Should weather be the prime determinant of the WS championship??

by NG on Oct 29, 2008 12:10 PM EDT Comment 16 comments

I do not know why others have not posted this idea before, but being a Boston fan with a history of having to live with Fenway park and now seeing the season extending into November, has to eventually bring up this subject. Baseball is a warm weather sport, and it is tough for the best players to perform in mid thirty degree weather with rain and/or snow. It is just not fair to go an entire season and then have the best team determined by weather luck or who is the best "mudder"! Is that what we watch all season long for and keep all these stats that become useless in foul weather.

Baseball in the northern climes cannot be played predictably well in late October or November. Either shorten the season so it is over by Oct 12, or force all teams north of the Mason-Dixon line (arbitrary line--could be further south) to have domed stadiums if they want to keep their teams.

Thoughts??

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Three thoughts

1) The owners would never agree to sacrifice any part of the season — they’d lose too much money. And salaries would have to come down too, so the players won’t agree to it either.

2) I like Fenway the way it is.

3) Any real Sox fan would find a way to have Bud Selig imprisoned for the rest of his natural life and then some before he could even propose to move the Sox out of Boston.

by RSNexile on Oct 29, 2008 4:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

3) DEATH PENALTY

I’m usually on the fence about it, but not in that case.

Clutch: A measurement of how much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/glossary/

by bs.uf15bosox9bears23 on Oct 29, 2008 6:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yes, obviously.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Oct 29, 2008 7:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I vote for option three.

Neither play on the field, nor weather should decide the World Series. Instead, it should be decided by… [drum roll] the envelope please… …
COMPUTERS!!!

Using advanced super computers, running state-of-the-art analytical technology (Excel), we can calculate the winner. Just plug in regular season statistics, adjust for ballpark effects, and throw in some salacious pictures of Star Trek actresses. Within seconds, a winner is computed.

"It's just a tiny little nick, but it hurts when I get champagne in there."
- Jason Bay, on getting spiked scoring the winning run in ALDS Game Four.

by 0157H7 on Oct 29, 2008 9:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

ESPN's on the phone and they want you to cease & desist

Their lawyers will be contacting you re: blantant industrial espionage.

"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.

by SoxDevil on Nov 3, 2008 1:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

No.

Momentum should be. :)

I kid because I love.

With regard to weather, there are probably players that play very well or at least just as well in cold weather, but there are also players who play a lot better in heat, and some players who would probably prefer, at all times, to play in conditions under 90 degrees. Weather is part of life, and talking about shortening the season for weather reasons only, and not to attempt to increase the dramatics of the regular season or something else, makes no sense to me.

"Are you a real doctor, or a doctor like Dr. Pepper is a doctor?"

by Allen Chace on Oct 29, 2008 9:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

In some northern cities including Boston,

it is possible to get a foot of snow after or around Nov 1. What happens to the WS when this inevitably happens in one of these cities during the series as we go later and later toward Nov.? I mean you can’t do much to prevent earthquakes, but you can do things to prevent playing into Nov. snows! It would be prudent for baseball to shorten its season if the domed stadium idea is out! Maybe a huge teflon tent could be erected over Fenway park in mid October??

by NG on Oct 29, 2008 10:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Prudent for whom?

The wallets of MLB owners are fat and healthy. We can argue prudence all we want, but unless you can come up with a formula whereby lost ratings + possible player bad performance/injury due to cold weather > extra revenue from 162 game seasons and postseasons that last until November, it’s all going to fall on deaf ears to those who can make a change.

You know what I’d be on board with? Scheduled double-headers. Requires more creativity and depth from GMs and Managers, and could shorten the season by at least a few days.

Another solution would be to do it like the Super Bowl: Pick out a warm-weather spot or domed stadium to hold the entire WS in before the year begins. Then you can even throw out the whole “ASG matters” scenario as well.

"Are you a real doctor, or a doctor like Dr. Pepper is a doctor?"

by Allen Chace on Oct 30, 2008 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Another solution would be to do it like the Super Bowl:"

Yup. When you consider that the WS games are the hallmark of the baseball season, as the Super Bowl is for football, and the entire country is watching, instead of just the localized fans like early in the season when the weather is also a factor, then when just one world series is screwed up royally by snow (will happen sooner than later if we stay this late) ,then it will change. What you suggest may well be the results, and I think it would be prudent to do it now! Sure local fans will be upset, but if it is the only solution that Baseball has the stomach for, it beats fooling around with the Witch of November!

by NG on Oct 30, 2008 7:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs