Baseball backlash: Lesser teams are advancing in playoffs, and not everyone is happy

MLB championship trophies are about to be handed out to teams that didn't play like champions for six months — and hardcore traditionalists of America's pastime are not wild about that.

MLB championship trophies are about to be handed out to teams that didn't play like champions for six months — and hardcore traditionalists of America's pastime are not wild about that.

The National League Championship Series, a best-of-seven competition that'll determine one World Series participant, is set to start Monday with the Philadelphia Phillies taking on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Philadelphia and Arizona both finished a distant second in their divisions, the Phillies to the dominant Atlanta Braves, and the Diamondbacks to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Remember when winning a division title in Major League Baseball meant something?” New York Mets radio voice Howie Rose ruefully expressed on the X platform late Thursday night, just minutes after Philadelphia eliminated Atlanta.

This is the second year under a new, expanded format of 12 teams qualifying for the postseason. The creeping expansion, from eight teams in 1995 to 10 in 2012 and now 12, stems from MLB executives wanting to create more content for national television. But the boosted revenue comes at the price of what critics say are bloated competitions that give undeserving teams a chance to knock better teams out of the running to win the World Series.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/mlb-playoffs-backlash-rcna120282

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