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James RiswickThroughout the years, expanding the playoffs has always improved Major League Baseball, so it’s only logical to think doing so would help baseball in a variety of ways. Purists cried foul in 1995 when the Wild Card was invented, allowing the best second-place team out of both leagues’ new three-division format a spot in the playoffs. It ruined the division races, they said, and undeserving teams could make it into the playoffs. That turned out to be nothing but naysaying.
Without the Wild Card, the 1997 and 2003 Marlins, the 2000 Mets, the 2002 Giants and the 2002 Angels never would have made it, or won, the World Series. They all had more than 90 wins in a season and only a scant few questioned their worthiness to be there.
Today, baseball needs to expand its playoffs and reduce its regular season schedule from 162 games back to 154. Regardless of whether the expansion would be one, two or four Wild Card teams, cutting back the schedule would eliminate the need to push the regular season back into March and the playoffs deep into November.
Some say discarding the current 162-game format would negatively affect records. However, what’s more important to the game, maintaining the legimacy of records or improving the games for the fans? I say the latter and besides, just as people adjusted the first time they changed the schedule, they could do it again. Let’s also remember people not complaining about the legitimacy of records when a slew of hitter-friendly ballparks were constructed and players became bulkier than ever (whether on steroids or not).
Instead of the eight games that would be removed from the schedule that would only yield local television audiences and potentially smaller crowds, a greater number of teams would enjoy the added revenue provided by higher attendance and lucrative national TV dollars.
This would be particularly important for small-market teams, who would benefit most from playoff expansion. Aside from the extra cash flow, it would give their fans a taste of playoff excitement and hope that their teams could also succeed in the current world of baseball Davids and Goliaths.
Small market or not, more baseball playoffs would mean more enjoyment for fans. Today, many teams are just far enough out of it that all of September is just a way of scouting out younger Triple-A players for next season. Fans go to ballparks to watch teams playing completely useless games — especially those toward the end of the season. If the playoffs are expanded, those same fans could watch their team play meaningful games in September or even later, then revel in watching their team duke it out in the playoffs.
With more teams vying for October action, fewer franchises would feel compelled to jettison players at the trading deadline, therefore giving up on the season July 31. Not only would this improve player longevity within an organization, it would also even out competiveness as fewer teams dump players to big rollers like the Yankees, and more teams would pick up players, which would eliminate the number of players going to the big rollers.
An expansion to eight teams (six would mean granting two teams a bye, which in baseball would be terribly unfair) could mean that a sub-500 team could make the playoffs. It wouldn’t have happened last year, but in 2002, the sub-500 Blue Jays and Phillies would have been the eighth seeds. But this happens all the time in basketball and hockey (both have eight-team formats), and these sub-500s would have to play the best team in the league to advance. Chances are, they would be destroyed, but in the case of my Blue Jays in 2002 or last year’s Dodgers who would have been in the eighth spot, it would have given the teams’ players a taste of the playoffs and something to strive for in the future. And more importantly, it would give the fans the chance to watch their team in playoff action — something they definitely wouldn’t and haven’t been able to do in the current format — which is what this is all about, the fans. It would give them a chance to watch their teams play meaningful games, rather than useless September call-up matches.
Submitted 09-16-2004
MALIBU, CA
