Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Change The Wild Card

For fans of a certain age, it is hard to imagine Major League Baseball’s postseason structure has ever deviated from its current format. We can’t remember the time before 1994, when the Eastern and Western Division champions from each league were the only teams to have a chance at the World Series. A world without the Central Divisions, the Division Series and wildcard winners now seems foreign.

Nowadays, we take for granted that wildcard winners – the best team in each league among non-division champions – should advance to the postseason. Gone are the days when a team had to – or was expected to – win its division in order to deserve a shot at winning the World Series. And once wildcard teams advance to the postseason, they face no competitive disadvantages; they are essentially treated as a fourth division winner.

This equal treatment of wildcard and division winners has led some to wonder whether the current postseason format should be adjusted in order to reward division winners and punish wildcard entries. Although the momentum to alter the postseason structure is minimal, this current episode of discussion harkens back to the original arguments for and against instituting the wildcard in the first place.

Baseball introduced the wildcard for the 1994 postseason – which was cancelled due to a players’ strike – for three main reasons. First, the wildcard guarantees that the two best teams in each league reach the postseason. Second, it extends the postseason to three rounds and allows eight teams – instead of four – to play into October. Third, it allows more cities to be in the hunt for the playoffs, as teams that are out of contention for a division crown are still alive in August and September.

To baseball’s credit, the wildcard has been widely successful. Eight teams reaching the postseason seem to be a good amount, and teams and fans in more cities are able to compete to reach the postseason. The 1997 and 2003 Florida Marlins, 2002 Anaheim Angels and 2004 Boston Red Sox all won the World Series as wildcard winners, demonstrating that they belong in the postseason.

Some who opposed the wildcard at its inception, most notably Bob Costas – the NBC and MLB Network broadcaster who is one of the great baseball minds in the country – still aren’t convinced by the wildcard’s popularity and think it cheapens the achievement of reaching the postseason.

Costas and others cite two major flaws with the system. The first, as mentioned before, is that division winners should be rewarded for finishing first, so placing them on the same level as wildcard winners is unfair. Second, they argue it ruins potentially great pennant races. When two teams are neck and neck for the division but have the wildcard to fall back on, neither usually tries hard because both are guaranteed a playoff berth. This is what faces the American League East race, where the Tampa Bay Rays are a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees. Without the wildcard, this could be a historic race. Instead both will coast into October with little incentive to win the division.

To meld the positives of the wildcard while eliminating the negatives, Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated recently proposed adding a one-game playoff between the top two wildcard leaders in each league before the start of the Division Series. The winners of the one-game playoffs would face the top team in their respective leagues; the losers would go home.

This proposal has a lot going for it. First, it would create a very strong disincentive to settle for the wildcard because teams would not want to risk going home after just one loss. Second, it would allow even more cities to be in pennant races, attracting more fans come August and September. Third, it would punish the wildcard winner by forcing that team to use one of its top pitchers in the one-game playoff, making its quest to win the following Division Series that much tougher.

Usually, I would not support an idea like this. I generally consider myself a baseball purist – an overused term that nonetheless reflects my desire to preserve the nature of the game – when it comes to making changes. Baseball has been around for over 100 years and is doing fine enough as it is.

But something about this proposal appeals to me. While I don’t like the idea that an entire season will boil down to one game for two teams, I do like the idea of rewarding division winners and penalizing wildcard teams, harkening back to the memories of classic pennant races. I also like the idea of it being just a one-game playoff instead of a three-game series, because the postseason already goes too deep into October and November. And bringing more teams into the hunt without expanding the postseason tournament is always a positive.

Somewhat surprisingly, Commissioner Bud Selig suggested that baseball may consider tweaking the wildcard system to create a more pronounced disadvantage for wildcard winners. He told reporters in Chicago last week that it’s time for baseball to re-examine the system to see if it can be improved.

It’s promising to hear that baseball is considering such a change. It could potentially cure some of the ills of the current format and create great drama at the end of the season for four cities. This year, fans would salivate over the Yankees playing the Red Sox to determine the AL wildcard winner.

It used to mean something to win a pennant. Nothing would rekindle this proud tradition of baseball’s past more than raising the stakes of settling for the wildcard.

Nick Macri is a senior in the College. THE BIG PICTURE appears in every third issue of THE HOYA.

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