Baseball Preview

Unlike the NFL, which pretty much always features Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and the Ravens in the playoffs, or the NBA, which is dominated by LeBron James, no one has any idea who will win the World Series.  For one thing, the performance of baseball teams often varies wildly from one year to the next.  Just look at the Nationals -- who came from nowhere to win 98 games last season.  For another, the results of the baseball playoffs appear to bear no relation to how teams did during the regular season.  Indeed, given how short the playoff series are, the results may be wholly random.

These two factors -- the varying performance from one year to the next and the randomness of the playoff results -- have completely altered the focus of the baseball season.  In the old days, interest in baseball built and built until the two best teams met in the World Series -- where the inherent drama of a short series made the Fall Classic the primary event on the American sports calendar.  But these days, the emphasis is reversed.  The focus is on the regular season, as almost everyone (except for folks stuck with truly horrific teams) feel like their guys have a shot at getting one of the 10 playoff spots.  However, since each city's fan base is focused on its team -- and not the sport as a whole -- interest drops off rapidly as teams are eliminated in September and October.  By the time we get to the World Series -- which often features players you've never heard of on teams that just barely scraped into the playoffs -- almost everyone has moved on to football.  Only the cities that are actually in the World Series seem to care about the Fall Classic.

This is, in my opinion, a real shame.  Sports competitions should rise to a peak, not peter out with no resolution as to which team was actually the best.  But this is where we are, and the powers-that-be at MLB have no intention of changing.  If anything, I expect to see more teams making the playoffs in the near future.

On the other hand, the quality of baseball being played right now is outstanding.  We finally have baseball that is not significantly distorted by artificial turf, poor tactics, or steroids.  Furthermore, MLB is by far the most tech-friendly of sports -- no other league on earth, as far as I am aware, makes it so easy to follow games on the Internet or on devices like the Roku and iPad.

Given that there is a lot of high-quality baseball being played, that the games are easy to follow, that at least 15-20 teams have a chance of making the playoffs, and that any team who makes the playoffs could win it all, here is what I suggest.  Pick your favorite team -- whoever they may be, you can find their broadcasts easily enough -- and start following them.  Don't feel like you have to watch every game, or that you have to watch all of any game -- just have the games on in the background while you do other stuff.  If your team stays in contention until Labor Day -- and many of them will -- you will be rewarded with hours and hours of entertaining baseball.  If your team is out of it by Memorial Day, then pick your favorite among the good teams and follow that team.  Also, try to find a few friends (maybe at church) with whom you can talk baseball.  Finally, go out and play catch or Whiffle Ball once the weather gets better.  If you do these things, you will have a great baseball season -- regardless of how the games turn out.

And then, once your team is eliminated, you can go watch football with everyone else.  Don't worry, the Heath Post will follow the season all the way to the end, and you can check with us to see how it turned out.