What is the best professional playoff?

Sorry for the long hiatus; I've been in stalemate mode since the football season, but I'm ready to get back in the game. Today's Topic: Best Professional Sports Playoff. I will weigh in on the MLB, NBA, NFL, & NHL by discussing the pros and cons of each playoff and measure it up with one another at the end of the post.

MLB Postseason

Pros: Only 8 teams make the postseason, meaning competition has been scrutinized from a lengthy season to garner the best possible teams. It also takes out a lot of tiebreakers, with a season being so long.

One-game playoffs: If there is a tie between two teams before going into the postseason, and only one can get in, they will play a best of 1 tiebreaker. This makes for a pretty exciting, winner-goes-home game that is fun to enjoy.

Since there are only 8 teams, you get to watch the championship much faster than other sports, which is a plus for such a long season.

Cons: If your team is out of the baseball race, chances are they were out in August or early September, meaning your interest in baseball has gone by the wayside. As a Tiger fan, I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. By the time October hits, it's football season.

The All-Star game determines home field advantage. This is one of the worst things in sports, in my opinion. Not to mention for over 10 years the American League has dominated the game. Why not reward the team with the best overall record, or best record against similar opponents, or use something more satisfying than one game with a bunch of random players in the summer who get together for one night. It just does not make sense.

Weather. It's cold in the northern states. Don't get me wrong, I would watch a World Series in Detroit in a heartbeat in October, but that doesn't change the fact that people are playing baseball in below 50 degree temperatures; not exactly ideal.

NBA Playoffs

Pros: I am not a big NBA person, not since the Shaq and Penny days, but I will say that there are a great deal of stars in the league. You have the obvious: Kobe, LeBron, Dwight, Garnett Carmello. Not to mention guys like Harper, Gasol, and other developing players. It seems as if the NBA is recovering from the post-Jordan era and reaching into its new and current stars to put itself back on the map.

Charles Barkley. This man delivers some of the most interesting and honest opinions you will find in any sport. Sir Charles is certainly not afraid to speak his mind and often keeps people entertained. Not to mention his golf swing is hilarious too.

Cons: It takes a while. I've felt that the NBA could do without the seven-game series to open up the playoffs. Do we really need to watch the Cavaliers destroy another team in the early rounds? Maybe L.A. needs all seven games since they're crazy, but seriously it is seemingly forever.

It's no longer on NBC. If you are wondering why I bring this up, all you need to do is watch this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UooitEU6AtE&feature=PlayList&p=FBA4331A9E4BD1D9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1 Can you not get pumped up watching NBC's intro?

Officiating. I believe the NBA is the toughest sport to officiate of any. There is so much interpretation in making calls, and there have been so many rule and player changes throughout the years, it is hard to keep up with everything. Many people complain about officiating and it turns them off to the game. For me, I am always trying to decide if NBA officials really have it that tough or they just officiate as poorly as it looks from my angle. Either way it is a tough job, and inconsistencies make it tough to watch.

NHL Playoffs

Pros: The eight seed is always dangerous. In the NHL you almost want to have the second seed, because number eight wreaks havoc often. This year it was the number 8 Anaheim Ducks that took down the 1 seed San Jose Sharks. Anaheim is very familiar in that role, as they took down the Red Wings similarly a few years ago. You never know what to expect in the opening rounds.

Re-seeding. After the first round of play teams re-seed. Instead of having a formulated bracket, where winners in one spot play winners they are right beside, they match teams up based on the next seed level. Instead of the 1-8 winner playing the 4-5 winner, the 1-8 winner matches up with who ranks correctly with them. In this year's playoff for the Western Conference the 8 seed won, meaning they matched up with the next highest seed in the tournament, which ended up being the 2 seed. It may be a bit confusing, but in essence not to hard to understand for loyal followers. Re-seeding in this way is a way of encouraging advancement with the higher seeded teams; the ones that did better in the regular season.

Young talent. This year it was on full display as Alexander Olvechkin went head-to-head with Sidney Crosby in the Eastern Conference semifinals. This series went all the way to seven, and even though the seventh game was a snoozer, it was an easily marketable match up for analysts.

Cons: TV coverage. Not many people have the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) or Versus (VS), which featured the majority of the games. While more people have Versus in America than CBC, I always felt people were missing out because they could not hear the voice of Jim Hughson. If you don't know who Hughson is, just play any EA Sports NHL game from 1997 or after, and you will hear his voice. You can even hear him in Tripe Play Baseball from 1997-2001.

It is more of an international sport, as far as rosters. Yes players make the most money in America, but it is much more of a game for Canadian, Swedish, and Czech players, along with many other European countries. This means that players can often be hard to market, and not easy interviews for the media.

"I can't see the puck!" I hear that line all the time, especially from people in the south. It's not that I don't lose it at times either, but you have to know where to look. Maybe this one is on the television networks, because hockey hasn't improved as rapidly as other sport with tv coverage, but hopefully with the invention of High Definition and the cheapening cost of larger tvs, this complaint will go away. Certainly television broadcasts need to work on this if they wish to increase their fanbase in the coming years.

NFL Playoffs

Pros: No series in any match up. It's one game, winner moves on. It's the only professional sport of the big four where this exists. This means one day of people getting together and focusing all their attenention on one game. Since games in the playoffs are always on the weekends, this let's people get their grill and drink on. Everyone has an excuse to get together and make that day the best day of the week.

Twelve total teams. It's smaller than the number in the NHL and the NBA. Like the NBA, this puts more clout into the regular season and keeps the playoffs from getting too watered down. Four teams will get byes as well, meaning their work in the regular season is rewarded with a weekend off, which can be vital to a team's performance in a hard hitting sport.

The Super Bowl. This is one of the most watched sporting events in the year. People from numerous countries tune in to watch this spectacle that attracts people from everywhere. It's an excuse to have an elaborate party and a time to watch some crazy halftime show. It is truly a gigantic event, one that the nation unites with when it is played.

Cons: The Super Bowl! Yep, this pro is also a con. It seems that this game is now nearly more over hyped than the BCS bowl games. Since there are two weeks between the conference championships and the Super Bowl it's a time for analysts to go crazy, make numerous predictions, and most importantly sicken us with overused information. For instance: Did you know Jerome Bettis was from Detroit? I didn't, but I figured it out 1,000 times over. Up until recently the game has featured pretty boring contests, but hopefully it stays the path of the last two years.

Timeouts. I could have put this down for basketball as well, but timeouts seem to get a bit ridiculous in the NFL. Team A scores, kicks the extra point, commercial. Team A kicks off, team B kneels, commercial. So that's 6 minutes of commercials and 1 minute of play. I can't think of many things more exciting than that.

Overtime. This one is more for other's rationale than mine. Personally I think the NFL overtime is great, but many people do not like seeing teams get the ball and score, without the other team's offense getting to have any possessions. For instance, many people were unhappy to not see Peyton Manning, league MVP, in the overtime game in the playoffs. I personally think NFL overtime is a way of reminding teams to be solid in all assets of the game, but I can see where others are coming from.

Analysis

While the MLB is fun to watch when your team is in, it's my least favorite to watch when my team is out.

The NBA is great when the superstars match up with one another, but it seems like it takes forever to get there.

The NHL has some of the most exciting games and matchups of all sports, in my opinion, but I don't always get to watch on tv.

The NFL is great to watch but it's a long game with many timeouts.

When thinking about the four sports' playoffs I have decided to judge them by their overall value and their championship game(s). Mostly though, I am looking at the end-all finale. For the MLB, NBA, and NHL, that is a game 7 and for the NFL that is the Super Bowl.

My Final Rankings

1) NHL Playoffs - There's nothing like a game 7 in hockey (we saw that this year).
2) NFL Playoffs - The Super Bowl is great, but it has become somewhat of a circus.
3) MLB Playoffs - I haven't seen an MLB game 7 in a while, but those are always fun.
4) NBA Playoffs - The sport may be on an uprise, but game 7s are not.

Feel free to comment on what sport you think is the best and why you think that way.