Ask a 70’s TV Sports Anchor – Episode 3: Boyd Talks Post-Season Baseball
EDITOR’S NOTE: Boyd Bergquist was the sports director at KETS-TV in East Tree Stump, Nebraska for almost 40 years. Known across the Husker state as the voice of the Boy’s High School Basketball Tournament, Bergquist was a four-time winner of the Marv J. Butz “Golden Cob” Award For Excellence In Nebraska Broadcast Journalism. That background, along with his quick if not cliché-riddled wit and love of single-malt scotch makes Bergquist a perfect fit to be our “Question” guy.
Question #1)
Do you like the format for the wild-card in baseball?
~The Frackers
No. It’s stupid. Since when did baseball become a sport where it was decided which team is the best in in one goddamn game? The only time baseball did that was the one-game play-off to break ties at the end of the regular season, and this season we’re going to have two of those. You can’t point at those as precedent because Major League Baseball always considered those to be regular-season games and there was a time when the regular season was still 154 games and there was also a time when that tie-breaker was three games.
The length of the regular season is part of the problem. The wild-card as it exists now was done to try to create more interest in baseball in September, which is now a month owned by the National Football League. If there were no wild-card, New York Yankees fans would have tuned out in August as the Boston Red Sox have had about a nine-game lead since Independence Day. Baseball created these extra races for post-season play without allowing room in the schedule for them. As it works now, the wild-card has to be one game because you can’t have regularly scheduled post-season baseball going deep into November; unless every team north of the Mason-Dixon line and those that don’t have a mountain elevation build a ballpark with a roof.
Two things I know are true are the regular season is never going to be shortened and the play-offs are going to expand in some form. The reason is obvious; money. Season length and play-off expansion are all about home date ticket sales and television revenue. There’s a compromise in here and nobody is talking about it.
We can shorten the season, not lose any home dates, and add post-season games. There’s 25 weeks in a baseball season, so why not have day-night double-headers on Saturdays. If you did that on 14 Saturdays, you two weeks at the end of the season. If you did that on 21 of them, you could even start the season later and avoid so many of those early-season weather issues. Either way, that gives you plenty of time for three seven-game series in the play-offs being comprised of the three division winners in each league and one wild-card team.
I know that’s going to mean having to fix some other issues, but screw it. This can get done real easy.
Question #2)
Does Jacob DeGrom deserve to win the Cy Young?
~ jerseyguy6526
What can the argument against him possibly be? That he only had ten wins? That’s more of an indictment of how lousy the Mets offense was. DeGrom had over 250 strikeouts with a historically low ERA of 1.70. The fact the Mets couldn’t score two goddamn runs in half his starts isn’t his fault.
Question #3)
Have we seen the last of Bryce Harper as a Washington National?
~Baltimoron
I don’t have any spies, but my gut says he’s leaving. The Nationals, with very few exceptions, are a giant collection of underachievers, and if I’m a guy who wants to win a World Series, I don’t think Washington is the place to do it. For my money, I think Philadelphia makes the most sense. All they need is a super-star to drop in the middle of that line-up. And don’t be surprised if they make a play for Mike Trout two years from now.
Question #4)
Will Noah Syndergaard ever be an “ace” pitcher again?
~ New York Dave
Who says he isn’t now? Did you notice he closed the Mets season with a complete game shut-out? His biggest problem has been injuries. When the guy’s healthy, he’s a solid front-of-the-rotation guy. Besides, he’s arbitration-eligible this year, so the Mets are going to have to make a decision. Sorry, but that’s a dumb question.
Question #5)
My roommate wants to make a bet with me. If the Red Sox win the World Series, I get his motorcycle. If not, he gets to bang my girlfriend. Should I do it?
~Whitey’s Bulge
First question: what kind of bike are we talking about? Second question: Is your girlfriend hot? I’m going to assume she is. Nobody would make a bet like this if she had a butt that looked like forty pounds of chewed bubble gum.
So, that makes the real question does your girlfriend know your are wagering her ass? If she doesn’t know, then that makes you an asshole. If she does know, then she’s a slut. My advice is borrow your friend’s bike and ride it down to the local free clinic. You all sound like you need to get your shots.
Got a question, comment, or just want to yell at us? Hit us up at dubsism@yahoo.com, @Dubsism on Twitter, or on our Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook pages, and be sure to bookmark Dubsism.com so you don’t miss anything from the most interesting independent sports blog on the web.
About J-Dub
The Man Behind Dubsism
Dubsism on Pinterest
Click On JoePa-Kenobi To Feel The Power Of The Jedi Photoshop Trick. Besides, you can get the best sports-related recipes ever. This is the sports-related content you are looking for.
Blog Directories
Dubsism 
What The Dubsists Thought…