It Ain't the Fall Classic Anymore

It's Tuesday evening, October 23, and the Boston Red Sox are squaring off with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game of the 2018 World Series.  The Fall Classic.

Temperatures will be in the 40s tonight with a wind-chill factor that will make it feel a lot colder.  Tomorrow night will be colder yet, temps dipping into the upper 30s at game time and the wind-chill factor making it feel in the lower 30s.  And if the series goes seven games, they'll wrap things up in Boston in November--at temps that could drop below freezing.  At the risk of saying the obvious, that's too cold for baseball games.  "Fall Classic" is a classic misnomer.

Of course we began calling the WS the "fall classic" back when it was played and completed in September, when we regularly enjoyed what we called Indian Summer, a late summer warming trend that soon gave way to the much colder weather of October.

But in 1961, the owners extended the season from 154 games to 162, which extended the season by eight games over about a week and a half.  And then beginning in 1969 a second round of post-season play was added, followed by a third round in 1994, and a fourth (the one-game wild-card playoff) in 2012.  And here we are in late October pretending this is baseball at its best--the best of the National League pitted against the best of the American League.  Ridiculous.  Laughable.

The two leagues don't even play the same game.  The AL allows since 1973 designated hitters to hit instead of weak hitting pitchers.  The NL holds on to the game's roots by insisting on pitchers taking their cuts at the plate.  If you were building a baseball team, do you think your roster and philosophy and strategy--your management of a pitching staff, your use of pinch hitters, and your nightly lineup--just to mention a few tactical issues--would be different if you could send up a hitter four times a night instead of a pitcher?  Once again, the situation is ridiculous.  Laughable.

The obvious conclusion is that the two leagues should not play each other at all until they all play the same game under temperature-regulated domed stadiums.  Put the two leagues on an equal standing so they can get back to playing a true World Series once again.  One thing is for sure, this ain't the fall classic anymore.  And it hasn't been for a long time.