The Milwaukee Brewers are staring down history, just four wins shy of their first-ever World Series title. But this isn’t just about bringing a ring home, it’s about doing something even more exclusive: joining a rare cohort of teams that not only won the World Series but did it after truly dominating the entire regular season. They’re the superior team in this matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays, they’re much more rested, and most folks expect them to get those four wins.
The MLB Postseason: Where Randomness Rules
Let’s be real, in this era of playoff bloat, Major League Baseball usually hands the championship belt to a team that, from April through September, was something less than the absolute best club. That’s just the nature of our sport when you shrink the games in October to such a tiny sample, expand the field, and let randomness have its way. Baseball is already built on unpredictability! Think about it: the 2017 Dodgers won 104 games and the pennant, yet they lost 16 of 17 at one point during that year. Or how about the 2006 Cardinals, who barely scraped by with 83 wins in the regular season before crashing the championship party in October? Even the 1988 Mets, who crushed the Dodgers 10-1 in the regular season, fell to them in seven games in the NLCS. These are just a few examples, but they highlight a harsh truth: the best team during the regular season doesn’t hoist the trophy as often in MLB as it does in the NFL, NBA, or NHL.
The 162-Game Grind Should Mean More
It’s a shame, because that 162-game regular season is a true cauldron. Its relentless breadth and daily grind truly define the sport. Forging the most wins over those six months means something real. Honestly, by any sensible measure, it means more than racking up 11 or 13 wins in October. If common sense prevailed, MLB would give some serious hardware to the team with the best regular season record, acknowledging that hard-won achievement. Get this, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and clubs states: “During the term of this Agreement, each Club shall be scheduled to play 162 games during each championship season.” Yeah, you heard that right! The regular season is officially, officially known as the “championship season.” But, to our own cultural detriment, we just don’t treat it like that. Instead, it’s become just an exercise in qualifying and seeding for October. It’s frustrating, right?
So, in the absence of proper recognition for that 162-game excellence, we look to the Brewers. They are on the verge of joining that exclusive club, not just as World Series champions, but as champions who absolutely earned it through a dominant regular season. The expectation is there for them to seal the deal and, in doing so, they might just force us all to rethink how we value the real “championship season.”
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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