i don't see any need to make changes to the baseball play offs. all bud wants to do is keep up with the jones' or the smith's. let things be the way it is now

Perhaps this is Bud Selig's defining moment. Many guessed he was incompetent during the strike that deleted a Fall Classic. He has looked incompetent with every phase of the steroid issue including his discomfort with Barry Bonds. Even still.

However, the most criticism he ever got was the old "used car salesman" jab, and people moved on.

This was simple to explain really. It is easier to criticize (and defend) doing nothing than doing something stupid.

Selig may be realizing his legacy will be what happened in MLB during his reign even though he represented little more than a caricature of being some sort of boss. I mean, really, can anyone point to any major change in Selig from when he was "acting commissioner" and being commissioner?

He suspended Marge Schott and Kenny Rogers. He reinstated George Steinbrenner and suspended the schedule for a week in the wake of Nine-Eleven. What was done as the commish and acting commish? If you go 4-for-4, you're the next Pete Rose. (Perhaps a bad metaphor.)

So Selig must want a legacy for actually doing something rather than something happening on his watch. The "hard" action on steroids doesn't really count as it was a knee-jerk reaction after the embarrassment of Congress being involved.

The act of making the All Star game "meaningful" didn't have the Congressional scrutiny, but it clearly showed his other knee could twitch. It also showed that if given the chance, Bud could really come up with something stupid all on his own.

Now, he wants to expand the playoffs to make September meaningful to more teams. Really? Let's look at 2010 as an example.

If we are to assume the AL and NL expand their playoffs by two teams each (can't imagine fewer), BOS and CWS are now added. BOS was a third place team in their division. People were already ho-hum about NYY and TB down the stretch because both were going to be in with little advantage for the division winner.

With CWS also in, TOR would be the only winning team (.525) not to make the playoffs.

The NL would also be the same. Add slumping SD (.556) and STL (.531) and only COL (.512) would out-win their losses and not play more than 162 games.

Is this supposed to make baseball more exciting? Teams who have spent five months winning half or less than half of their games might make the playoffs. That is exactly where the spotlight will be. Even fewer people will care about NYY and TB because holding off BOS is no longer a consideration.

And guess what. While baseball's inclusion may make very ordinary teams still possible for the playoffs (and eligible to be crowned as champs, hoo-boy), the idea it might make September games for these half-dozen teams more exciting even if you buy into it will be negated by the droves of people who will yawn their way around the country after Opening Day and before school let's out.

With prices going up, up, up, who will really want to invest in package plans when things get watered even further down?

This idea is insulting to used car salesmen everywhere. Think what you want about the people you may have had experiences from this profession, but they understood a basic economic axiom. You want to make your product either more exciting or at least seem more exciting.

This Bud's for no one wants to increase popularity by watering down the product even further.

And I haven't even addressed what the top two teams in each league are doing while the third through sixth seeds are playing their best-of-five. Teams are already experiencing extended breaks with the current format after playing 25-27 games per month for a half-year. Now, the four best teams are going to be sentenced to even more "rest."

And please don't tell me the playoffs should expand to 16 total teams to avoid long breaks for teams. Might as well expand MLB by two teams and let everyone play after a 162-game pre-playoff season.

On the other hand, this may be diabolical genius. This could ruin baseball to the point a couple of teams may go bankrupt. Selig did want contraction. He may be paving the way for more than two teams this time around for the National Past Time.

Pete,

I too believe he saw it coming! I just finished reading the compensation requirements for all of the firstbasemen in this years free agent market. I'm deeply concerned that ole AM is going to take the cheap route and look at a guy like Berkman who won't require us giving up as high a pick, versus a real middle of the order guy. I say this only from AM track record (ie... Gerritt Atkins).

I actually think we need two guys that between then hit 70 dingers to get us where we need to be and a SS who can hit 250. Maybe that is Andino and his glove may improve. But once we get a 4 and 5 hitter, you will see Nick, Matt and Jones take off and our pitcher won't feel like they have to throw shutouts every night!

Go O's,

The truth will set you free!

waspman - liked your analysis of the effect of the proposed expansion.

The discussion of the expansion of the playoff format makes me feel old. Why, when I was a lad (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) - the best team from each league went to the World Series. That was exciting. The last thing baseball needs is a "second season" like basketball and hockey have, where what you do over the first 162 games means nothing. That's aside from the impact of having the WS played in late November - don't think reducing the regular season to 154 games is in the cards. Greedy so-and-so's, ruining the game we love....

dyspeptically yours,
Tom

There is a way to expand the playoffs, keep the 162-game schedule, recapture the importance of winning a pennant, rotate your opponents (and deleting interleague play, and increase interest without changing the game (except for unifying the DH rule which for me means eliminating it, but that's a separate topic) or playing games in November.

To start, the regular season starts April 1 and ends September 30, plus or minus three days. The season ends on a Sunday with the latest date being October 3. That gives you 183 days to play 162 games.

Next, split the 30 teams into three ten-team leagues. The first year of implementation, have the leagues divided as they were in 1968 with the ten teams that joined thereafter forming the third league (Federalist League).

The rotation would be the top two teams would rotate AL-NL-FL for the next year while the bottom two teams would rotate FL-NL-AL. Each team gets four or eight new opponents the next year without the meaningless interleague play. It would also rotate teams having to deal with or against "big market" teams every year.

The season would be like it was in 1968. Every team plays each opponent 18 games, nine home and nine away. At the end of the season, you have a pennant winner for each league. They advance automatically to the semi-finals of the World Series with significant advantages. Those teams are seeded 1-3 by record (and by a tie-breaking procedure I won't go into right here).

Now comes the fun part that is a bit out of the box. The next eight teams are seeded 4-11 by record (and similar tie-breaker) regardless from which league they emerge. These playoffs decide the eventual fourth seed for the World Series, and they are divided into Odds and Evens based on their seeding. These playoffs are all single-elimination.

On Tuesday, #11 plays at #9 while #10 plays at #8. The 11/9 winner plays at #7 on Wednesday as does 10/8 playing at #6. Thursday is either a day off or a rain make-up. The survivng Odds team plays at #5 while the surviving Evens team plays at #4 on Friday. The two remaining teams play at the highest seed's site on Saturday to become the fourth seed.

The semi-finals starts that Tuesday as a best-of-seven and goes Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun or Mon, Tue, Wed. The #1 seed hosts #4 for the first two games and the last three. The #4 seed only gets two home games. The #2 and #3 teams play the more traditional 2-3-2 format.

The World Series Finals would also be seed dependent and have the traditional 2-3-2 format going Sat, Sun, Tue, Wed, Thr, Sat, Sun. That last Sunday would be no later than October 31 if the regular season ended October 3.

You would have 11 eligible teams -- an increase of three -- all certain to have sufficient above-.500 records, and all having a much harder road to hoe if they are not a pennant winner.

The single-elimination brings an urgency to each game not found in the current first round of the playoffs. A tenth or eleventh seed would have to win four straight games on the road (unless #10 hosts #11 at the end) just to face the top team who gets five home games in a best-of-seven. If a team can endure that to get to the World Series Finals, it would be hard to argue they didn't deserve it.

I believe ratings would be more akin to football and less regional. It might have a carryover effect such that a Texas-San Francisco finals might draw more than just hardcore baseball fans or those from that area.

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Pete's reply: I have to say, doc, it sure sounds like fun, but it's way too much change for the entrenched powers that rule the game.

Pete's reply: I have to say, doc, it sure sounds like fun, but it's way too much change for the entrenched powers that rule the game.

You mean the same powers who have a DH rule in one league but not the other for 38 years? The same powers who have ordained unbalanced divisional and league sizes? Perhaps you're right. Then again, no change would be an improvement over what Selig is leaning towards.