None of This Matters, I Think
Welcome to the final days of the regular season! It’s cliché to say, “it all comes down to this,” but that is supposed to be the point, isn’t it? It certainly used to be! That was the point when Bobby Thomson homered against the Dodgers in 1951 (THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!) and when Evan Longoria walked off into the playoffs in 2011. In the 2020 baseball world, I’m not so sure.
We may very well have a down-to-the-wire final battle for a playoff spot. The 28-29 Phillies lead the 27-28 Brewers, I think? Or is it the other way around? Either way, they’re both smooshed together with the Giants, Reds, Marlins, and Cardinals. Some of them will .500 their way into the seventh and eighth seeds. I guess that’s what we celebrate these days? Late September baseball seemed to mean more when the teams fighting for playoff spots were actually good.
Allegedly, the good teams are still jousting for position, and MLB tells me that’s important. As of this writing, the 32-23 Yankees trail the Blue Jays, 5-1 in the fifth inning. A Toronto Buffalo win would keep their hopes alive for second place in the AL East, which is important for a guaranteed four, five, or six seed. The Bronx Bombers currently occupy second place. The Jays are the fifth seed if the season ended today, but they’re chasing the Twins for the fourth seed (or is it the White Sox now?). Those two teams will meet in the four/five matchup either way, but the fourth seed will have home-field advantage (with no fans) for games played in a neutral-site bubble. No…wait the bubble isn’t until the second round, apparently? I’m a little lost here.
Of course, the Yankees still have an outside shot at supplanting the Rays for first place in the AL East, who currently retain the rights to (neutral-site) home field for I can’t even remember how many rounds before we get to the World Series. With the best record in the league, they get the pleasure of facing the eighth seed in a three-game coin flip. Also, that eighth seed team might be the Astros, who won 311 regular-season games from 2017-2019. Yay!
As for the Toruffalo Blue Jays, their next win clinches at least a tie with the Angels– the closest competition for playoff spot in the AL. Assuming Buffronto and the Angels finish tied at 29-31, their head-to-head record is the ti– wait, no they don’t have any head-to-head games. Do they play a winner-take-all Game 61? Is it reasonable to call a final matchup for a crappy playoff spot between two sub-.500 teams as “winner-take-all?” No matter the outcome, it’s hard to call either team a winner.
With the grossly, comically expanded playoffs, we’re told these games at the climax of the regular season matter for more teams and fans. Our whole equilibrium is off-kilter in 2020 in more ways than merely baseball, but this just feels wrong. Do these games really matter for the Yankees? What about the Rays or the Blue Jays? If they all get into the postseason anyway, and they could be eliminated in a best-of-three series before the calendar even flips to October, it’s hard to feel like any of what’s happening right now is important at all, even in the meta “I know sports don’t matter anyway” landscape of 2020 baseball.
In the NL, games between the glut of teams fighting for limited spots matters more, I guess. Six teams scrambling for four berths is a somewhat reasonable facsimile for a normal playoff race. But unless someone doesn’t lose another game for the rest of the season, all these teams are mediocre at best.
By comparison, last year’s AL Wild Card dash between Tampa Bay, Oakland, and Cleveland was thrilling almost down to the wire. Cleveland finished 93-69 and missed out, while the Rays outlasted the A’s in the Wild Card Game for the right to face the best division winner (Houston) in the Division Series. THAT was fun! The stakes were high and the musical chairs participants were all excellent teams.
Now?
For good teams, nothing seems to matter other than seeding, which is essentially haphazard and meaningless. We saw this meaninglessness play out at the trade deadline. The Braves – who are positioned for the second best seed in the NL – are relying on a rotation that includes Max Fried and… Huascar Ynoa?
For bad teams, nothing matters because they suck (at least that hasn’t changed). For the middle, there’s technically something worth fighting for, but it feels like we’re watching the uninspiring opening bands at a concert with no headliner. MLB has watered down the playoff races so much that they’ve lost all their flavor. For all we’ve been through and put up with in 2020, we deserve something better than this.
-Daniel R. Epstein
