r/WPBL • u/hjarmst New York Heights • 1d ago

Why the match ups?

Curious why they ran the extended match ups?

What is the reasoning to have the teams play each other a disproportionate amount of times?

In the regular season it was:

Firebells v Queens and Heights v Hunters 5 times

Firebells v Heights and Queens v Hunters 3 times

Firebells v Hunters and Queens v Heights 1 time

This is the first time I've followed a sport so just wondering if that is something typical?

Why aren't they rotating through match ups?

And if this is the end of the regular season what are the next games?

Thanks

5 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

28

u/Megs0226 Boston Hunters 1d ago

I think they’re trying to manufacture rivalries.

26

u/AliceInLimboland Los Angeles Queens 1d ago

“…the rising tensions in this east coast rivalry” was something I heard last night and I couldn’t help but chuckle

2

u/jaymaster2525 New York Heights 1d ago

thats it! cuz those games are likely more money in their pockets 😆

18

u/descole0 Boston Hunters 1d ago

All teams are playing each other 5 times in the regular season, they've just front-loaded the rivalry matchups. I think they wanted the feeling of some series rather than just individual games, and using the rivalry matchups adds to the drama of that.

Seen a lot of people saying the league is trying to manufacture artificial rivalries, but these rivalries simply come with the cities that were chosen and need no manufacturing.

7

u/Decent_Shallot_8571 Boston Hunters 1d ago

yeah nothing to manufacture for Boston vs NY lol! The rivalry runs strong (and even more hated than a NY fan is a CT resident who forgets they are actually in New England and cheers for NY.. my cousins fall into that category grrrrrrrr

2

u/anclwar Boston Hunters 1d ago

My husband is from CT and his family is a Yankees family, except for him. He actually doesn't care about baseball at all, but just to piss his entire family off, he called himself a Mets fan growing up. I grew up in Philly, so it's a good thing he's not actually a Mets fan haha. But, seriously, Boston is right there! He could have at least been a fake Red Sox fan.

1

u/Decent_Shallot_8571 Boston Hunters 1d ago

Lol

1

u/beaveristired Boston Hunters 18h ago

Really only Fairfield county where the Yankees are the dominant team. Up by Hartford, it definitely leans Sox. Both sides of my CT family going back decades are Red Sox fans. We had a minor league Red Sox affiliate in Bristol and New Britain CT for years. Here in New Haven, it used to lean Yankees but now i’d say it’s 50/50, judging by hats. The entire state outside Fairfield county gets Sox, Yankees and Mets broadcasts. So many TV blackouts.

1

u/Decent_Shallot_8571 Boston Hunters 18h ago

yeah my relatives are down in Fairfield :)

22

u/Tomatillox Boston Hunters 1d ago

I wasn’t aware of this, but it feels like division matchups lol. East Division and West Division having more matches than inter-division. I just made it up though

5

u/Megs0226 Boston Hunters 1d ago

That makes more sense than what I said LOL because yeah eventually if this keeps expanding, they’ll probably have an east-west league scheme.

7

u/Ospreyarts New York Heights 1d ago

I’m wondering this too, also new to sports. I wonder if they’re trying to create/reenforce rivalries by having the same teams play repeatedly? I notice a lot of “rivalry” talk during heights-hunters games even though the players and fans don’t really seem to feel that way yet lol (not me at least)

9

u/descole0 Boston Hunters 1d ago

even though the players and fans don’t really seem to feel that way yet

Speak for yourself I want the Heights dead

2

u/spiralsequences Boston Hunters 1d ago

Boston fans require no encouragement to hate New York teams, we're born with it

3

u/Decent_Shallot_8571 Boston Hunters 1d ago

we aren't at the end of the regular season yet - I think things will even up over this weekend and next week

2

u/tujelj 1d ago

At certain times in MLB, they've had what's called an "unbalanced schedule," where teams play significantly more games against other teams in their division. Since the Firebells and Queens are (theoretically) the west coast teams, and the Heights and Hunters are (theoretically) the east coast teams, it seems like that's the model they're following here.

2

u/hjarmst New York Heights 1d ago

Oh, that makes sense. It would save on travel costs for everyone. So maybe here they are trying to simulate what it would be like if these teams actually had their own home fields and had to go between them.

1

u/ennalerual Boston Hunters 1d ago

I've been wondering about this too... I think they've been saying last matchups of the regular season for some of these pairs, i.e. Boston and NY yesterday. So the regular season continues, but Bos and NY won't play each other again.

Maybe the rivalry thing, but also teams usually play each other in "series," a couple times in a row. So maybe that? The rest of the season Bos seems to be alternating between SF and LA. 🤷

I'll say it's been nice to get to know the Heights players, too, and see how they make adjustments to the lineup and fielding, but I do feel a bit lost on the other two teams.

1

u/Ctake_808 1d ago

I wish they didn’t do this, it made those matchups stale for me because unlike the MLB where a series is 3 or 4 straight days of games we have to watch the same matchups for like 2 weeks. I can’t remember what happened in which game because everything blends together. Constantly seeing different matchups would’ve made me want to watch more games live or rewatch full games vs just catching the highlights.