I know none of you care but ........ (the Baseball thread)

[Meanwood Villa]

Should be an interesting evening. I think all four will win which brings us back to Fenway on Tuesday

[charlatan]

Sorted. I can go back to not caring unless I happen to see another value bet, although obviously will be hoping the Red Sox beat the Yankees and then get whitewashed in the Division Series and the Dodgers lose to the Cardinals.

[UK Redsox]

American League
Wild Card: Yankees vs. Red Sox
ALDS: Yankees/Red Sox vs. Rays and White Sox vs. Astros

National League
Wild Card: Cardinals vs. Dodgers
NLDS: Cardinals/Dodgers vs. Giants and Braves vs. Brewers

[Meanwood Villa]

Bit disappointing no elaborate tie breaker procedures required and the two big guns made the wild card game unhindered. Both left it late, particularly the Sox.

Rays Brewers world series would be my preference.

[UK Redsox]

Yep, I was rooting for chaos as well.

I'll hold off my predictions until after the Wild Card games. If the Cards overcome the Dodgers, that would give the Giants a pretty clear shot at the Series

My preference would be for a Brewers v Red Sox World Series, where I wouldn't mind who wins.
One of my best friends Stateside is a Brewers season ticket holder and I've been to several games in Milwaukee over the years.

[AV82EC]

Wow would a Bucks and Brewers holding national titles be unheard of in US Sports terms?

[UK Redsox]

Wow would a Bucks and Brewers holding national titles be unheard of in US Sports terms?

Do you mean specifically Milwaukee, or any city holding two titles ?

[Meanwood Villa]

Tampa Bay looking for three titles at once

[AV82EC]

Wow would a Bucks and Brewers holding national titles be unheard of in US Sports terms?

Do you mean specifically Milwaukee, or any city holding two titles ?

Sorry should have been clearer yes an individual city holding multiple different sport titles and particularly I suppose Milwaukee being seen as a “smaller” city in US terms.

[UK Redsox]

Smallish city-wise it was only this year....... Tampa in the NFL and NHL (smaller city than Milwaukee)....with a chance to make it three titles

Big city-wise it was only last year...... Los Angeles in the NBA and MLB

[UK Redsox]

The number of top level sports teams in the USA compared to the number of big cities is relatively quite low, so this kind of thing does happen.

My view is that all the major competitions (possibly with the exception of the NHL) should have at least 50% more teams

[Meanwood Villa]

That's interesting Redsox. I get the impression Americans generally aren't too keen on further expansion. I see lots of comments about it reducing overall quality. It does seem barmy to me that a country that size has such relatively small professional leagues compared with over here.

Would you increase the number of teams in the playoffs with more teams? Or introduce promotion and relegation maybe (another thing unpopular over the pond)?

[UK Redsox]

I sometimes wind up my friends in the North American Colonies by explaining how their sports are basically communist.

Revenue sharing, team salary caps & individual player salary limits (in some sports), restrictions on new teams entering, best new players being sent to the worst teams in order to reduce the chance of dynasty teams.

Promotion / Relegation will never happen. Owners want income to be guaranteed as much as possible.

In MLB, NBA and NHL, expanded playoffs would probably require a reduction in regular season games. Getting an agreement on this would be very difficult.

The easiest sport in which to expand playoffs would be the NFL. That season is so short anyway.

[Meanwood Villa]

They are undoubtedly run in a positive way to encourage greater competitive parity (MLB less so) but I would say it is more of a cartel than communism. Owners get rich no matter what. And to go back to the points you made, put a brake on things like expansion.

[UK Redsox]

I've only seen the highlights, but the Sox win over the Yankees seemed quite comfortable

ESPN

This is where the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry stands now. Since the Yankees were up 3-0 in the 2004 AL Championship Series, the Red Sox have beaten them in eight of nine postseason games. Boston has won four World Series and New York one.