Roundtable: Is a World Series Champion in an 82-Game Season a Legitimate One?

Yes. The lousy, cheating Astros title from a few years ago is still considered legitimate so 2020 should have no issues in comparison. World War II had players lost to war service including big names such as Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio and those years are all considered valid.

I'm sure it would be legitimate, but even if it happens, many major leaguers won't show up. It would be more of a AAA/AA/A championship season. And by 2021 large numbers of 2019 major leaguers will be released anyway. Just make the abbreviated season a showcase for young, hungry talent.

Yes, every team plays under same rules for the season.  Could who makes the playoffs be adjusted due to shorter season sure, but that does not make who wins any less legitimate than any other.  82 games will still be good enough to separate the teams.  If they did just a tournament like World Baseball Classic or something like that, then no that is not a good way to determine who should be champ because hot streaks and slumps, which is part of the game, could greatly change the outcomes.  That happens in playoffs all the time though.

The most interesting will be how some pitchers will perform in late in the season with the reduced work load.  May we end up with a different team than what would have been expected in full season, sure, but teams will have to adjust to new situation and that is sign of good team.  

Yes.  We do not talk about the legitimacy of the strike seasons, the world war depleted seasons, the nine game series, or even the year that McGraw refused to participate in the series.  The series stands alone as an experience - we do not remember the playoffs once the series begins (unless it was the Twins versus Yankees) and seldom do we quote the records from the regular season.  When wild cards win it does not diminish the championship, when cheaters win we do not remove them from the records except for the 1919 Black Sox - who are actually more remembered than the poor Cincinnati team that actually was the winner of the tainted series.

If the Twins can avoid the Yankees and win I will be excited and happily congratulate them.

The courage & the hassle for any team to get there, more than qualifies them. It`s still the World Series, the 2 teams that qualifies goes through the same pressures & challenges of that ultimate series .

Oh, hi guys.

What`s your take?

I think Cody Pirkl's spot on. If the winner is a team that was expected to be a contender in 2020, then the champion will be considered legitimate. But if the Rangers or Blue Jays or Mariners manage to come out of left field and get hot--even if unbeknownst to all of us, they would have done the same in an alternate reality 2020 where 162 games were played--people will blame the shortened season and consider their crowning illegitimate. That's especially true if it's a flash-in-the-pan season where they fall back considerably in 2021.

While a half season stinks, it should be enough for the true contenders to sort themselves out. Lesser teams could be hot for stretches, but not sure they could maintain momentum needed to reach the playoffs, much less win it all.

However, the 1987 Twins team might disagree with me going from worst to first.

I want to agree with Nick on their being a caveat asterisk involved if there is an "epidemic" of players who sit out. But if it turns our to be a small number, then I would call that not historically consequential as every season there are some guys stars or not, that are hurt and miss large chunks or all of a season due to injury. History should look on 2020 the same in this case should it prove to be a small group.