As much as the world needs yet another sportswriter's opinion on the 'BS' of the Bowl Championship Series or the sanctity of the 65-team NCAA Tournament, I think I'll take this opportunity to head for the greener pastures of playoff systems for professional sports. And even if NASCAR fits your definition of a 'real sport,' tough beans - only the 'Big Four' of American Sports made the cut for this column. The NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA playoffs all have their relative strengths and weaknesses, but only one playoff format can rule them all. On the basis of three categories - selectivity, parity and legacy - it's time to crown the champion of, well, the championships.
Selectivity refers to the percentage of teams in each professional sports league that qualify for postseason play. The ideal postseason qualifies enough teams to ensure exciting end-of-season playoff races and to represent fan-bases across America while retaining the exclusivity that makes the playoffs such compelling theater in the first place. Even with the 1995 addition of the Wild Card, MLB remains the poster child of postseason selectivity by qualifying only eight of its 30 teams. Plenty of baseball purists denounced the Wild Card, but multiple MLB expansions and the need for a nationally compelling playoff picture surely necessitated this minor addition. If anything, baseball could learn something from the NFL. Twelve out of 32 teams qualify for the NFL playoffs, which gives most major U.S. regions a vested interest in the success - or failure - of one or more playoff teams. More important, the NFL plays so few regular season games that late playoff pushes are still a reality at midseason while half of MLB teams are essentially out of contention by the All-Star Break. With playoff baseball and football indelibly tied to divisional success, it's no surprise that these two leagues sport the most storied rivalries in American sports.
It's also no surprise, however, that permitting too many teams results in a watered-down regular season that carries to playoffs. Such is the case with the National Hockey and National Basketball Leagues. Both have also dealt with expansion but have responded by allowing more than half their teams to reach the postseason every year.
A watered-down product usually leads to a lack of parity, especially in the early playoff rounds featuring substantial mismatches. Parity refers to the relative equality of talent among teams that qualify for the postseason, with the ideal postseason featuring tightly contested games and an unpredictable eventual champion. Although critics will claim that the MLB World Series is just as often "bought" as it is "won," recent history suggests high payrolls hardly guarantee success. In recent years, small-market squads like the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001 World Series) and the Florida Marlins (1997, 2003) have outshined big spenders like the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets. Lower seeds also have had plenty of hope, with nine Wild Card teams reaching the World Series since 1997 and three teams winning four titles. Perhaps most telling, the last decade's World Series winners have come from eight different teams representing all six MLB divisions. The same trend continues in the NFL, in which the Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants each have won a Super Bowl this decade as playoff Wild Cards. In the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings and the New Jersey Devils have combined to win seven of the last 14 titles. Even with the recent rise of suffering franchises like the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks, the fact remains that only 17 of the 30 current NHL teams have ever hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup, suggesting that even the occasional early-round upset does little to displace the perennial hockey powers. But the NBA playoffs are even more lopsided and have produced only a handful of teams capable of winning the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy for the last two decades. Indeed, the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons have combined to win 17 of the last 21 championships. Although the postseason oligarchy in the NHL and NBA isn't entirely the fault of the playoffs themselves, one has to think that with a more selective system, fewer first-round sweeps would occur and the disparity of the playoffs could be somewhat alleviated.
Finally, and most notably, the legacy of a playoff refers to its historical significance, both for the careers of the players and for the teams themselves. Every league has its share of unforgettable playoff memories, be they clutch performers, choke artists or improbable victors. The playoff heroics of NBA greats like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan are well documented - Jordan's 20-footer over Bryon Russell in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals remains the seminal moment in NBA history. With that shot, Jordan cemented his legacy and that of the decade's Chicago Bulls dynasty, but basketball rarely produces a lovable underdog that can steal the heart of an entire nation. Likewise, human highlight-reels Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux ruled the rink on the way to multiple Stanley Cups, but a convoluted history filled with defunct teams, rule changes and lopsided playoff matchups means the NHL needs Cup-less teams like Phoenix and Washington to craft their own legacies at the expense of traditional hockey titans like Montreal and Detroit. The NFL's one-and-done postseason nature holds more potential for signature sports moments, and "The Drive" and "The Immaculate Reception" are evidence that football players make their career-defining plays under the bright lights of the playoffs. Nevertheless, the NBA, NHL and NFL playoffs rarely contribute to the team's legacy the way they do for superstar players.
Simply put, the career-defining nature of postseason baseball has no equal. I still get chills when I recall Scott Podsednik's walk-off home run for the Chicago White Sox in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series, a game I was lucky enough to attend in person. It didn't matter that Scotty Pods hadn't homered the entire regular season - or that the Chicago media had the Cubs doing better that year - what you do in October echoes in eternity. Uniquely for MLB, however, those individual moments always contribute to some greater story of the ballclub, the fans or even the humanity of sports by capturing the collective outpouring of emotion, intensity and drama that hangs on every postseason pitch. From the tears of baseball fans nationwide after Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man" farewell address, to the joy that - someday - will fill Wrigleyville when the Cubs finally break their World Series curse, these are the stories we will remember as the real highlights long after Gatorade advertisements and YouTube have come and gone. MLB has its faults, but for my money, the World Series title is appropriate - there isn't a more compelling postseason on Earth.
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