Saturday, November 21, 2009

Days off helped Yanks win World Series


I'm ambivalent about Commissioner Bud Selig's announcement that he will look into revising the playoff schedule to eliminate the number of days off. The extra time off must have been incredibly frustrating to some players and coaches, particularly Mike Scioscia, who has been in frequent contact with Selig about the issue.

But in truth the Yankees got a tremendous boost from the playoff schedule. It enabled them to go with a 3-man rotation of CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte, obscuring the fact that the best team in baseball had no reliable 4th starter.

The extra days off also contributed to Alex Rodriguez's Herculean performance in the playoffs. His injured hip required him to take frequent days off during the regular season and being able to extend that into the postseason probably helped him cast aside the demons of playoffs past.

But it is better for baseball to condense the playoff schedule so that the season doesn't extend so far into November. I just hope the Yanks can get a reliable 4th starter by next year's playoffs.

PS: Congrats to CC Sabathia for being honored by his hometown Vallejo, California. At $75 per person, the tickets are reasonably priced and proceeds support a worthy cause close to CC's heart: local programs for kids.

Thanks to edogisgod via Wikipedia for the photo.

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