By Peter Valentino
The new playoff format in MLB has mixed reviews. Courtesy of Wikimedia
It’s been a while since the Mets played into October, so I forgot about my discontent for baseball’s playoff format. To me, there are great moments in the MLB postseason, but they are clouded by the odd nature of the format. While the Wild Card games are intense, it’s unfair for a team to be playing 162 games all summer, but then have their season decided in a game 163.
Also, the 2-3-2 format needs to be scrapped. The NBA did away with the 2-3-2 for the 2-2-1-1-1 to give lower seeds a better advantage. As much as baseball feels the need to accentuate how hard it is to win a World Series, there needs to be changes to the format, and for good reason.
In the old days, it used to be that only the highest seeds in the AL and NL went to the World Series. There were no divisional or championship series. It was the number one seed in both leagues going at it. In 1969 the MLB added the LCS, a series between the winner of the East and West divisions in both leagues.
In 1994, Bud Selig added an LDS, which brought along three divisions (East, Central, and West) and a wildcard team. In 2012, Selig then brought in the Wild Card game, expanding the number from four playoff seeds to five. The way I see it, there are 10 teams out of 30 in the MLB making the playoffs. It’s 16 out of 30 in both the NBA and NHL, and 12 out of 32 in the NFL.
The MLB has the lowest ratio of playoff to non-playoff teams compared to other leagues that have half the league making the playoffs, often including sub .500 teams. However, counting the one game wild card playoff as a postseason game seems a bit off in my opinion. It’s essentially adding a game 163 to the end of the season, and while it’s fun to watch, teams and players who fight all year really don’t deserve to have their year decided by a game 163. It’s mind-boggling to believe that a 98 win Pirates team only played one game in October. This probably wouldn’t happen in 1960, but it does now.
In addition, the 2-3-2 format, where the higher seed or league that won the All-Star Game hosts the first and last two games, is out of fashion. It’s been the format primarily used since 1924, and while the 2-3-2 format is a tradition, it’s not the best. The NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, which popular opinion says is, by far, the best playoff system out of the four major North American sports leagues, uses a 2-2-1-1-1 format, where the higher seed hosts game 1,2,5 and 7.
Most teams clinch the series on home ice, and few things are cooler in sports than watching a team celebrate a series win in front of their fans. This also helps to give lower seeds a better advantage to win, which was why the NBA changed its format. With baseball, it wouldn’t be the biggest change in the world, due to the fact that only the LCS and the World Series would be different, but it would be for the better. I know there would be concern with travel costs, but baseball’s playoffs would be more intense with the 2-2-1-1-1 format.
If I could propose a possible baseball postseason format, it would be similar to the NFL playoffs when the league had three divisions from 1990 to 2002. First, I would expand the number of playoff teams per week from five to six. The first and second seeds in each league would get a bye, while the third seed would play the sixth seed, or the last wild card spot, and the first and second wild card teams, or fourth and fifth seeds, would play each other in a best-of-three-games wild card round. This series would occur two days after the regular season ends, to give room for any game 163’s deciding divisions and wild card spots.
A three game series would better determine a superior team, rather than one game playoff. Teams play three game series all year, so it’s illogical for one game to decide a season. This “Best-of-Three Wild Card Series” would be entirely at the higher seed’s ballpark, like a regular season series, and would feature not only the team’s aces pitching, but their second and third best starters as well. It is a better measuring stick for the superior team, and would also add postseason games, which, in a “dying sport,” means more money.
After the wild card series is decided, the playoffs would essentially be the same, except with the 2-2-1-1-1 format. The lowest seed, would play the first seed and the second lowest seed would play the second seed.
This year’s postseason has been great so far. Parity is gone now that both the Yankees and Cardinals are out, and new younger teams, such as the Mets and Cubs, are taking over. Some teams’ World Series drought of 20+ years will end. However, the Fall classic is being overrun by the NFL and NHL regular season. If someone’s team isn’t in the postseason, they usually aren’t going to watch it. The postseason needs to take October back, and extending the playoffs would help do so.
