FanPost

Best Way to Decide Who Wins the Pennant


I was sitting in my baseball history lecture today and the topic was the 1908 season, particularly the controversial NL pennant race between the Pirates, Cubs, and Giants. This got me thinking about how different baseball is now in regard to the pennant. Obviously, we have the LDS and the LCS now which decide the World Series participant. For those unaware, the playoffs did not exist for a long time in baseball until the first World Series in 1904. The World Series was simply the team with the best regular season record in the NL facing the team with the best regular season record in the AL. This was done for years until the league expanded, divisions were added, and rounds were added to the playoffs. I am wondering whether people like how the playoffs are set up now or if they would prefer the playoffs go back to being just the World Series with the team with the best record in each league winning the pennant. Obviously, the league has changed significantly since WS participants were decided in this manner. Is this way even feasible in 2019 or does the league have too many teams? Would this render divisions pointless? It has been discussed on TC that regular season record is a better indicator of team quality than the playoffs due to sample size. How would you prefer the playoffs and World Series be structured or would you prefer they go away entirely?

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