Friday, April 24, 2015

(Re)Introducing the Baseball World Heavyweight Championship!


Current Baseball World Heavyweight Champions: San Diego Padres

Sons of Steve Garvey is proud to announce that it is the new home of the Baseball World Heavyweight Championship (formerly the Eye On Baseball Heavyweight Championship)! What the hell is the Baseball World Heavyweight Championship, you ask? It was created a few years back by Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder of CBS Sports' Eye On Baseball blog, as a way to combine their nerdy love of baseball with their nerdy love of wrestling. The idea is simple: Imagine the World Series Championship as a wrestling title that must be defended in every regular season series. In this scenario, the title would change hands several times throughout the year. As a bonafide wrestling nerd myself, I was fascinated with the concept and followed the history of the title on EOB closely, even mentioning it here when the Dodgers had a shot at the title.

Sometime last year, however, the updates on the title stopped. So, I recently asked Dayn Perry what was up. After being told the concept was forgotten/abandoned, I asked if I could carry on the championship here at SoSG. Dayn consented, and I am honored to be the new keeper of the championship lineage. With a new home comes a new name, the Baseball World Heavyweight Championship* (BWHC for short), and a new championship belt. Just as with the actual WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the current champion's logo will be represented in the side plates. (See above.)

Here, via EOB, are the original rules, which will remain in place. The defending World Series champions start the season with the belt. From there:

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.

For the 2015 season, I am implementing a new rule for rain postponements. If a game is rained out and rescheduled for later in the season (not a doubleheader in the same series), the series will be considered shortened to the number of actual scheduled games played. For example, if one game of a four-game series is rained out, that series becomes a three-game series for the purposes of tracking the championship. Furthermore, if one of the two teams is champion if/when the makeup game is played, that single game will be for the championship.

With the rules out of the way, let's look at the championship picture in 2015 so far:
The Giants (*sigh*) started the season as Baseball World Heavyweight Champions, and retained the title in their opening series against the DBacks. They were quickly squashed by the Padres on April 12, with the Padres taking 3 straight to close out a four-game series. The Padres went on to retain their title with series wins over the DBacks and Cubs, and a four-game split with the Rockies.

This means, dear readers, that your Los Angeles Dodgers are the new #1 contenders to the Baseball World Heavyweight Championship, and get a shot at the belt against the Padres this weekend. What better way to wash the stink of getting swept in SF than to win a fake title belt? Also, as badly as I want the Dodgers to win the title (To my knowledge, they never won it while it was being tracked at EOB.), I will not allow my personal bias to cloud my judgement as Championship Commissioner, as has happened in the past.

There will be a new post updating the title history after each title change or successful defense. Big thanks again to the Eye On Baseball guys for creating this concept, and to Dayn Perry for passing the torch to me. Also, apologies in advance, as I'm about to get even nerdier than usual up in here.

*Originally, I thought the Baseball World Heavyweight Championship was going to be a placeholder name until I thought of a better one. (I didn't want to just name it the SoSG Heavyweight Championship, since it wasn't our original idea.) But the more I type it out, the more I like it. It's like when WWE took the WCW name off the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. If you have any good name ideas, though, leave them in the comments and maybe I'll use one.

16 comments:

Dusty Baker said...

That's what the fuck that was about recently.

I like it.

(throws chair in the ring)

spank said...

*flies off the top rope*

*hits nothing but canvas face first*

spank said...

by the way i'm confused as fuck by the rules. is this like Assassins circle?

Hideo Nomo said...

Last time I tried a reverse DDT.

Hideo Nomo said...

Win a series, win the belt.

-Giants started the season as champs.
-They beat the DBacks 2 of 3 to retain.
-They lost to the Padres 3 of 4, so the belt went to the Padres.
-Padres won 2 of 3 against the DBacks, 2 of 3 against the Cubs, and split 4 with the Rockies, so they're still champs now.
-If the Dodgers win 2 of 3 (or sweep) this weekend, they become champs.

Fred's Brim said...

I want Mean Gene to host a faceoff interview between Matt Kemp and and Clayton

spank said...

cool man. i get it now.

karen said...

OK, I think I get it. Sounds like fun and also even more reason to get amped up about the series with the friars.

While nothing will ever touch my HATRED of frisco, the poachers of the father of my future children must not go unaddressed.

Jason said...

Tag team belt for hottest WAG section each series?

Hideo Nomo said...

I really want to change those side plates, you guys. WIN THIS SERIES, DODGERS.

Paul said...

Great you guys just gave Neeebs an excuse to wear his boa and leopard trunks. Just like he did at my son's baptism.

Hideo Nomo said...

Dodgers win the first fall!

Dusty Baker said...

TV time remaining?

Hideo Nomo said...

Silly Dusty. Dodgers don't have any TV time.

Dusty Baker said...

(cries)

spank said...

you can get all the Dodgers TV time you want with Time Warner Cable.