June 11, 2004
Three Rounds Enough?
Bryan Johnson links to an article about how Bud Selig decided not to expand the playoff format because the 2003 post season was so good. I'm glad Bud made that decision. It's not that the playoffs are so long, but the season itself is very long. Unfortunately, the only ways to shorten the season cost people money. I really think that spring training would be find at four weeks instead of the 6 or 7 it is now. But that means fewer tourists for Arizona and Florida. MLB could easily lop a week off the season by scheduling six or seven double headers for each team during the season (this was the norm when I was young). But that costs teams that are selling out every game.
I'm not adverse to more playoff rounds. In the future, as more MLB teams are added, they will need to expand the format. What I hope is that they find a way to do that without expanding the length of the season.
I don't like the idea of increasing the playoffs. If baseball went to 32 teams with 4 teams in each division, that would give you four division winners per league, the same as the current 3 division winners plus wild card. The nice thing about baseball as opposed to the other sports is that pretty much (used to be exclusively) you have to win your division. Having a barely break even or worse (NBA East this year, ugh) dimishes the season. Why bust your butt every game if in the end you're only two or three out and would make it in anyhow.
Yes the wildcard does that too, but it is only one, which makes the scramble for that one berth exciting plus it rewards the occasional great team like the 1980 Orioles who won 100 games but finished out of the money, 3 games behind the Yankees.
I like the idea of expanding the playoffs - by one game. Let there be two wildcard teams, and they play each other in a one-game play-off. It sure makes the division races more important since the loser doesn't want to be in a one-game play-off.
I think the playoffs are too big already. When baseball really got going, your odds of making it to the playoffs were one in seven: the best team in the AL and the best team in the NL. Expansion slowly diluted that, so adding the second round of playoffs made some sense. But now we've got 30 teams and eight playoffs spots, diluting the value of a playoff spot to almost half of what it once was. As Robert noted, in baseball only the really good teams normally make the playoffs. It should stay that way.
My thought on en expanded post season that makes winning the division very meaningful. The two top wild card contenders in each league play a day-night doubleheader to advance to the LDS - but as an extra twist, the the wild card contender with the worse record has to win BOTH games on the road to advance to the Division Series. The better record is still rewarded.
i agree with andrew. i hate the idea of the team with the second best record winning any title. unless they beat the yankees, of course.