From: djohnson@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (David Johnson)
Subject: Re: Playoffs
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 20:11:42 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.180113.28560@cs.cornell.edu> tedward@cs.cornell.edu (Edward [Ted] Fischer) writes:
>In article <C15usD.IB7@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> djohnson@cayley.uwaterloo.ca (David Johnson) writes:
>>
>>I like the way the NHL is set up now because Playoff Hockey is much better
>>than regular season hockey.  The difference in playoff baseball vs reg. season
>>baseball is less than that of hockey...
>
>Have you thought that perhaps you might have this backwards?  Is
>Playoff Hockey better than Regular Season Hockey?  Or is Regular
>Season Hockey *worse* than Playoff Hockey?  Since the regular season
>doesn't matter, teams have no incentive to play hard.  This results in
>boring games and a "spring training" atmosphere.

This may be true but there is still a race for 4th in each division rather
than a race for 1st like baseball.  If you limit only 1 team in each 
division to advance into the playoffs then you have a race for 1st but
usually only a couple of teams are in this race so the rest of the teams
rest their stars anyway.  By allowing 4 teams from each division to advance
we create a race for fourth (which usually is less interesting than a race
for 1st) but we also have MANY more playoff games.  I think that the loss
in the regular season is overwhelmed by the gain in post season.  

>This happens in baseball too.  After a team has clinched, they rest
>their stars more frequently, play funny games with the starting
>pitchers, and give the bench some action.  This is Boring.  However,
>baseball teams rarely clinch until the middle of September.  The ratio
>of meaningless games to important games is far smaller in baseball
>than in any other sport, for the division leaders.

Actually if you were a Toronto fan you might like to see this happen.  I
got sick of Cito putting out the same lineup everyday, bringing Ward
in the eighth and henke in the ninth etc.  He became too predictable.  I
would have loved to seen more of the bench players.  Anyway that is another
topic.  As for resting the players, so what.  We see the starters go 6
instead of 7 or 8 innings, we see players get days off once and a while and
in hockey the stars play 20 minutes a game rather than 24 or so.  I think 
that the extra excitement in the playoffs would have out weighed any losses
in the regular season.  Take last year for instance.  The only close
divisional race was between Toronto and Milwaukee.  If the top two teams
get to advance there would have been close races for 2nd place in each 
division as well as Milwaukee chasing Toronto.  Also, wouldn't you have
loved to see a Toronto vs Milwaukee playoff matchup.  Many of the team
rivalries occur in the same division and it is a shame that we don't get
to see these in the playoffs.

>Of course, the lesser teams often spend fully half the season
>rebuilding.  If there were 16 teams making the playoffs, they might
>have some incentive to play better baseball.  But then, I would rather
>watch the Blue Jays playing their hardest than watch the '92 Red Sox
>turning it on to make the last playoff spot.  (God, that team sucked!
>And if they had had a chance to make the playoffs, we never would have
>seen Wedge and Valentin get their shot.)
>
>-Valentine

--David Johnson
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