FanPost

2020 Shortened Season - A Tournament for the Ages

This idea is based on the more-and-more realistic-looking premise that nothing resembling a meaningful regular season will be possible in 2020. It feels almost optimistic to suggest that pro sports, with or without fans, get the all-clear to begin in early or mid-August. If that were to happen, it would mean three weeks or so of Spring Re-Training, and then some sort of a baseball season beginning around September 1st. I humbly propose a 90-day baseball tournament like nothing we've ever seen before.

Round 1: Division Play

In the first round, each team plays a home-and-home worth of games, six in total, with each of their division rivals, for a total of 24 games. Since these games are all intra-division, travel will be minimal, but thanks to the five-team nature of divisions, someone will always have an off-day. That's 24 games and six off-days, which takes us through the end of September. The two best records in each division - 12 teams - advance to the next round. The third and fourth place finishers play a one-game playoff to advance. Six more teams. We're down to 18, nine in each league.

Round 2: League Play

Round 2 involves the nine remaining teams in each league all playing each other in a three-game set, which is another 24 games and six off-days. The three best records in each league advance, while four and five play a one-game playoff, which is essentially, the regular wildcard game. Now we're left with eight teams in each league, and the real playoffs begin.

Round 3: LDS

The division series', with seeding based on the records from round 2 are conducted as normal only in early November rather than in early October. Best-of-five. Four winners advance.

Round 4: LCS

The League Championship Series' are best-of-seven as normal, but played at warm-weather or domed neutral sites.

Round 5: World Series

The latest World Series in history takes place at a suitable neutral site as well, and ends around November 30th.

Postlogue

Obviously we've got some logistical issues. Owners need to work out heavy revenue sharing, since some teams will see their seasons end after just 24 games, and only 12 of those would be at home. Realistically, players can't expect to see their full season salaries or owners might see it as less of a loss to just cancel the whole thing. The ultimate champion won't be seen as legitimate in many eyes, and grievances will be aired by good teams who just never get off the ground and get knocked out early.

But there are some exciting aspects to this kind of format, too. Every game...every game...will mean a whole awful lot, which might attract quite a few fans who normally find a 162-game baseball season to be too much of a slog. Fans of teams who were tanking or otherwise dreadful heading into 2020 would suddenly have a reason to pay attention, as anything can happen in a small sample. The extra off-days in rounds 1 and 2 might not maximize revenue, but they would allow teams to field their "A" lineup pretty much all the time, and start their best pitchers more often than every fifth game, without roster expansion or weird rules like innings limits.

The importance of baseball and sports in general pale in comparison to what's going on in our city, our country and the entire world right now, but sports have always been a great distractor from the dark times, whether those are global, like World Wars 1 and 2, local, like 9-11-01, or personal. When I was a teenager, I went through some really tough stuff, and seeing what the late-90's Yankees would do next was a big part of what got me in and out of those days. What we have now is a situation where these events themselves are impossible. They can't help us now. But the mental health benefits of resuming as soon as it's safe to do so can't be overstated. Whether what we get, constitutes, in your mind, a legitimate season with a legitimate outcome doesn't matter in the least. I'll take 26 to 67 games like I'm proposing here. I'll take 20. I'll take one.

Addendum

the Dodgers will still get their all-star game, but it'll take place after the season, in early December. We'll make it an all-star week, like the pro bowl, where players, especially from teams that were eliminated early, will get the chance to ramp back up and train together before taking the field. Maybe we can even throw in a couple extra skills competitions - an outfield throwing contest...a base-running contest - where players can air it out without having to worry about getting back to work in two or three days.

FanPosts are user-created content and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Pinstripe Alley writing staff or SB Nation.