[quote name='speedracer']For you.
Statistically, winning regular season games isn't enough to give you the greatest probability to win it all. It certainly helps but it's not everything. Ask Yank fans.. oh wait.. ;D
I disagree and that point is important to me because that difference is what makes baseball special. We talk about 162 games and the tens of thousands of this pitch or that take or this hit or that leadoff from first, but really at the end of it all, it comes down to a ridiculously small sample size. There were exactly 5 at bats that the Yankees must come through on. If you told me a random Yankee batter would 4 times hit with the bases loaded and game 5 in the balance, how would you bet?
I would have bet in favor of the Yanks and I would have been wrong. And that's what makes baseball so
ing rad.
If the game was on paper, it wouldn't be interesting would it?
I sometimes try to imagine being that person. Hell, I get sweaty palms pitching in the 9th in MLB 11. That moment makes and breaks people. And that's friggin AWESOME. You just can't buy that or prep for it. Halladay's 1 ER wasn't good enough. lolwut?
/ive been drinking, why do you ask?[/QUOTE]
I completely understand where you're coming from. But I feel like all of those points speak to being a fan of the sport moreso than a fan of any one team. I 100% understand how the Yankees lost game 5. I sat there and watched $20 million players be baffled by 80mph changeups. It's just maddening to see "the best team in the league" not be able to drive in a runner from 3rd with less than two outs. What was the purpose of the 162 game season if not to work on doing just that?
Take Nick Swisher's AB for example. Benoit didn't throw him a ball in the strike zone that entire at bat, and Swisher struck out anyway. That's not Detroit beating NY. That's NY beating themselves. I'm not saying the Yankees were the better team, but they didn't do themselves any favors, and it makes the win feel hollow. I feel that way about all sports though. I never like to see one team tank and the other basically win by default.
If a team can beat the Yankees (or the Phillies for that matter) at their best, then God bless them, and hats off. But seeing a team/person not live up to their potential just spoils the fun to me. So, yeah...I kinda blame the Yankees and Phillies for not having a performance that is worthy of playoff baseball. The Red Sox or Braves probably could have done better. All of this is just to express my reasoning for losing interest in the MLB regular season (versus a few years ago where I'd watch almost every game from March to November)...because as you said, it largely doesn't matter.