Major League Baseball's Wild Card playoff round has been chaotic, but that's exactly what it's supposed to be

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.

I guess it’s that time of year when we have to discuss MLB’s Wild Card again.

The brooms were out in abundance for 2024. Three of the four series in the Wild Card round were sweeps, with the Padres, Tigers and Royals only needing two games to advance to the next round. Two of those sweeps were executed by the lower-seeded team, with the Tigers (No. 6) getting the jump on the Astros (No. 3) and the Royals (No. 5) beating the Orioles (No. 4).

So, like clockwork, people are complaining about the best-of-3 series being too short and how there are too many playoff teams now with the addition of an extra team for the first round.

Sounds like a case of sore losing to me.

And, look, I get it. Nobody likes to lose. Nobody wants to hear their team’s owner say they’ll get ’em next year. That stinks — especially when you’ve had gargantuan expectations for all 162 games this year. For it to end in a relative blink of the eye is certainly devastating.

But look, man. This is the nature of the beast. It’s not called the Wild Card round for no reason. It’s wild! Anything can happen. There’s supposed to be a degree of unpredictability to it. It lives up to its name.

The process works, too! Since its introduction in 1995, 16 Wild Card teams have made it to the World Series and eight of them have won it all, including the Rangers last year. Who’d they play? The Diamondbacks. What were the Diamondbacks? A Wild Card team.

I know it might be annoying. You might not feel like these teams deserve to be where they are right now. But the fact of the matter is that they’re here. And recent history indicates they’ve got as good of a shot as anyone left in the field to win the whole thing.

---

It’s time for LeBron James to retire

I know LeBron is still really good at basketball. But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: He has absolutely nothing left to play for. And if he has nothing left to play for, then he should really just stop playing.

That was evident in his comments on Lakers’ media day when he said he’s not putting expectations on the Lakers this season.

But if he’s not putting championship expectations on his team, what’s the point of any of this? Either he’s lying, and he does have expectations, or he should retire.

Our Prince Grimes called James out in his latest Layup Lines column:

“Whether it’s fair for those expectations to continue following someone who turns 40 this season is a fair question. But the follow-up would be why else is James still playing.

Bronny is one reason. But I’d be surprised if LeBron wasn’t still fixated on winning. There’s a reason the Lakers dumped Darvin Ham after two winning seasons and a trip to the conference finals, and replaced him with James’ podcast partner, JJ Redick.

James expects to compete for championships. When he no longer feels like he can do that, he’ll stop playing. His attempt at calming expectations from the outside won’t work. We can see right through it.”

Prince is exactly right. The day LeBron isn’t trying to win another championship is the day he is no longer playing basketball. There’s no quelling expectations for this Lakers team. It’s feast or famine — no in between.

Sorry, Bron. That game isn’t going to work on us.

For more NBA content like this from Prince and Bryan Kalbrosky, subscribe to Layup Lines

---

The WNBA’s head coaching problem

The Atlanta Dream fired Tanisha Wright on Wednesday, leaving yet another coaching vacancy left to be filled this winter in the WNBA.

Wright’s firing has created a bit of a quandary for the league. With both Wright and Teresa Weatherspoon being kicked to the curb by their respective franchises, there’s only one Black head coach left in the WNBA: Seattle’s Noelle Quinn.

In a league where nearly 70 percent of the players are Black and nearly 80 percent of the players are people of color, the lack of diversity in the coaching space feels strange.

That wasn’t always a thing — half of the league’s coaches in the 2022 season were Black. But that number has dwindled through the years and is down to one at the end of the 2024 season.

This can change very quickly. Four coaching vacancies are open, with the Sky, Sparks, and Dream all hitting the reset button and the Valkyrie needing to hire the franchise’s first head coach. The opportunities are there.

This is a situation to keep our eyes on moving forward.

---

Quick hits: Our first NFL Mock Draft! … The Knicks are breaking the NBA … and more

— Christian D’Andrea has our first NFL mock draft (yes, already!) with three QBs going in the top 5.

— The Knicks found a hilarious loophole in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and the league is not happy about it.

— Here are our weekly picks against the spread for the college football weekend.

— We’ve also got our weekly picks together for Week 5 of the NFL season.

—  Here’s Cory with 9 awesome pictures of Tony Hawk throwing out the first pitch at the Padres game.

— And here’s Robert Zeglinski with the eight most anticipated video game releases for 2024. I’m locked in on that Sonic joint.

That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic Thursday. Peace.

-Sykes