Not wild about the wild card

"THE BEST TEAM ALWAYS WINS; just look at the scoreboard" is a long held, if arguable, sports axiom. Yet, how can the best team win (a championship or, in this case, the pennant and World Series) if it is not even on the field in the first place? In other words, Major League Baseball's playoff system--specifically, the wild card--must go; a post-season restructuring is needed posthaste.

The irony is that the wild card purportedly was created to ensure that the top teams reach the post-season, yet it has failed in its mission. The seed was planted in 1993 when the San Francisco Giants won 103 games, but were nosed out for the West Division title by the Atlanta Braves (104 wins). The Philadelphia Phillies, meanwhile, captured the East Division with 97 triumphs. The Phils ultimately secured a spot in the Fall Classic by upending the Braves in the National League Championship Series. The wild card's percolation process continued when the Lords of Baseball decided to borrow from the world of sports' greatest money-makers, the National Football League, which had hit upon the idea when the NFL and AFL merged in 1970: Create three divisions but four playoff spots; each division champ, plus the second-place team with the best record, advances to the post-season. (The NFL has gone on to prove that more is less by now having its two conferences each filled with four division champs and two wild-card qualifiers, and rest assured that the misguided individuals running the national pastime soon will follow suit.)

We are not arguing here for fewer playoff teams. (True, that's what we really want, but that's a discussion for another day.) What we're proposing is that, whatever number of teams advance to the playoffs, they all should be deserving. While the baseball wild card does guarantee that the National or American League team with the circuit's second-best record cannot be left out of the post-season party, it does not--and often has not--secured the four best teams in each league for the playoffs. By "best" teams, we mean those with the best records. However, when you create multiple mini-divisions, what often happens is that, not only does the wild-card winner have a better record than one of the division champs, but so do some third- and even fourth-place clubs.

The situation reached the height of obsurdity last season when the San Diego Padres led the N.L. West Division for a large part of the season with a losing record. They ultimately finished at 82-80, and went merrily into the playoffs with the worst winning percentage in history. Meanwhile, the East Division's Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins, and New York Mets, all with better records than the Padres, failed to qualify for the post-season. Perhaps most maddening is how the 2005 season has been trumpeted by baseball's brass, sportswriters, fans, and broadcasters as an overwhelming success, seeing as how the tight wild-card races in both leagues kept more teams in the hunt for a playoff spot longer. (The Padres, too, did their part, as West Division clubs that were languishing double digits below .500 remained in the race right through late September). In troth, though, last season produced phony races, take champions, and make-believe excitement.

It's time to scrap the wild card, divisions, interleague play, and the unbalanced schedule and return to a simple two-league format--with the top four teams in each circuit qualifying for the playoffs. Taking last season's National League records as a case in point, the St. Louis Cardinals (100-62), Atlanta Braves (90-72), Houston Astros (89-73), and Phillies (88-74) would have made the playoffs under the new system, with the Marlins and Mets (each at 83-79) close behind. The Padres (82-80) and Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers (each at 81-81) would have been on the fringes.

Remember, though, that final standings do not always reflect excitement generated. Specifically, the Padres never really would have been a part of this race--justifiably so. However, the Nationals were the surprise of the Senior Circuit through much of the season, climbing well above .500 and sitting in first place in the N.L. East for weeks on end. The point is, they deservedly would have been in the thick of things until almost the very end--which is supposed to be the whole idea behind letting more teams into the playoffs. The same is tree for the A.L., where the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, and Oakland Athletics--six teams battling for four spots--all would have been clustered together heading down the stretch.

Moreover, since the playoffs would feature first place vs. fourth place and second place vs. third place in the opening round, with the higher seed getting home-field advantage, the Braves, Astros, and Phils would have been in a desperate race within a race--if for no other reason than to not have to face the Cardinals, who had the best record in baseball and were the defending league champs. Ditto the A.L., as the playoff-bound Yanks, Halos, and Bosox would have been looking to avoid the league-leading Chisox, who went on to win last year's World Series. To add significance to the regular season, the first-place team should be rewarded by having five home games, not four, in the best-of-seven first round. (Oh, did I mention that the best-of-five format for the opening round has been deep-sixed under our new set-up?)