Read Sports Geek’s argument that the length of the baseball season is appropriate, and Loyal Homer’s argument that 162 games is too many.
The NFL regular season is 16 games in length. For the NBA and the NHL, each team will play 82 games. Even the MLS season stops after 30 games. Will someone please explain to me, then, why Major League Baseball feels the need to play 162 games in a single season?! I am not saying I disagree with the length of the baseball season, but I do want to understand it.
Teams in Major League Baseball play ten times as many games as the NFL, and twice as many as in hockey or basketball. They will literally play the length of an entire NBA season, then take three days off for their All-Star “Break” only to start the entire process all over again.
In some instances, such as when you consider the American League Central Division of 2009, a schedule of that length makes perfect sense. At the close of the season’s first half, the Detroit Tigers led the division by 3.5 games over the Chicago White Sox. The Minnesota Twins were actually in third place in the division, trailing Detroit by four full games. After the second half of the season, however, things looked a little different. The White Sox had fallen completely out of contention, and the Tigers made a historic collapse allowing the Twins to climb from third in the division all the way up to claim the division crown. In fact, 162 games was not even enough to settle the AL Central, as it actually took a 163rd game – and even THAT game went into extra innings – before the champion was crowned!
Had the season ended just ONE game sooner, it would have been the Tigers who faced the New York Yankees in the ALDS instead of the Twins.
On the other hand, was it REALLY necessary to play 162 games in order to prove that the best teams in baseball this year were the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, and Boston Red Sox? Were 162 games required to show that the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles were the worst teams in baseball, or that the Cleveland Indians had NO shot of competing for the postseason?
Of the 30 teams in the Major League, 16 trailed their division leader by AT LEAST ten games (that is more than half of the league) at the close of the season. Twelve of those teams trailed by more than 16 games (the full length of the NFL season), ten of whom actually trailed by at least 20 games (that is a full one-third of the league)!
The purpose of MLB’s regular season is to determine which teams should go on to the playoffs. For some teams, that determination is made a long time before game 162 is played. For others, though, every inning of every game counts, with each being a potential difference-maker in deciding playoff fate.
Fortunately, we have the expertise of the writers at TSD to call upon these tough times. Maybe they can help shed some light on the situation…
Is a 162-game season appropriate for Major League Baseball, or is the season too long?
Sports Geek will argue that the season is the appropriate length and Loyal Homer will take the position that the season is too long.
I just hope it does not take 162 debates to determine a winner!
Posted by Bleacher Fan 
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