629 replies to this topic

[Mike in STL]

I think that when you're a fan of a team that's ALWAYS good (like many of you for the Ravens, myself with Carolina Hoops), it's a little easier to deal with the end of seasons, knowing you'll likely be back in some sort of contention the next year and most years beyond. 
 
WE never know with the O's, but thinking about the last three years, I'm pretty confident we'll be in the conversation again in 2015. 

I definitely wasn't as torn up about the Ravens going 8-8 as I was about getting swept by KC, for this reason. They had earned the right to have one off season. They were the only team to make five straight playoff appearances, so in the way of the NFL it was just their time.

Im confindent in the way Buck and Dan have operated that they will have the Os in the conversation again next year. I have to keep telling myself that the playoffs are a craps shoot. You just have to get there then anything can happen.

[Oriole85]

I think that when you're a fan of a team that's ALWAYS good (like many of you for the Ravens, myself with Carolina Hoops), it's a little easier to deal with the end of seasons, knowing you'll likely be back in some sort of contention the next year and most years beyond. 

 

WE never know with the O's, but thinking about the last three years, I'm pretty confident we'll be in the conversation again in 2015. 

I'm not sure I'd call myself pretty confident, but I do think they'll be able to contend next year. I think for many of us (obviously not the "Senior Citizens" like Seth) -- we weren't around when the O's won the WS or have little recollection of it unlike the Ravens where they've won two which most people here can vividly remember.

[Oriole85]

I definitely wasn't as torn up about the Ravens going 8-8 as I was about getting swept by KC, for this reason. They had earned the right to have one off season. They were the only team to make five straight playoff appearances, so in the way of the NFL it was just their time.

Im confindent in the way Buck and Dan have operated that they will have the Os in the conversation again next year. I have to keep telling myself that the playoffs are a craps shoot. You just have to get there then anything can happen.

I don't buy the whole crapshoot narrative, I think that's just a way of making it easier for the fans of the better team that didn't win. While I agree anything can happen, more times than not the more talented team wins; this year that didn't necessarily happen.

[SBTarheel]

I'm not sure I'd call myself pretty confident, but I do think they'll be able to contend next year. I think for many of us (obviously not the "Senior Citizens" like Seth) -- we weren't around when the O's won the WS or have little recollection of it unlike the Ravens where they've won two which most people here can vividly remember.

Yea, "son", that's a good point. Back when I was a kid, the O's were always good and the Colts weren't good after '77, and were gone by the time I was 13. 

 

Recently it's been reversed, with the Ravens a contender most years, and the O's being the laughingstock locally. 

 

I finally feel like we're in a spot where both teams can contend most years. 

 

I don't really know the point of this post now that I read it back, but I'm not deleting it. 

[RShack]

I don't buy the whole crapshoot narrative, I think that's just a way of making it easier for the fans of the better team that didn't win. While I agree anything can happen, more times than not the more talented team wins; this year that didn't necessarily happen.

 

I completely agree with this...

 

Calling it a crapshoot makes it sound like something beyond team control... when in reality if comes down to which team plays better.

 

Usually, that's the better team.  However, there are times when a lesser team just has everything go their way and there's just not a damn thing you can do about it... that happened this year, just like with the '69 Mets...

[BSLChrisStoner]

I completely agree with this...

 

Calling it a crapshoot makes it sound like something beyond team control... when in reality if comes down to which team plays better.

 

Usually, that's the better team.  However, there are times when a lesser team just has everything go their way and there's just not a damn thing you can do about it... that happened this year, just like with the '69 Mets...

 

It always comes down to which teams plays better, but there are numerous examples of lesser teams over 162 game seasons being the ultimate victor in a short-series.

I would be the % of 'best teams' winning the World Series, is significantly lower than the % of best teams in the NFL, or NBA.

[RShack]

It always comes down to which teams plays better, but there are numerous examples of lesser teams over 162 game seasons being the ultimate victor in a short-series.
 

 

Well, there's also examples of the better team having the lesser season record, due to whatever combination of factors they had to deal with along the way to 162 games...

[BSLChrisStoner]

Well, there's also examples of the better team having the lesser season record, due to whatever combination of factors they had to deal with along the way to 162 games...

 

Sure, completely agree.  I wouldn't call teams 'better' just because their record was better over 162.  I'm saying that I bet if you look back at MLB post-season history from '69 on, I bet that the teams which have been considered the 'best' going into the post-season probably have a lower % of series victories vs. the 'best' teams in the NFL, and NBA.

 

(Just an opinion, haven't looked at this.)

[RShack]

Sure, completely agree.  I wouldn't call teams 'better' just because their record was better over 162.  I'm saying that I bet if you look back at MLB post-season history from '69 on, I bet that the teams which have been considered the 'best' going into the post-season probably have a lower % of series victories vs. the 'best' teams in the NFL, and NBA.

 

(Just an opinion, haven't looked at this.)

 

I don't know either... but I could believe it.

 

I don't know squat about the NBA (which is fine with me)...

 

As for the NFL, well, football teams are much more like machines than are baseball teams... and there's lots of things that go into fine tuning a machine to run best at the right time... I don't understand exactly how it's done, but I'm convinced it happens... in contrast, baseball seems like the more-human enterprise, less machine-like... but I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, so don't ask me...yet  

[Oriole85]

It always comes down to which teams plays better, but there are numerous examples of lesser teams over 162 game seasons being the ultimate victor in a short-series.

I would be the % of 'best teams' winning the World Series, is significantly lower than the % of best teams in the NFL, or NBA.

How many of the "best teams" have won the Super Bowl in recent years? Obviously we had a great matchup last year of the two best teams. It used to be you had to be a 1 or 2 seed to make the SB, but that doesn't seem to be the case so much recently.

 

When people say homefield advantage in baseball doesn't matter in the playoffs, I'm not sure what to say. Obviously it's not the be-all, end-all. Does KC win without homefield advantage over Oakland? Do the Orioles win over the Tigers -- if those first two games are played in Detroit, I think it's a different series. Sure, it doesn't always work out that way -- see Oakland, they've hosted numerous Game 5 ALDS' and lost just about all of them -- the A's are 0-7 in elimination games under Beane. The real stat to me is every World Series Game 7 since the O's lost in 1979, has gone to the home team.