Playoff Expansion: Good or Bad for Baseball?

Baseball is America’s past-time. Team’s have been playing professionally since 1884, and each year have had a champion. The modern day “Fall Classic” made its first appearance in 1903, where the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, in a best of nine series, 5 – 3. This Word’s Championship Series, later shortened to, the now, World Series, was played by the team with the best record from both, the American and National League, until 1968.

In 1969, Major League Baseball divided the two leagues into two divisions and introduced the League Championship Series (L.C.S.), and was played in a best of five series until 1985, when it was then played in a best of seven series . In 1981, the season was shortened with a players strike, and settled prior to the playoffs . Major League Baseball lost a lot of revenue, and attempted to recoup the lost revenue, by adding an additional round of playoffs. After the 1993 season, MLB and owners went to a three division league, creating, the now, Divisional Series, giving two rounds of playoffs, to get to the World Series.

Commissioner Bud Selig, for the past few years, has been talking about expanding the current playoffs, from eight teams, to ten teams. He has created a commission, consisting of current and former managers, to further study the proposed expansion. Any proposed expansion would not be put into place until 2012, due to the current players contract that ends in December of 2011.

The proposed brackets (imaged below), would be similar to the current set up, with the only changes being, the addition a Wild Card Series (WCS). The WCS would be played by the two Wild card teams from both leagues, and the winner would go on to play the top seeded team in their league, in the Divisional Series. The addition of a third series would bring more revenue to MLB with television deals and the teams involved with ticket sales.

It has been reported that MLB’s revenue, for this year, is nearing a record $7 billion, and it’s apparent that they are not in need of any more money. There have been various opinions, through out the league and media, concerning the proposed expansion, there are both upsides and downsides.

Downside: With the addition of a third series, the World Series would get pushed further into November by a week. The series would only involve the two wild card teams, from each league, and would place more fatigue onto those players involved. Currently players, that are post season eligible, must be on the 25 man roster by September 1^st (unless a player is injured and an appeal can be placed to replace the player), will this be extended by a week?

Upside: There will now be five teams from each league appearing in the post season, with the additional series, those teams involved would receive revenue from tickets and merchandise sells. For the divisional champions, they would have a week off to rest, while the WCS was being played.

In my own opinion, the expansion of the playoffs would be great for Major League Baseball. It has been successful, for the three other major sports in the U.S. (NBA, NFL, NHL), to have three playoff rounds, to get to the championship round. Though I am not in favor of how MLB wants to have the brackets, there would be no other way to do so unless they would go to a 12 team format.