bad old days of the Wilpon Mets: When it came to the Thursday afternoon in front of 15,000 camp kids, what in the world was their second choice? Hailey Welch throws out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the New York Mets and the Oakland Athletics, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. AP Our old friend Ian OConnor has done it once again with , which is everything you would expect from a gifted reporter and storyteller, and as could ever po sibly be shed. Just a terrific read. Now this is cool: Sunday night, ESPNs KidsCast, an alternate presentation of the Little League World Series featuring an all-youth broadcast team, will air on ESPN2. One of the broadcasters: Thomas Gamba, a rising junior at Chaminade High (full disclosure: Go Flyers!) will be among the voices. Hes spent time at the Bruce Beck Sports Broadcasting Camp and the Chaminade broadcasting program, directed by ex-Postie Pat Reichart. Whack Back at Vac Bill Danco se: With the talk about starting pitchers and a six-inning rule, I think back to the 60s: A manager wouldve been taking his life in his hands coming out to pull Bob Gibson in the sixth inning of a two-hit shutout because hed thrown 100 pitches. That alone would have been worth the price of a ticket. Vac: Gibby and Drysdale and Marichal and Seaver were just breaking a sweat at 100 pitches. Tom Crehan: Regarding Pete Alonso: The Mets havent won anything yet with him, so they also still can win nothing without him. Vac: The replies I received were 80-20 landing between ambivalence and let him go. Wholly unscientific, but food for thought. Pete Alonso #20, walks back to the dugout after he was called out on strikes in the 7th inning. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post @Dave_in_718: A mention of the 1962 Mets makes people smile. The 2024 White Sox are just a bad team with no personality and definitely no Casey Stengel at the helm. @MikeVacc: And Marvelous Miguel Vargas just doesnt have the same ring to it. Richard Siegelman: Aaron Judge hit 300 home runs in his first 3,431 at bats. That extrapolates to a) 800 in his first 9,150 at-bats (66 other players did); and b) 900 in his first 10,294 at-bats (24 players have reached that). Vac: I just wish he was a couple of years younger. I fear hell simply run out of time. But Id love to be wrong. David Hensley Jersey
