JUDGE AND OHTANI AWAIT IN PLAYOFFS, BUT ROB MANFRED ANGERS MORE FANS
The commissioner allowed the Mets and Braves to finagle a doubleheader that should have been played last week, infuriating the Diamondbacks in a season when the Athletics and White Sox have crashed
The baseball commissioner has a way of mauling franchises, which is not in his job description. With no bottleneck, Rob Manfred is waving the Athletics to the oppressive heat of Sacramento, which needs a dateline addendum of Calif. And with no ointment, he allows the White Sox to crumble and eventually leave Chicago with one legitimate club. Who knew there was one more team to damage?
Monday, he allowed the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves to finagle playoff berths for each other in a doubleheader that shouldn’t have happened. If Manfred could flick on his TV and watch weather reports, he’d have realized Hurricane Helene demanded his intervention and forced the teams to play three games early last week. Instead, he demurred and let them conveniently split, with the Mets winning on Francisco Lindor’s ninth-inning home run and starting the second game with … yeah, pitcher Joey (10.38 ERA) Lucchesi, who was brought up from Syracuse when he hadn’t pitched in the major leagues since May.
Of course, with one dugout winking to the other, the Braves won 3-0 when they were too asleep to make it 8-0. They flew to San Diego for a wild-card series starting tonight, as the Mets head to Milwaukee for a wild-card series beginning today. That will make for AWESOME viewing — two teams traveling from Atlanta to play on little sleep — but the bigger problem is what Manfred did to fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The good people increased attendance at Chase Field by 366,379 this year, to 28,912 per game, when an additional $53 million was invested after a surprise World Series appearance.
Turns out those six months didn’t matter, says the commish. Why did Phoenix fans devote so much time/money when a season could be ruined in hours on Sept. 30?
All three teams finished with 89-73 records. The Diamondbacks deserved a fair shake from Manfred’s office while losing tiebreakers. At least create a reasonable scenario where the Mets and Braves aren’t screwing around with extra-day outcomes. “I might be a little pissed right now. We’re not in control and it sucks,” manager Torey Lovullo said Sunday, asking why people “sitting in their basements pounding away on the keyboard” want him fired.
“It stinks,” said shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, who was followed by owner Ken Kendrick: “I predicted a week ago, when this debacle — at multiple levels — was occurring to have the season end with two games yet to be played on a Monday before the playoffs start, it was ill-advised. I’m disappointed that MLB didn’t take a more aggressive posture to insist on those games being played earlier.”
They knew. The Mets and Braves said no to the idea — isn’t Manfred the boss? — and almost settled into a silly mode at Truist Park. This isn’t how the postseason should start, hours before the first set of games. What he did was give ample leeway to the Padres and Brewers in best-of-three crapshoots, which only heightens the chances of San Diego knocking off the Dodgers in what we pray is a World Series between Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. Worse, he let organizations rule the roost when he needed to control challenging circumstances. The Braves were so confident, they decided Chris Sale couldn’t start on the mound, saying between games that back spasms would sideline him.
“A day-to-day thing,” said general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who doesn’t expect the Cy Young Award favorite to pitch against the Padres — but who really knows? Such is the issue with baseball. We have no idea what to think anymore.
At least we have the Mets, who celebrate every game like they’re on goofballish ecstasy and trot out their “OMG” sign in the dugout. They exude bliss in ways that counter the sport and had players kissing Lindor’s feet after his homer. Among the characters: A purple mascot from a McDonald’s commercial, called Grimace, and a singing second baseman known as Candelita. “For the first seven games of Grimace, I didn’t even know about it. I was like, ‘What is that?’ ” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. The energy has worked, with the Mets soaring from 11 games under .500 and giving Steve Cohen a reason to own a franchise for his $21.3 billion in net worth.
A double-dipping of teams gives New York a shot at another Subway Series, God help us. What America requires — to rejuvenate an audience that sunk to an all-time low of 9.082 million viewers last season — is a Series with massive starpower. Too bad the Dodgers have blown out so many pitchers that Ohtani and Mookie Betts probably won’t be enough in a best-of-five, especially against a deep Padres staff led by Dylan Cease, Michael King and Joe Musgrove. Who is Jackson Merrill? How did Luis Arraez prevent Ohtani from winning a Triple Crown? Manny Machado? Fernando Tatis Jr. beyond his scandal? Mike Shildt, fired by the Cardinals, serving as the ideal manager?
Credit is overdue for general manager A.J. Preller, who was behind last season’s outlandish payroll and settled for smarter moves at two-thirds the price. His owner, Peter Seidler, died last November. “He came into the season with a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and he’s done nothing but come through with amazing signings and amazing trade after amazing trade,” team CEO Erik Greupner said. “It has just been everything we could have wanted from him.”
The Padres and the Philadelphia Phillies should play for the National League crown. Wouldn’t we like to see Bryce Harper win it all amid Citizens Bank Park’s bedlam? And what about an American League without the Yankees, who once again have too many issues to take advantage of Judge and Juan Soto? Cleveland is known as the Guardians because of — what? — eight Art Deco sculptures on the Hope Memorial Bridge. That isn’t enough to barricade me. Baltimore doesn’t have a bullpen. Houston is stale.
Did someone say Detroit? The Tigers were 10 games out of a wild-card spot on Aug. 10. Their odds of making the postseason were 0.2 percent. Here they are, thanks to pitcher Tarik Skubal, who led the league in victories, strikeouts and ERA. Kansas City has Bobby Witt Jr. New blood?
It sure beats the competitive compromise in Atlanta. Baseball should be preserving fans, not chasing them off with Doppler weather ignorance. You will see the Braves and Mets go away very soon. What was the point, commissioner?
Please don’t say you wanted New York and not Arizona.
Please.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.