MLB playoffs need fix if best teams keep disappearing

MLB can only fix so much.

This season, the pastime that was resistant to significant changes acknowledged some of its flaws and installed once-unthinkable new rules to become a more entertaining product.

And it worked.

The pitch clock sped up nine-inning games an average of 24 minutes from the previous season, marking the shortest average game length (2 hours, 39 minutes) since 1985. According to Forbes, only nine games this season lasted at least 3½ hours. In 2021, there were 390 such games.

Limits on defensive shifts increased the league’s overall batting average to .248, up five points from last season. Larger bases allowed stolen bases to increase from 1.0 to 1.4 per game with the success rate increasing from 75.4 percent to a record-high 80.2 percent.

Total attendance surpassed 70 million for the first time since 2017 — up from 64.5 million in 2022 — with 26 of MLB’s 30 teams reporting increases.

Finding a solution to improve the MLB postseason is more difficult. The longest regular season on our sports calendar is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Adding extra teams to the postseason only has increased revenue. Since the introduction of the new Wild Card round, the lower seed has taken five of the eight matchups. This season, the three teams to win at least 100 games are all in danger of being eliminated in the Division Series round.

The best story in baseball this season is now over with the top-seeded Orioles eliminated in a three-game sweep Tuesday night by the Rangers.

The Dodgers are one loss from sending the 84-win Diamondbacks to the NLCS.

The Braves needed a miracle from their all-time lineup to avoid a 2-0 hole against the Phillies.

Last year, the National League’s three 100-win teams didn’t win one playoff series, resulting in an NLCS between the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds. In 2021, the only two teams to win 100-plus games also didn’t advance at least one round. In 2019, the 4-seed Nationals took home the title.

What was once the most exclusive postseason in professional American sports now bears little difference from its peers.

The short series in the early rounds contributes to the crapshoot.

The NBA largely avoids it with a best-of-7 format in every round. Tennis gives its biggest stars the best chance to advance in its biggest events, maintaining the traditional best-of-5-sets format in grand slams.

In a sport steeped in single-game randomness and luck — where Luis Gonzalez bloops can win the World Series and Willie McCovey line drives can end it — baseball is best served allowing the teams who proved their merits over the previous six months more than five games to reaffirm it.

Baseball would be even better served because it is a sport that thrives in local markets, but struggles to connect on a national stage. It is a sport that lacks recognizable stars, whose biggest names (Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani) weren’t on postseason rosters.

That does not happen in the NBA. Since 2008, every NBA Finals has included Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and/or Nikola Jokic. That does not happen in the NFL. In the past 10 years, all but one Super Bowl has included Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Patrick Mahomes.

Upsets are part of sports. Teams should be rewarded for excelling under postseason pressure. TV networks should not always be granted the stars and matchups they crave.

But with apologies to my friend Tommy Pham, who wants to see the Diamondbacks fighting for a spot in the World Series?

Today’s back page

Stacked deck

The New York Liberty haven’t lost consecutive games all season. The Las Vegas Aces haven’t lost in the postseason.

Only one streak will survive when the WNBA’s two best teams meet in Game 2 of the Finals on Wednesday night in Las Vegas (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The defending champion Aces — looking to become the league’s first team to repeat in 21 years — used a dominant second-half performance to win the opener of the best-of-five series, 99-82, with stars Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young each putting up postseason-best 26-point performances (it was the most-watched Game 1 since 2000).

MVP Breanna Stewart had 21 points and nine rebounds, but the Liberty backcourt struggled, with Sabrina Ionescu (seven points) held to single-digit scoring for the second straight game and just the third time since June.

After setting a league-record with 444 3-pointers this season, the Liberty hit 9-of-29 (31 percent) in Game 1 and have made just 33.2 percent in the postseason.

The Liberty won three of five games against the Aces in the regular season, including the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. On Sunday, the teams will be at Barclays Center for the first WNBA Finals game in New York since 2002.

How the Jets set the stage

I haven’t been a season-ticket holder since the Jets were the original AFL Titans playing at the Polo Grounds.

Nor am I a newbie. I covered the Jets for a few seasons spanning the Joe Walton and Bruce Coslet eras and attended quite a few games in the seats at the last three home stadiums.

I saw Joe Namath lose to the Houston Oilers on a cold November day at Shea in 1974. I was at Giants Stadium in early December 1998, when Vinny Testaverde’s phantom touchdown beat the Seahawks and ushered in the return of instant replay, and again in 2006 when Eric Mangini’s Jets powered their way into the playoffs with a 23-3 rout of the Raiders. Two years later, it was the opposite story as I watched the Mangini-Brett Favre Jets, 8-3 at the time, lose 34-17 in the rain to the Broncos, part of a disastrous 1-4 finish.

My first visit to MetLife was that Monday night early in the 2019 season when Sam Darnold missed the game against the Browns because of mono, Myles Garrett KO’d Trevor Siemian in the second quarter and I had to watch Luke Falk try to play quarterback in a 23-3 loss.

So I’ve seen a lot of good, bad and ugly at Jets games, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as impressed with the team’s game-day presentation as I was on Oct. 1 when I attended the Sunday night game against the Chiefs.

It was Taylor Swift Night on NBC, but at MetLife, it was all about the game. As the Jets were battling back from a 17-0 deficit, the team’s operations staff was lighting up the sky with fireworks and the 82,500-seat bowl with flashing LED bracelets that were synced with music.

I visited 1 Jets Drive late last week to talk with team president Hymie Elhai, coach Robert Saleh and some players about the new fan engagement features and how they are helping the Jets on the field. Check out the article here.

— Dave Blezow

Mark in pencil

Records are made to be broken (and clichés are made to be repeated).

Most milestone events can be seen coming from miles away. Entire seasons build to the moment. Entire careers become centered around the finish line. But what often feels inevitable often falls short. There comes a point when it’s unclear how the most accomplished coach in NFL history will win another game.

In back-to-back weeks, Bill Belichick has suffered the two worst losses of his career by a combined score of 72-3. The Patriots (1-4) are on pace for their worst season since 1992.

The eight-time Super Bowl champion coach is now 69-91 as a head coach without Tom Brady as his starter. He is 71, in a league in which a non-interim head coach has never served past the age of 72. And Belichick still needs 30 wins to surpass Don Shula’s record of 328 regular-season wins.

The probability of Belichick breaking the record is probably in the single digits (yes, Belichick only needs 18 to surpass Shula with postseason wins included, but when has that ever been the standard?).

However, this season, we could see Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark score 811 points — she had 1,055 last season — and best Kelsey Plum’s all-time NCAA women’s scoring record. In two years, Alexander Ovechkin could score the 73rd goal needed to surpass Wayne Gretzky’s mark of 894.

But nothing is a lock. Once upon a time, it seemed a foregone conclusion that these stars would hit their marks, too:

Serena Williams: The 23-time grand slam champion would annihilate Margaret Court in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, but the Australian — buoyed by 11 Aussie Open titles won during a pre-professional era when underwhelming fields were rounded out by kangaroos and koalas — always will have one up on Williams. In 2017, Williams won No. 23, her sixth major title in her past 10 events. Williams then struck out in her final 15 grand slam events, failing to win one set in the final four major finals of her career.

Tiger Woods: The youngest player to win the career grand slam — and the only player to win all four majors consecutively as a professional — was 32 when he won No. 14. It was his fourth title in his past eight majors, which included three runner-up performances. Woods, though, wouldn’t come close to challenging Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major titles, struggling with injuries and inconsistency and infidelities, before claiming No. 15 at the 2019 Masters.

Alex Rodriguez: He was the youngest player ever to hit 300, 400, 500 and 600 home runs. Rodriguez had hit at least 30 home runs in 13 straight seasons. Many believed he would become the first player to hit 800 home runs. But injuries, age and a season-long performance-enhancing drug suspension limited him to 85 total home runs in his final five seasons, leaving him fifth all-time at 696 career home runs.

Antoine Davis: The little-known guard from Detroit Mercy finished last season four points shy of Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA men’s scoring record. Davis, who played 61 more collegiate games than the LSU legend, missed four 3-pointers in the final two minutes of his final college game.

Drew Brees: When the ball left his hand on the final play of the 2008 regular season, Brees looked set to break Dan Marino’s 34-year-old single-season passing record (5,084 yards). The pass fell incomplete, but Brees would break the record three years later. Another two years later, Peyton Manning bested Brees by one yard (5,477).

2007 Patriots: Giants 17, Patriots 14. The ’72 Dolphins rejoice.

Alfonso Soriano: The Yankees second baseman was on pace to become the fourth 40-40 player in history. He reached 40 stolen bases on Sept. 7, 2002. He hit his 39^th home run on Sept. 17. In the final 11 games of the season, Soriano was held without a home run in 47 at-bats.

Barry Sanders: Walter Payton’s rushing record (16,726 yards) was in sight. Sanders needed just 1,457 yards to break it. He ran for 1,491 the previous season. Before that, he had 2,053 in his 1997 MVP season. Then, at age 31, the Lions star shockingly retired.