The Boys of Summer


The very idea that Bud Selig is the brain-trust of major league baseball is loathsome.  This would be the very same guy who had an all-star game end in a tie.  Whatta moron.

Here’s the latest:  According to Yahoo Sports, Selig has decided that, by 2013 at the latest, and probably this year, each league will have not just one, but two (count ‘en two) wild card teams.  They can both come from the same division, the way I read it. 

Look, it’s awful enough that a team can fail to win their division, and still make the playoffs.  So we now have the situation where, if your team is in the American League West (a 4 team division), your team can finish the regular season next to last, and still win the World Series.  Brother.

I understand that having more teams in the playoffs translates to more sales of merchandise and such.  I really do understand.  But this whole wild card concept is terrible.  Why not just make a whole bunch of 4 team (or 3 team, for that matter) divisions so that a quarter (or a third) of the teams can call themselves champions, then have an extended playoff season—a “second” season, like basketball and hockey—and be done with it.

The way I understand the new playoff business for MLB, the two wild card teams will play a single elimination game, then the playoffs will proceed as now happens.  Except there’s no shortening of the regular season.  This will add at least 3 days to the season, and the World Series might not conclude until the week before Thanksgiving.

There’s so much wrong with this…..I just don’t like it.  Baseball is supposed to be a Summer sport.  Summer.

At least our local minor league affiliate (the “A” club of the Cleveland Indians—the Scrappers of the of the NY-Penn League) has a short schedule and ends before it snows.

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