here's a stat for you: yankees won season series 10-9, which grants them first place; the red sox outscored the yankees 119-80 in these 19 games...is this a fair rule?

dunno what you're complaining about. I'd rather face the White Sox than the Angels.

this should be in the baseball thread anyways

The Yankees won the season series so its fair..

i was going to but i just felt like making a thread for it so it could be argued and what not...although it doesn't seem like anyone wants to agree with mine as of right now

I remember back in 1950's, if my memory is right, there is a World Series between Yankees and another team where Yankees outscored them by like 20 runs but lost the series 3-4. Still, they were not the champion. Yeah, I think this is fair. The scoring differential shouldn't come into until all others are equalled, as all sports do. The key is to win game, whether it's by 1-run or 7-run.

That was the 1960 world series against the pirates with Bill Mazeraski's famouse home run winner in the 7th game.

IMO, if two teams are tied at the end of the regular season, instead of this boring season series bull they should have a one game playoff...

Umm you're arguement makes no sense. Look the Sox scored 10 today but that was because the Yankees didn't care about today's game. It's about how many you win, not how much you win by.

yes as I said before in the other thread, it is a stupid rule. They should play it on the field as they did in 1978.

I think it happened as a fluke cause of the chance of a three way tie or 2 ties. The Yanks / Boston already flipped for the home field.

okay, maybe the argument isn't very good. but my point is, even if they won the season series, wouldn't a one game play-off add more interest/excitement/heated rivalry to the mix? i think it would be great for baseball instead of this rule...say a team stinks in april and may and loses 7 out of 10 to their division opponent, then goes on a late sept/oct tear and also beats their divison foe 6 out of the next 9 games...they end up tied for first, but the loser of the two doesn't make the playoffs because the wild card team has a better record than both...a team spends 2 months going on a tear to get back in 1st place and misses out simply because they did poor in april...a one game playoff would show who really is the superior team because both teams would have all cannons firing

The only reason there's no one-game playoff is because both teams are in the playoffs anyway.

I think the Yankees outscored the Sox even in the divisonal series last year and lost, so no. It's completely fair that the series winner wins the division. First of all, a playoff would mess up both teams rotations and give them a disadvantage coming into the real play-offs. Second, Red Sox fans shouldn't complain. The team gave this division away when they played poorly in the last few weeks. The Yankees were dead, but they left them back into contention.

sorry but I think most people are wrong on it. There are rules it just that a different rule got applied over the extra game.

- they had this happen in 1978 and they played the extra game.
- they had a coin flip this year and the Yankees won to have it in Yankee Stadium.

I think the thing that stopped it was that since there were 3 teams in contention and Monday is the only off day, they have the rule that the top team gets in. If it wasn't for the 3 team problem, they would be playing the extra game.

and it does make a difference, it could have affected if Boston even got in with a tied record and it effects which team all of the teams play.

Before baseball changed to three divisions, there is no "wildcard" team, and only the top team can advance to the playoff, so that's why they played the extra game in 1978. If the game can determin which team is in and which team is out, they will play, as it would have been the case if Cleveland had finished with the same record. Otherwise, the game won't be played. The rule has stayed the same.

since when did margin of victory matter in baseball?????

this is the MLB, not the BCS.