Major League Baseball has Deprived Us
As we enter the last two weeks weeks of the Major League Baseball regular season four of the six division titles are but clinched. The Dodgers, Astros, Nationals, and Indians all ran away with their respective divisions, leaving only the American League East and National League Central in play. Entering play tonight, the Yankees trail the Red Sox by 3 games and the Brewers trail the Cubs by 3 1/2 games. Both of those races are far from over with 12 days left in the season.
As fans of any trailing team would hope, the Brewers will get one more crack at the Cubs when they open a four game set in Milwaukee starting on Thursday. This is a four game series that for all intents and purposes will determine the winner of the NL Central. It allows the Brewers a chance to win the division without relying on the help of other teams to trip up the Cubs.
The AL East however won't have a meaningful head-to-head match up between the Yankees and Red Sox for the rest of the season. In fact, when the season ends on October 1st, the Yankees and Sox won't have faced each other since before Labor Day. The two teams split ten games against each other between August 11th and September 3rd and it made for exciting baseball. There was plenty of quality baseball and even some late inning drama in a few of those games. Just imagine how much more dramatic it would be if the two were squaring off this weekend with the Yankees 3 games back. It would feel like playoff baseball with a division crown would be at stake.
In my opinion, it is criminal that the Red Sox will be playing an inter league series this weekend in Cincinnati; yet they don't play their biggest rival who happens to be a team they are competing with for a division crown over the last month of the season. I know nobody can predict with certainty the playoff races and many people including myself didn't expect the Yankees to compete for a division crown this season but MLB needs to plan better for this possibility.
The last two weeks of the regular season could still provide plenty of intrigue if the Yankees stay within striking distance of the Red Sox going into the season's final weekend. This is especially true since Boston finishes against playoff bound Houston and the Yankees host eliminated Toronto. However, no matter how close the division race remains it could never be as exciting as the New York and Boston going toe-to-toe in either Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium in the last week of the regular season.
MLB has really deprived us of some very exciting playoff caliber baseball by not scheduling the game's biggest rivalry at any point after Labor Day. It really is shame because we could've been in for a treat; instead Yankees and Red Sox fans will have one eye on their team's game and the other on the the other team's box score.
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As fans of any trailing team would hope, the Brewers will get one more crack at the Cubs when they open a four game set in Milwaukee starting on Thursday. This is a four game series that for all intents and purposes will determine the winner of the NL Central. It allows the Brewers a chance to win the division without relying on the help of other teams to trip up the Cubs.
The AL East however won't have a meaningful head-to-head match up between the Yankees and Red Sox for the rest of the season. In fact, when the season ends on October 1st, the Yankees and Sox won't have faced each other since before Labor Day. The two teams split ten games against each other between August 11th and September 3rd and it made for exciting baseball. There was plenty of quality baseball and even some late inning drama in a few of those games. Just imagine how much more dramatic it would be if the two were squaring off this weekend with the Yankees 3 games back. It would feel like playoff baseball with a division crown would be at stake.
In my opinion, it is criminal that the Red Sox will be playing an inter league series this weekend in Cincinnati; yet they don't play their biggest rival who happens to be a team they are competing with for a division crown over the last month of the season. I know nobody can predict with certainty the playoff races and many people including myself didn't expect the Yankees to compete for a division crown this season but MLB needs to plan better for this possibility.
The last two weeks of the regular season could still provide plenty of intrigue if the Yankees stay within striking distance of the Red Sox going into the season's final weekend. This is especially true since Boston finishes against playoff bound Houston and the Yankees host eliminated Toronto. However, no matter how close the division race remains it could never be as exciting as the New York and Boston going toe-to-toe in either Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium in the last week of the regular season.
MLB has really deprived us of some very exciting playoff caliber baseball by not scheduling the game's biggest rivalry at any point after Labor Day. It really is shame because we could've been in for a treat; instead Yankees and Red Sox fans will have one eye on their team's game and the other on the the other team's box score.
Remember to follow Coach Steve's Corner on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/coachstevescorner/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel and Twitter https://twitter.com/StevenSciavillo
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