Major League Baseball

Adding playoff teams has benefits, costs

Published Sep. 29, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Ken Rosenthal

If we all agree that Wednesday night was the greatest night in regular-season history — and I’ve yet to hear anyone offer a dissenting view — then by definition we are talking about something that doesn’t happen every year, or even every century.

I am reluctant to draw conclusions from such a small sample. I also am reluctant to criticize MLB commissioner Bud Selig for wanting to expand the postseason when the season’s magical conclusion occurred only because he created the wild card in the first place.

Still, how many of you were thinking the same thing I was as the drama built? How many of you were saying, “Why is it necessary to add a wild card in each league? Why is baseball hell-bent on fixing something that isn’t broken?”

The season finales were compelling largely because they completed the historic collapses by the Red Sox and Braves. If the additional wild cards had been in place, both teams would have made the playoffs. In fact, the entire field would have been set on Monday.

The greatest night in baseball history . . . kaput.

“None of those games would have been any fun,” Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said.

Selig, reached Thursday at his Milwaukee office, still was basking in the afterglow of not only the season’s electrifying finish, but also baseball’s first increase in attendance since 2007 — and in a wretched economy, no less.

He didn’t want to talk about the expanded postseason, saying it was still a matter of collective bargaining. But reflecting upon the original wild-card debate in 1993, he said, “There were a lot of people who said, ‘They won’t have division races, won’t do this, won’t do that . . .’”

He didn’t need to go further.

Those people were wrong.

As I’ve written before, I am grudgingly OK with the additional wild cards and even the one-game knockout agreed upon by the players and owners if they make the extra round part of the new collective bargaining agreement.

I like the tradeoff that the union wants for agreeing to an expanded postseason — realignment to two 15-team leagues and a more equitable interleague schedule.

I also remember how shrill many of us in the media sounded when baseball chose in ’93 to realign to three divisions and introduce wild cards. If memory serves, I may have contributed a negative word or 2,000.

In this case, it’s easy to see the other side.

The increase from eight playoff qualifiers to 10 would not be without benefits — benefits that management and union officials say would enhance the postseason’s appeal.

The incentive for a team to win its division would be powerful when the alternative is a potential one-game exit from the postseason. The single-elimination, wild-card round would replicate Wednesday’s excitement every season. The additional number of teams in play would create greater potential for chaotic finishes.

But, just as in the current system, some years would be better than others.

In 2010, the AL wild-card game would have been between the Yankees and Red Sox, with the White Sox contending to the end. But the Giants, Padres and Braves all would have made the postseason instead of competing for just two spots.

In ’09, the race for the second AL wild card would have been intense, with the Rangers, Tigers and Mariners all in the mix. But the Red Sox, after winning 95 games, could have been knocked out by the Rangers, who won 87. In the NL, the Rockies would have faced the same threat from the Giants, a team that won four fewer games in its division.

The answer to such inequities is simple: Win your division. The loss of home-field advantage is the only penalty for the wild card in the current system. A team that finishes second should be more severely handicapped. Too often, the wild card amounts to a cushion.

I’d like to see an intermediate step, keeping the current format and putting the wild-card teams at a greater disadvantage. Still, it’s not as if baseball is about to become the NBA or NHL. The last expansion of the playoffs was in 1995. The next one likely would be in 2013. An adjustment every 18 years is not unreasonable.

But the perception, even among some players who stand to gain from the increased revenue, would be similar to what it was among many in the mid-90s. The sport would face accusations of selling out.

“If you want to talk about drama or selling tickets, there are a lot of things we can do,” Teixeira said. “We can have home run derbies in extra innings. Starting pitchers go out and box for a couple of innings.

“I don’t understand why we need to worry about selling tickets or putting things on TV. We’ve got a pretty good product. We’ve had a pretty good product for over 100 years.”

The product was never better than it was Wednesday night. I would hate to lose the potential for similar drama in the future unless the alternative was something better.

The season finales gave me pause.

Selig deserves the benefit of the doubt. But just because he was right once doesn’t mean he will be right again.

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