Quote:
Originally Posted by Erik W.
(Edit: This part was aimed at actionjackson.)
As a Cardinals fan, why would I want to see them play the Nats the same number of times they play the Cubs?
Having interesting match-ups during an interminable season trumps whatever competitive balance you're aiming for.
If we're going to mess around with the schedule:
- Get rid of inter-league play.
- Fire whoever has been doing the schedules for the last couple of seasons. They seem to have no concept of when match-ups should take place. For example, the Cardinals and Cubs met once after the All Star break. Once. Ridiculous.
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The bolded part is the fault of the silly computer scheduling system.
You'd still get to see the Cubs play, it just wouldn't comprise one ninth of the schedule or whatever it is. You know, it makes it more of an event. Interleague has destroyed the mystery and intrigue that used to happen when AL met NL in the World Series. In the same way so many games within a division kind of takes the mickey out of a rivalry.
A really good example of the destruction of a rivalry due to the lack of games outside the division is the rivalry between the Tigers and Jays in the mid-'80's. A lot of Tiger fans live up this way. It was a huge rivalry. They now play six, and if you're lucky seven and sometimes nine or ten games a year. Phhht! There goes that rivalry. It really lacks the intensity it used to have. It's just another game in the schedule against a non-divisional opponent, so that 18 or 19 can be played against opponents within your own division. Meh...Bah humbug...Phooey!