Expanded Playoffs Reward Mediocrity

Major League Baseball has decided to dramatically change its October look, and not for the better.

The playoffs will be expanded by two teams as early as next year. That means one-third of baseball's 30 teams will make the postseason, in what feels like another Yankees-Red Sox exception.

The first Yankee-Sox playoff exception states if the team with the best overall record and the wild-card team are from the same division, the wild card team will face the team with the second-best record.

Since Boston has been absent from the last two postseasons, and New York was left out four years ago, a fifth playoff team appears they are getting a backdoor playoff admittance. If a fifth playoff spot existed, the Red Sox, and their rabid fans, would have watched at least one game in October.

Ensuring more big market teams make the playoffs isn't the whole story.

Commissioner Bud Selig and Co. are trying to fix the September problem that many division pennant races, particularly in the AL East, lack drama because both teams are resting up for October.

In order to put the premium on winning a division title, MLB is only further watering down its laborious 162-game season.

This past year, the additional wild-card teams would have meant the most exciting night of baseball in years wouldn't have mattered. All teams would have lived another day.

"You don't do things for one year. You do things for a long period of time," Selig said.

Rewarding mediocrity is not going to help over the years.

Under the expanded playoffs, it will happen that a 97-win wild card team is going to lose to a team that finishes seven to eight games behind them.

Playoffs ought to reward the best teams, and expanding the postseason will do just the opposite.

MLB is breaking something that isn't broke.

A Not So Wild Idea

Even in Major League Baseball's long, arduous season every game matters.

In what will likely go down as one of the wildest endings to a regular season ever, two teams popped champagne, while two picked up the pieces from their epic September collapses.

It all transpired simultaneously, in minutes, and much like March Madness was spectacular nail biting drama.

And to think it could all be naught if MLB gets its way and adds another wild-card. Before we get there here's how it played out in real time:

9:56 p.m. (EDT): Atlanta Braves rookie sensation Craig Kimbrel wilts under the pressure. Three walks to Phillie batters results in a game-tying sac fly from Chase Utley. Free baseball in Hotlanta.

10:23: Evan Longoria caps a six run inning with one swing of the bat. His three-run homer cuts the New York Yankees seven-run lead to one.

10:26: The St. Louis Cardinals finish off a 8-0 thrashing of the Houston Astros and tune into to watch the Braves games.

10:47: Tampa's down to its last strike, when Dan Johnson (batting .108) smacks a pinch-hit game-tying home run. The Rays are heading to extra innings.

10:58: The Boston Red Sox resume their game against the Orioles after a popup Baltimore thunderstorm.

11:17: BoSox's Carl Crawford, who hasn't lived up to his mega contract, doubles, but Macro Scutaro hesitates as he runs to third and is gunned out at the plate. Red Sox still lead 3-2, but an insurance run is lost.

11:28: Philly's Hunter Pence squibs a broken-bat single in the unlucky 13th inning in Atlanta. Phillies lead 4-3.

11:40: At the start of September, Atlanta led the NL wild-card by 8 1/2 games. Braves Freddie Freeman grounds into a double play. Game over, season over -- St. Louis is October bound.

11:59: Orioles Nolan Reimold is down to his last strike, but ties the game with the second of back-to-back doubles off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon.

12:02: The wheels fall off in Baltimore. O's Robert Andino smacks a single to left field. Crawford can't make the sliding grab and his throw to the plate is off the mark. Red Sox await their fate that hinges in St. Petersburg.

12:05: Tampa's Evan Longoria hits another home run just feet from the foul pole that just clears the fence. Tampa Bay completes two improbable comebacks -- winning 8-7 after trailing 7-0 and catching Boston in the standings who once held a 9 game wild-card lead on Sept. 3.

The Red Sox collapse was the biggest blown lead in the final month ever, and the Braves weren't too far behind.

But all of Wednesday's drama wouldn't have mattered if Bud Selig's proposed plan to add a fifth wild-card team was in effect.

All four teams vying for the final playoff spots would have mirrored the Yankees pre-playoff mode, playing the next best guy on their 40-man roster.

The idea of a second runner-up making the baseball's postseason is ludicrous. The Red Sox don't deserve another chance after a 7-20 September. Neither does a team that finishes 6 games behind the first wild-card participant (like the same Red Sox did last year in missing the playoffs).

Baseball should not be trying to emulate the NBA. The Association plays a way too long season, followed by even longer playoffs which half the teams make. What's the point?

A 162-game season is designed to reward the winners and punish the teams that don't deserve to play in October. Wednesday night proved just that.

Fixing MLB: Salary Cap

The Yankees would be stretched if they had to develop their own prospects.

The National Football League's biggest strength over the past decade has been the leveling of the playing field with a salary cap.

The biggest team the Dallas Cowboys has to play by the same financial rules as the Buffalo Bills.

Leveling the playing field with salary cap is one thing that would help MLB.

Unfortunately, during All-Star game festivities last month, commissioner Bug Selig crushed any hope of even entertaining a cap.

Citing Pittsburgh and Cleveland's resurgence, Selig claims the economic system in baseball has changed, and it's working. At the break, he suggested, the league had about 20 clubs who were still very much in it.

Really that number is much smaller, it's always smaller.

In the past decade there have only been four teams with a pay role outside the top half of the league to play in the World Series (Florida in '03, Colorado in '07, Tampa in '08 and Texas last year). Only one team in that group has won.

Every year, half the league really has no hope of winning a world title. League pennants are nice, but at the major league level you play to win it all.

Salary caps put a stronger emphasis on organizational identity, and it itself would help pull the Yankees and others back with the rest of the league.

Sadly, Selig seems to have bought into the idea that having the Yankees, Red Sox and other big market teams dominate October is best for baseball.

Let's be honest, who was the last prospect the Yankees actually developed into a star?

Derek Jeter comes to mind, but he's 37, and the Bronx Bombers lucked out he didn't get traded. More recently, Robinson Cano fits the shoe, but again the Yanks got lucky he's not another team.

It's been fun to see fans coming out and filling the ball parks in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. No one wants to suffer through a season with 100 losses, but they occasionally happen.

When you put a good product on the field people will come. And baseball needs a good product in 30 cities, not just eight.

The way to do that is mimic the NFL, and make all teams play by the same financial rules.

Fixing MLB: The Season Structure

One of the issues plaguing Major League Baseball is happening right now.

American Leagues pitchers are venturing into uncharted territory having to bat, while most National League teams are adding a mediocre bat to its lineup in the form of a designated hitter. It's the joys of interleague baseball.

Aside from ruining the fun and specialness of the World Series, interleague play creates a lot of matchups that nobody cares about. For every great series like Yankees-Cubs and Angels-Dodgers, there are just as many Rays-Brewers and Rockies-Indians.

MLB should do us all a favor and end this. There's no reason to get excited about playing a team you won't see for another three years.

All-Star Game

Bud Selig has a number of black marks on his tenure as commissioner. One of the bigger ones, calling the 2002 All-Star game in his hometown of Milwaukee an unsatisfactory tie game.

But Selig out-did himself the next year, by "fixing" the Midsummer Classic and making it determine who had home field advantage for the World Series.

It's absurd to have a glorified exhibition actually count.

MLB should abolish the rule today.

Let's actually validate the 162 game regular season and when two teams meet in the World Series, award the one with the best regular season record with home field.

It works for the NHL and NBA. It would be perfect for baseball too.

Shorten the Season

In an effort to make sure baseball stops before Thanksgiving, Selig put a blemish on Opening Day. Rather than starting on the first Monday in April, baseball started on March 31 a Thursday.

That hardly solves the issue that baseball, a summer sport, typically slogs through the unpredictable autumn weather. It's a bad mix.

It would be great to just ax eight games and go back to 154, but that won't every happen. So MLB needs to shorten the postseason. It's very doable, just cut down on travel and off days just plough through the postseason.

There's something wrong that teams can essentially have a two man starting rotation and win a pennant (aka 2001 Diamondbacks).

Teams should have to go four or five deep and mirror the regular season. Just tighten up the postseason would help capitalize on lost potential, since football (both pro and college) doesn't really get good until October.

But these aren't the only tweaks needed to make the game better, and I'll be writing more in the coming weeks.

Pardon for Pete would erode integrity

The NY Daily News was the first to report that after some behind the scenes lobbying from former greats, MLB commissioner Bud Selig is supposedly mulling over a pardon for Pete Rose.

What that would mean is that Rose, the all-time hits leader, would have a clear path to Cooperstown.

It's nearly impossible to argue against Rose's greatness, because of where he stands in the record books: the most hits, the sixth-most runs scored and the second-most doubles. But he also holds a unique place in baseball history for his actions off the field.

ESPN.com's Buster Onley writes, "during the past two decades, [Rose's] behavior has been appalling. He has been nothing less than a lowlife."

He's a lowlife who broke baseball's rules and trust, when he was caught gambling as a manager. And he proceeded to lie about it for long time. 

It's true, a reinstatement for Rose would not automatically mean the Hall of Fame would be rolling out the red carpet. He would have to be elected by the Veterans Committee, as his 15 years on the Baseball writers ballot has lapsed, and that's no sure thing.

But more than that, if Rose receives a forgiveness and enters the Hall, it's a slap in the face to baseball's integrity. An integrity that has come under a fires as the game continues to be mired in steroid's era.

Character needs to count for the Hall of Fame.

You cheat, you lie, you win? 

That's the message Selig and the of his cronies would send if Rose gets reinstated. That's one message baseball cannot afford to send.

All-Star madness

MLB commissioner Bud Selig’s blunder was nearly on full display Tuesday night, well, make that Wednesday morning.

Texas shortstop Michael Young and exhausted Pilly closer Bard Lidge spared Selig some embarrassment.

Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, gave the American League a 4-3 win, a mere 4-hours and 50-minutes after it started. For Lidge the sac fly was the end of insanity that saw him warm up and sit down about a half-dozen times.

The headache for both managers during this epic game was due to the fact that somebody had to win and they were both out of pitchers.

Talk about absurdity, a glorified exhibition game between a hodgepodge of stars determines who gets an advantage in October!?! What happened to the other 162 games that each team plays? They don’t really count anymore.

“This time it counts” dates back to 2003 when a terrible two-year experiment began awarding home-field advantage to the All-Star winning league. This Dr. Frankenstein-esque mistake came after Selig called the 2002 All-Star Game a tie. In part, MLB was to looking to help boost sagging TV ratings.

But it’s just more hype. If baseball were truly looking to really boost TV viewership they could try throwing out the first pitch before 8:45 ET. Isn’t All-Star weekend a great chance to attract young fans?

Baseball ought to give up on this madness. They need to follow all the other professional sports and award home-field advantage in the World Series to the team with the better regular season record.

I can’t say this would have been Selig’s biggest gaffe, but could you imagine Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew or Mets third baseman David Wright on the mound deciding which league gets home-field advantage?

We were almost there yesterday, and it’s a ridiculous prospect.

MLB owners ensure no “change” till 2012

After a unanimous decision, MLB owner’s gave Commissioner Bud Selig a three-year extension through the 2012 season.

This positions Selig to become the second-longest-serving leader behind Kenesaw Landis, MLB’s first commissioner, who served from 1920-1944. The owner’s certainly didn’t vote Selig an extension for his testimony before a congressional committee criticizing baseball for its steroids problem.

Selig pushed for interleague play and got it; he pushed for wild cards in the postseason and got those too. Now he’s predicting more change.

“By the time I leave, you won’t recognize the sport,” Selig said in an interview with the AP.

MLB’s labor contract runs through the 2011 season and its national television deals with Fox, Turner Broadcasting and ESPN run through 2013. According the AP article revenue was $1.66 billion when Selig became acting commissioner. It topped $6 billion last year and is projected to top $6.5 billion this year.

That’s why the owner’s extended Selig’s contract. Don’t stir pot when the game has never been healthier financially.

However, baseball needs a jolt. I’m talking about dramatic change that would alter the game. MLB needs to take after the other three major professional sports and adopt a salary cap.

Currently baseball has a luxury tax, which is just egregious appeasement for pious fans. It’s a smokescreen, because it taxes only the Yankees and sometimes the Red Sox, redistributing some sums to lower echelons of baseball.

The only way to ensure long-term health of baseball is to take after the NFL and force teams to compete within the same monetary means. Today’s baseball operates like European football. There’s the premiereship, which could be called the American League, and then there’s the ‘B’ league, which could be called the National League.

Creating a more even keel competitiveness would benefit the whole sport. But that’s not going to happen, especially with Selig in charge, a commissioner who has presided over economic boom, only because he left steroids alone.