With both sides expressing support for adding two playoff teams in 2012, negotiators for baseball players and owners are considering having the new wild card round be best-of-3 or winner-take-all.For someone who consistently craps out bad idea after bad idea I'm not surprised by Selig here. After all, he's the same fool who thought making the All-Star game determine home field advantage for the World Series was a good idea.
Because longer series would push playoffs deeper into cold weather, the sides are not considering having the new first round be best-of-7.
"I would say we're moving to expanding the playoffs, but there's a myriad of details to work out," Commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday at his annual meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors. "Ten is a fair number."
Since 1995, eight of the 30 baseball teams make the playoffs. In the NFL, 12 of 32 teams make the playoffs. In the NBA and NHL, 16 of 30 advance to the postseason.
In the new format, the two wild cards in each league would meet, and the winners would advance to the following round against division winners.
"The more we've talked about it, I think we're moving inexorably to that," Selig said.
Discussions have taken place as part of collective bargaining for a labor deal to replace the one that expires in December. Players want to make sure the new format doesn't cause lengthy travel with little recovery time.
"We've had a healthy exchange on a number of alternatives," union head Michael Weiner said, "but the sides recognize there has to be a balance of competitive considerations, economic considerations and player safety considerations."
Hasn't the regular season been watered-down enough? How much drama has already been taken out of the pennant race from the Wild Card alone? And now, MLB wants to make the regular season even more irrelevant by adding another two undeserving teams to the postseason. Great.
Obviously, like nearly everything in today's world, this is a money driven decision. And who cares about ruining the game when you're lining your pockets with cold hard cash, right?
How do you guys feel about this?
