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The Final Day

Benjamin Grimm Mar 21 2015 01:43 PM

Here's an idea from MLB that I actually like: MLB hoping to 'maximize' final day Friday, March 20, 2015 07:57AM Major League Baseball says it has scheduled every game of the regular season's closing day to start at the same time because it hopes to elevate the excitement of the day, with five playoff spots now up for grabs in each league. MLB chief operating officer Tony Petitti, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, said the league hopes to "maximize" the day in the event that multiple meaningful games go down to the wire. "If a game impacts another game, they're all occurring at the same time, so no team would be put into a lame-duck situation because their fate already had been decided by an earlier result," Petitti told the newspaper. First pitch for Oct. 4 games is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET. "It's a cool little wrinkle," Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier said, according to the Times. "It will definitely make games more exciting that day." The simultaneous start also could disadvantage teams firmly in the playoff mix. Previously they could have reacted to the results of earlier games to determine which pitchers to start -- whether they needed to trot out their ace in an attempt to gain better seeding by clinching a division title, for example. "If somebody is banged up, you can't risk resting him, because you haven't already seen the score of the other game," said catcher A.J. Ellis, whose Dodgers close out the season at home against theSan Diego Padres. Said Petitti: "We're hopeful that the races will come down to the last day of the season. We want to make sure we celebrate the end of the season properly."

Frayed Knot Mar 21 2015 02:21 PM Re: The Final Day

"The simultaneous start also could disadvantage teams firmly in the playoff mix." -- Au contraire. It doesn't DISadvantage anyone but rather is an advantage to those who have spots clinched. If you want to set up your post-season rotation ahead of time then don't go into Game 162 with things still up in the air. The EPL figured this out a bunch of years ago and use it for their final weekend, and even FIFA went to it after some early round World Cup games were turned into 'Friendlies' among some teams with passes into round 2. Not as simple here with multiple time zones but still a good idea and better late than never.