selig open to expanding mlb playoffs

CHICAGO -- Baseball commissioner Bud Selig wants to explore expanding the postseason this winter.


Several years ago, Major League Baseball formed a committee to examine expansion but Selig said there were several factors that ended the discussion. Now, he thinks the time is right to revisit it.

"It's a fair question," Selig said Friday before the St. Louis Cardinals played the Chicago Cubs. "We have less teams than any other sport. Eight teams make the playoffs. One wild card in each league. We certainly haven't abused anything."
He's not afraid of upsetting the purists, who were vocal in their opposition when the sport added the wild card.


"As the guy who brought the wild card and took a lot of abuse -- maybe from nobody in this room -- it's worked out great, nobody's against it," Selig said.
Selig said he has been monitoring the contentious divorce proceedings of Jamie and Frank McCourt, the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he refused to comment on the trial that could determine the future of the ownership of the team.


Despite efforts to cut down on the shattering of maple bats, a freak injury to the Cubs' Tyler Colvin on Sunday has given Selig new concern about their safety.
Colvin was hit in the chest by shard from a maple bat while on third base. He was released three days later from Miami hospital after being treated with a chest tube that prevented his lung from collapsing.


"Two years ago when this really came about, we retained people in the forestry division at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard. They have really helped us. We have cut down on broken bats by about 50 percent and that's a lot of progress in a short period of time," Selig said. "Is it enough? No. We've got the remaining 50 percent to do and you watch something like the Tyler Colvin incident, and it scares you. But we're making progress."

I do believe they should add one more wildcard and make the two wild card teams play a best of three series. Only due to the fact that there is no real advantage the division winner gets when facing a wild card team in the playoffs. This will at least make winning the division a priority again. IMO

Fuk Bud Selig....the worst commissioner in any sport in any era....

I like the idea of a one game playoff between two wildcard teams

Your have the three division winners make the playoffs. Instead of one wildcard teams you have two.

The two wildcard teams meet in a ONE GAME playoff. Winner advances.

Does a few things

1. Forces wildcard teams to face a penalty for not actually winning the division. They have to use their best pitcher in a "one game winner take all" scenario.

2. Creates another blockbuster TV event

I like the idea of a one game playoff between two wildcard teams

Your have the three division winners make the playoffs. Instead of one wildcard teams you have two.

The two wildcard teams meet in a ONE GAME playoff. Winner advances.

Does a few things

1. Forces wildcard teams to face a penalty for not actually winning the division. They have to use their best pitcher in a "one game winner take all" scenario.

2. Creates another blockbuster TV event

Of course he is ......... When shit team like pittsburgh turn a profit ...... Why not ... Its all about the all might dollar ........ More teams more money period!!

its worked for the NBA and NHL, for years. It brings in more dollars and more fans, win - win.

should be more teams in postseason w/all the games

VIEJO DINOSAUR said:

Fuk Bud Selig....the worst commissioner in any sport in any era....

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Tend to agree, and baseball has enough playoff spots, why dlute the product even further.

billhill999 said:

Tend to agree, and baseball has enough playoff spots, why dlute the product even further.

Click to expand...

ope:

Hell, they play long enough as it is.

Bud, regardless if you like him or not, has made quite a few tough decisions during his tenure. I think he has done a respectable job. Definitely has a true passion for the game.

Before he does that, he needs to make the first round 4/7. To play 3/5 after 162 games it's just wrong.

imagine how much more exciting this last week would be if it was like the old days....the braves, padres, and giants battling it out in the west and the yankees and rays going down to the wire....

VIEJO DINOSAUR said:

Fuk Bud Selig....the worst commissioner in any sport in any era....

Click to expand...

I feel the same exact way

kid44 said:

Bud, regardless if you like him or not, has made quite a few tough decisions during his tenure. I think he has done a respectable job. Definitely has a true passion for the game.

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Name a couple....I respect your opinon but Selig Blows.....he single handily ruined an all star game a few years ago...he has made steroids a joke.....different rules in each league...

What rational reasoning could anybody have for not expanding the playoffs? Instead of having 90% of the action in an endless 162 game season they should almost have it where its two parts. Play a shorter regular season and have more teams involved in the post season.

At the very least they should alter the divisions/eliminate them. I mean where I live (Toronto) and a team like Baltimore its a complete joke. The situation is dire and has no end in sight. What hope the team drafts well and gets lucky and has a good 2-3 year period (ala Tampa Bay) before the next cycle of 25 losing seasons?

make the first round a best of 7. enough teams as it is.

http://www.thehoya.com/sports/Change-The-Wild-Card-9281014/


Change The Wild Card



By Nick Macri | Sep 28 2010 |

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.

It is DISGUSTING to think that baseball would alter its playoff format yet again for the same types of people who want EVERY team to play in the NCAA tourney.....and the mindset of PUNISHING a team for making the playoffs is off base as well.....why would you PUNISH a team for reaching the postseason.....are postseason games not supposed to be an even playing field for the teams involved?.....if you feel the need to PUNISH a wild card team, why not just do away with the wild card all together? what a race it would be down the stretch if the braves, giants, and padres ALL still played in the NL West!!!