Major League Baseball just completed its first genuinely successful, scandal-free season in what feels like a lifetime. Yet according to various writers, pundits, and personalities, the sport already has a new crisis on its hands. What would America’s (former) national pastime be without a good panic, after all?
The problem, apparently, is that baseball’s best teams can’t seem to triumph in the playoffs. This year, the teams with the best regular-season records were the 104-win Atlanta Braves, the 101-win Baltimore Orioles, and the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers. These three teams ended up winning a single postseason game combined before heading home. In recent decades, as the playoffs have expanded, upsets like these have grown much more common. “Remember when winning a division title in Major League Baseball meant something?” Howie Rose, the Mets’ famed radio announcer, lamented last week.
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