Having 16 playoff teams is noteworthy for a sport that as recently as '93 had four postseason entrantsGETTY IMAGES
The expanded MLB postseason begins today, and it may end up being "just another goofy element to this goofiest of seasons," according to Scott Stinson of the NATIONAL POST. Having 16 playoff teams is a "hilariously big number in a sport that, not that long ago, used to have 25 per cent as many post-season entrants." But MLB was "already twisting itself in such knots to have any baseball at all in 2020." The playoff field went from 10 to 16 teams, and "more significantly the Wild Card games were replaced by a whole Wild Card Series -- all 16 teams, each involved in a best-of-three." Stinson: "There's little point in bemoaning the fairness of this in this particular season since the sample size of a 60-game, heavily unbalanced schedule was so small and meaningless" (NATIONAL POST, 9/29).
RUMSPRINGA SEASON? In Toronto, Cathal Kelly writes the pandemic MLB season "has not just changed the way baseball looks and feels." It has "altered the way of speaking and thinking about it." Kelly: "This has become the season that doesn't make much sense." This is MLB's "rumspringa season, where the young and foolish run wild while the village elders to try to figure out what the hell is going on" (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/29). Also in Toronto, Doug Smith writes, "Credit where it's due. I had no belief whatsoever that baseball could pull off this season yet here we are." Every team "didn't play the same number of games ... there were abominations of the rules and a bunch of guys bailed on the season before it began or while it was going on, but there will be playoffs" (TORONTO STAR, 9/29).
