One of the more innovated things I have seen across the baseball blogosphere in the last year or so has come from the great CBSSports.com Eye on Baseball blog.
They have what they call the EOB Heavyweight Championship that they explain like this…
The Eye On Baseball Heavyweight Championship, inspired by the valorous glories of professional wrestling, is back for a second season.
The defending World Series champ starts the regular season with the belt. From there, here are our rules.
1. A team must win a series from the champion to take the belt. One game isn’t going to cut it, considering it’s a 162-game season and teams all view the season in terms of series.
2. If the belt-holder splits a series (two- or four-game series), it retains. Much like on a draw in boxing or a count-out situation in pro wrestling, you don’t get the belt unless you actually beat the champion. A tie isn’t good enough.
3. If, at the end of the regular season, the belt-holder does not make the playoffs — and due to the dynamics of this thing, that scenario is entirely plausible — said team will be stripped of the title for not qualifying for the postseason. Then the winner of the playoffs — the World Series — takes the belt and the title into the offseason.
The Mets won the title belt this past week when they beat the Cardinals on Thursday and have now retained that prestigious belt for another few days after knocking off the Marlins on Sunday.
With a nine game road trip coming up, the Mets might have some trouble keeping the belt. The Phillies would need to sweep the two game series to win it, since they can’t split the series and take the belt. The Rockies would need to win three of four to take the belt and that can happen but wont be easy for them.
The next time the champs could be in serious jeopardy is when the Mets head to Miami for a three game series the following week. The Marlins nearly took the belt this weekend and are a much better team at home than on the road.
The Mets being the heavyweight champions this early in the season has to be very shocking to most observers in the baseball world.
It reminds me of when Mankind finally won the WWF Championship in 1999… (P.S. The Attitude Era was the best)
[youtube]http://youtu.be/KybuIy0wKXk[/youtube]
Lets hope the Mets continue to win series like they have recently (only lost 2 of the past 7 series since getting swept by Washington) and keep the belt for as long as they can.
