Expanded Baseball Playoffs?

HIGH AND TIGHT

MLB Omissioner Bud Selig officially announced yesterday what was one of the worst kept secrets in recent memory, the inclusion of an additional Wild Card team in each league and an added round of playoffs.

Of all the post-strike ideas, the Wild Card and Inter-league play, while wildly praised, were not my two favorites. For the first 35 years of my life -- and time immemorial -- baseball was always the game that rewarded its winners by allowing only 1st place teams to play for its championship. With the premise of the Wild Card being that additional cities would play host to significant September games, the bottom line has certainly been good.

As for Inter-league play, the idea of the Mets and Yankees playing 3 games in June had appeal to me, but of course, nothing exceeds like excess, so let's play 6! I realize they sell out, but that would justify that they played each other in all 162 for 162 sellouts, right? To me, seeing the real thing in the 2000 World Series pretty much ruined the June games. Fortunately.

And how about those KC-Houston games? Pretty excitin', eh?

However, what is considered by many to be the most important benefit -- the number of Wild Card teams that have won the World Series -- to me is proof of its flaws. Home field aside, there is no real benefit today for playing the whole season to win, only to be ousted by a 2nd place team that may have only had to play hard after the All Star break. It has also has created the feeding frenzy that is the July 31 trade deadline, and watered down pennant races where both teams have locked up a playoff spot early, a frequent occurrence in the AL East.

In my opinion, the Wild Card has inadvertently turned the MLB season into the NHL. 

But here's the thing: if done correctly, the 2nd Wild Card offers a chance to fix its flaws. Here's how:

1. A Single Play-in Game- To me this is the key, because, it would accomplish 2 things. It would provide a true disadvantage to both Wild Card teams, as they would need to use their respective Aces to advance, and would not force the Division winners to sit around for a week. A best of 5 Wild Card series or even a 2 of 3 would in fact be a farce, destroying any momentum the 1st Place teams had. And adding a week to the end of the season at this point would be insane. How about both the Tigers hosting the World Series and the Lions at home on Thanksgiving?

2. "True" seeding after the Wild Card Round- Today, a division winner cannot play a Wild Card from their own division until the LCS. However, in this scenario, the team with the best record in their respective league would play any Wild Card regardless of Division, as a reward.

3. Rebalance the Schedule- The most unfair aspect of both the Wild Card and Inter-league play is that fact that there is 1 Wild Card team in each league, yet disparate schedules. While the 2007 Mets only went 6-12 against Philadelphia, perhaps the 6 games against the Yankees took more out of them than the 6 the Phillies played against the Orioles. The current schedule also clearly favors the teams in the weaker West and Central Divisions.

I have no confidence whatsoever that Bud Selig will do any of this.