Aug 30, 2006

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO IMPROVE BASEBALL PLAYOFF SYSTEM

      So here we are again…that time of year when baseball fans firmly begin to line up behind two opposing philosophies; those that believe the present number of playoff teams are acceptable, and those that believe more teams should be admitted.  The traditionalists, those that believed the old way of having as few teams in the playoffs as possible, no longer have a voice.  The one side believes that the season is long enough and that only the best teams (four) from each league should be allowed to participate in post-season play.  The other side believes that adding teams to the playoffs would generate more interest among other teams in other cities and not be the exclusive domain of the richer clubs.  I believe that both factions provide reasonable points, and I have a way to satisfy each of them.

       Let’s first take a closer look at the length of the season—easily the main reason behind the argument against adding more playoff teams.  There is no dispute--it is a long season.  Each campaign begins as the calendar turns from March into April and doesn’t end until September turns into October.  As such the playoffs inevitably run into the last week of October and, with the winter chill beginning to swell at that time in the Eastern region of the continent there is absolutely no desire by anyone to continue playing baseball into November.  Since economics drive all businesses, and major league baseball is certainly no different, to expect the owners to whittle down the season by a week (eight games) is akin to asking the players to play for free.  Therefore, the playoffs must begin at the start of October and finish at the end of the same month.  There isn’t any point to adding teams to a playoff structure if there isn’t any time for these extra games.  Or is there?

      What if baseball added just one more team to the playoffs in each league?   Well, you say, that would create an imbalance in the structure.  How would it work with five playoff teams in each league instead of four?  Well, the structure, as it is today—two best of seven divisional playoff rounds in each league followed by a best of seven league championship series and culminated with a best of seven World Series--would remain the same.  The only addition would be a very brief best of three series contested by the two wild card teams in each league, and these series would commence the day after the end of the regular season.  The beauty would be that the entire series would be played in the home park of the wild card team with the better record and therefore eliminate any need for travel days. 

       So, this is how it would work—wild card winner number one would host a best of three series against wild card winner number two.  The series would be played from Monday to Wednesday.  The divisional playoffs would then commence on Friday.   For those who believe that the season is long enough as it is then this formula would delay the divisional series by a grand total of three days.  It would also satisfy those who believe that the division winners should have a little more to show for a successful season than just being home for a game seven showdown.  Three of the past four World Series winners were wild cards, proving that simply getting into the post-season gives any team a shot at a title.  This way the wild cards would be forced to play an extra series and would be extended further than the division winners.  If a wild card goes on to win the World Series with this format, then that team surely deserves the title.

       What are the chances of this, or any other, format being adopted by major league baseball?  Only when a number of owners, armed with a number of lawyers and a number of accountants are willing to spend a number of years proposing the idea will it have a chance.  Major league baseball executives move ever so slowly and are loathe to make any decision that even slightly shifts the status quo.  As a matter of fact most of the executives that work out of the major league offices have tuna sandwiches for lunch—they can’t make up their minds what else to order.