Norbizness and I can probably count the number of times we have seen things eye to eye on one hand, and one of those times was probably about music. However, here is a propoal I can get behind completely:
There are definitely too many teams in the three main sports right now (I’m going to avoid talking about hockey, because my proposal for them would to be to go back to the 6-team league that existed until the 1960s). Certain teams add little to nothing for their respective cities, except to make them the repeated butt of jokes. Well, it’s time to separate the really crappy from the temporarily crappy, and institute a reverse playoff system. The “winner” of the playoff will cease to exist, the “runner-up” will cease to exist as a team, but the players could join up with other teams. The process will be repeated for three years, so that 6 teams in each league will cease to exist.
(1) Major League Baseball: So many teams, so little time. The lack of a salary cap makes it so that over 50% of the teams are pretty much guaranteed not to make the playoffs in any given system. The absolute dregs in the 8-team playoff will be the Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, and San Diego Padres in the National League, and Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and the Kansas City Royals in the American League. At this point in time, the Tigers will inevitably win.
(1a) I also propose a one-time single-elimination playoff between the Red Sox and Yankees so that approximately 50% of the insufferable fans in the United States can be instantly team-less.
I am not a Yankee hater. In fact, I like a lot of the Yankee players both past and present. What I am tired of, however, is them always winning.
James Joyner
I would note that the Yankees actually don’t always win. Indeed, they’ve been beaten by low budget teams in the last couple of playoffs. And the Sox haven’t won it all in decades.
Mark
Take a look at soome of the European sports leagues. In Germany if your major league football team (that’s soccer for most of us Americans) doesn’t cut the mustard that season they get busted down to the minor league. The best minor league teams get moved up into the major leagues for the next season to see if they can hold their own in the majors.
:)
Enrak
He didn’t say two of the most winning franchises, he said the two with the most insufferable fans. What I would like to know is what makes long suffering Red Sox fans so insufferable? (I can see why Yankees fans might hate us, but I had no idea we ranked with Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees fans on the insufferable scale)
greg
Mark’s theory is interesting.
I know the post was about baseball, not football, but the way they’re playing this year, I think the University of Oklahoma could beat half the teams in the NFL.
Norbizness
Greg: With parity, it’s tougher to identify the absolutely horrific teams in the NFL. Lions, Cardinals, Chargers are pretty easy.
Enrak: Perhaps I should have said “the most insufferable, media attention-sapping rivalry”
bg
Greg: No way could Oklahoma ever beat an NFL team. Never. Not even if you made a team out of all the worst players in the NFL. Even backups.
greg
bg,
calm down, it was tongue-in-cheek to prove the point that 1) Oklahoma is really, really good and 2) a lot of teams in the NFL are really, really bad.
bg
OK, as long as you don’t really think that ; ) I had a huge bar argument with a guy last year who insisted the Miami Hurricanes could beat the Bengals.
greg
Although I do think that if Oklahoma’s second string were it’s own team, they’d be ranked in the Top 15.
bg
Maybe, but I’d just like to see the starters play LSU. Stupid BCS. Stupid weak-ass Pac-10.
Donnah
Go, Marlins!!
Andrew Lazarus
Mark’s idea is also used for Israeli leagues (BB and soccer), and I think most of Europe.
It might be interesting to see a AAA team fighting for promotion. The catch is you’d have to figure out how to swap stadiums too.