Welcome to Tri-County Athletic League baseball, where it doesn’t
matter how good the league champ is, just how bad the
bottom-dwellers are.
Welcome to Tri-County Athletic League baseball, where it doesn’t matter how good the league champ is, just how bad the bottom-dwellers are.
As if it isn’t difficult enough to win a Central Coast Section championship. Now TCAL baseball has been demoted from an “A”-league to a “B”-league, meaning the league’s teams will not receive as many playoff power points for playing each other.
After the league lost Live Oak and Sobrato and gained Alisal and Alvarez – two teams who won a combined three games last season – it was decided at the postseason CCS baseball meeting that the TCAL be moved down.
This is a raw deal for the four solid TCAL teams – Gilroy, Palma, San Benito and Salinas – that are of playoff caliber almost every year. Though it’s true that Alisal and Alvarez – coupled with the always-struggling North Salinas – weaken the league as a whole, it shouldn’t bring down the teams at the top.
Which is why this league classification system the CCS uses in some sports, like baseball, shouldn’t be used at all.
Really, the one league that remains consistently good in the CCS is the West Catholic Athletic League. The private schools in that league can draw the best talent year in and year out, almost without a drop-off.
But there is no way to predict that kind of consistency among public school leagues as a whole. Sure, certain public schools are perennially strong. But can the same be said of the entire league those schools play in?
Not every sport in the section abides by the league classification system. Baseball, football, soccer, softball and volleyball are among those that do. Why don’t these sports elect to follow what basketball does? There are no league classifications. Instead, league champions automatically qualify for the playoffs and teams with an above .500 win average in either league or non-league competition can also receive playoff spots.
The only silver lining to the TCAL being moved down to a “B”-league is that next year, the number of league games has been cut by a third. So TCAL coaches can attempt to go out and schedule six games with “A”-league teams and try to salvage some power points. Still, changing a schedule that much can pose a challenge.
It’s nice and convenient to try to make a points system so that playoff seeding can be more of a black-and-white, clear-cut process.
But the truth is, much of sports is based on intangibles which can’t be measured. It’s why the games are played. On paper, the Soviet Union hockey team should have beaten the USA in 1980 Winter Olympics. But as we all know, that didn’t quite pan out.
The bottom line is this. Even though those intangibles don’t make for easier playoff seeding meeting decisions, they shouldn’t be over-manipulated.
