Repetition is boring. More than ever, I think that concept applies to sports. What’s the fun in seeing the same exact teams in the championship every year?
Sure, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers playing each other in four straight NBA Finals made for an interesting rivalry, but it also completely devalued the regular season because the finals matchup felt predetermined. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots appearing in every damn Super Bowl for two decades got a little tedious. Things get old quickly.
Fans generally want parity, and baseball fans are no exception. There’s something invigorating about feeling like anyone can make it to the dance. The chaos breeds excitement, and the unpredictability makes every game must-see TV.
This year’s MLB playoffs were loaded with twists and turns. The Atlanta Braves were a regular season powerhouse, boasting the best record in baseball with 104 wins and leading the MLB in nearly every offensive category. This absolute juggernaut of a team only managed one win in the postseason, falling in a best of five NLDS series to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Baltimore Orioles posted the best record in the American League with a 101-win season, but befell the same fate as the Braves, falling to a wild card Texas Rangers squad.
The Arizona Diamondbacks snuck into the postseason, claiming the final wild card spot in the National League. Their 84 wins were the lowest of any postseason team this season. Sweeping the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS was an fathomable twist in and of itself. But they weren’t done there. The Diamondbacks rode a miraculous postseason run all the way to the World Series.
It’s now the second year in a row that the lowest seed in the National League got hot and made it all the way to the final round. Isn’t that awesome? What’s the fun in a league where the top seeds dominate? Not to dog on the NBA, but the general consensus is that wild card teams just don’t upset the top seeds (except for a very special Miami Heat team). If the top teams can’t be beat, then what’s the point in watching everything leading up to the finals?
That’s what made this year’s MLB playoffs so cool, to me at least. You had two teams, the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks, that hadn’t made the World Series in over a decade. Texas was still looking for their first championship in franchise history, having come up empty since their 1961 debut. Most recently reaching the championship in 2011, the Rangers were one strike away from winning it all, but blew a lead in Game 6 and fell in Game 7 to the St. Louis Cardinals. Arizona upset the Yankees in 2001 for their lone World Series win and had not returned to the dance since. It was a nice change of pace for a league that had featured either the Los Angeles Dodgers or Houston Astros in every World Series since 2017.
It’s not like the matchup was a snoozefest either. Texas boasted one of the most explosive offenses in the league, led by big name bats in the likes of Corey Seager and Adolis García. Arizona was a fun up and coming team just two years removed from a 110-loss season. They featured an elite pitching staff and loads of young talent headlined by NL Rookie of the Year favorite Corbin Carroll.
Despite this, the 2023 World Series was the least viewed Fall Classic in TV history, averaging just 9.1 million viewers across the five-game series. Fans complain about seeing the same teams over and over again. But when they get new teams, seemingly exactly what they’re asking for, the viewership isn’t there.
Why then, do we ask to see new teams in the dance? I’ll use my friend Brian Rabacs, GSB ’24, as an example. If you’re an avid reader of my work (shoutout to all my fans), you’ve likely heard me reference this character before, but if you haven’t, let me fill you in. Rabacs’s baseline mood can best be described as crotchety, irritable and perpetually unhappy. He’s just a grumpy guy! To the surprise of no one, Rabacs grumbled about this World Series matchup for days. Now granted, Rabacs is miserable often. My friends and I are all very worried about him. You know, it’s just like he won’t let himself be happy. I’m trying to get to the root of the issue but he’s a hard guy to read.
A lot of fans seemed to share Rabacs’s sentiment. I’ll be the first to admit it’s probably not the most exciting World Series we could’ve gotten this year, but it was still an intriguing matchup and frankly, a breath of fresh air.
There’s no doubt in my mind that if the Houston Astros or the Los Angeles Dodgers had made the World Series, the viewership would have been stronger. I’ve got to be honest though. I really don’t have a ton of interest in watching the Astros in another World Series.
Yes, they’re great, objectively. I can appreciate that they are a good baseball team, even with their cheating scandal. That doesn’t mean I want to watch them in the Fall Classic every year.
There’s such a thing as “winning fatigue.” Unless it’s your favorite team, consistent triumph without fail becomes an annoyance. Typically, it sparks resentment. A lot of football fans hate the Patriots. A lot of baseball fans hate the Yankees.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s a ton of fun. Every team can’t be universally loved. You need one or two to play the heel. Love is strong, but hatred is stronger. So yes, I absolutely hate-watch. For instance, I despise the Houston Astros, and I hate watching them to my heart’s content. However, the experience gets a lot less fun when they seemingly never lose. I’d derive a whole lot more enjoyment from watching the Astros get bounced in an earlier round as opposed to the World Series.
Baseball fans posture online about the league having parity and seeing new teams in the mix. They like the concept of parity, but they don’t like what it means in reality.
Parity means that the two best teams in baseball might lose in the first round. Parity means that the team with the worst record entering the postseason can make a run to the chip. Parity means that the Philadelphia Phillies might not make it back to the World Series, to the chagrin of Rabacs.
It’s time for baseball fans to look inward and ask themselves what they really want. If you want sexy matchups, that probably means you want to see teams that have established themselves as powerhouses. The tradeoff is you might see those teams make multiple appearances in the World Series.
And yeah, they’ll probably complain when that happens too. But hey, at least they’ll watch.
