MLB goes from its shortest season to longest playoffs

It was bizarre and eccentric, but the shortest regular-season in baseball history finally is over.

It was a season in which the Toronto Blue Jays never had a home game, or even played in their country, where the Miami Marlins went from a laughingstock to their first playoff trip in 17 years, where the St. Louis Cardinals were quarantined for 16 days, where games were postponed because of coronavirus outbreaks, social protests, hurricanes and fires, but the nineweek, 60-game regular season still managed to be completed.

“It hasn’t been perfect, nothing in 2020 has been perfect,’’ Cubs president Theo Epstein said, “but completing a 60-game season in the middle of a pandemic is a real accomplishment.’’

Now, onto the longest postseason in baseball history, with a record 16 teams qualifying (including two with losing records for the first time in baseball history), and a potential of 65 playoff games over four rounds beginning Tuesday with the new best-of-three wild card round and the only time any team will have a home-field advantage.

The National League winners advance to Houston and Arlington, Texas where they and their families will be confined to hotels and the ballpark, with the American League winners playing in San Diego and Los Angeles.

And, after playing all season without fans, a dose of normalcy will return when they will be permitted to attend, at least in a small capacity, at the NLCS and the World Series at Globe Life Field.

The Dodgers, with the best record, are considered the favorites, but there is too much unpredictability for any certainties. “This new thing that we’re getting ready to embark on,’’ Rays manager Kevin Cash said, “I don’t know if anybody has a strong sense of what it’s going to be like.’’